Dick Carroll ) writes:
Bert Craig wrote:

"Michael Reynolds" wrote in message
.. .
"Disgusted" wrote in message
...

I'd take it to the next ARRL Board of Directors meeting and beat the
****
out of them!

According to the same 1930 ARRL Handbook, "The Wouff-Hong is amateur
radio's
most sacred symbol and stands for the enforcement of law and order in
amateur operation." The Wouff-Hong's nearest analog is the old-fashion but
still effective can opener. Now every can opener requires an initial
insertion point, and (if you picture the human anatomical form) you can
choose between upper and lower points. The object is to open up the
miscreant and expose his evil to himself. This requires the subject to be
supine and all opening to be done on the front side, where the victim can
indeed see the results: the exposure of his own evil. The beauty of the
wood
Wouff-Hong lies in the fact that it leaves splinters in places from which
they cannot be removed. Thus is the scoundrel reminded for life of his
misdeeds and what lies ahead if any one of them should ever be repeated.

Every culture has it's dark spots, this is amateur radios. Some think it's
fun to joke about. It's pretty sickening, if you ask me. Anyone who has
truly studied what man is capable of doing to man during the Medieval period
or The Spanish Inquisition know this.

I think his description of the Rite of the Woulf Hong is a bit stretched, in
fact quite a bit.
My take on it was that it was a tool from which only a gentle prod in a certain
part of the anatomy was all that would be needed to correct the miscreant.
Maybe the thought of things to come if he didn't straighten up and fly right
was the main impetus.

This is an old thread, and I already basically said as much. It's
"too unspeakable" to mention how the Wouff Hong is used because the
threat is better than the application. There is no application, it's
just smoke and mirrors.

But that people are now describing quite graphically how they think the
Wouff Hong is supposed to be used may be a reflection of how things have
changed. In the twenties when it was originally cooked up, the idea
was to prod hams into being more careful about how they operated. The
chastisement was in The Old Man talking about the lids, not in the threat
of doing damage to the lids. Suggesting, but never stating, that the
Wouff Hong was used in a terrible fashion was more for the sake of fun,
to not take a serious issue too seriously. The whole thing was basically
Hiram Percy Maxim saying "I'm disappointed in some of the operating taking
place today".

That sort of thing has less power today, sadly. I'm not sure if
it's the make up of the hobby, or the make up of society.

So now the Wouff Hong is being portrayed as a weapon, by itself,
rather than as some pseudo-ritual connected with trying to get hams
to be better operators. The true meaning of the Wouff Hong is gone,
when likely it is needed more than ever. Not because there is
bad operating, but because it was part of a history and community
that when lost, may lead to hams not being so concerned with good
operating.

Michael VE2BVW