Happy Birthday Hiram Percy Maxim

Today is the 140th birthday of Hiram Percy Maxim the “Father of Organized Amateur Radio.” Maxim was founder of the ARRL and a known inventor and tinkerer creating gliders, automobiles, and acoustic silencers. Maxim had 59 patents issued in his name.

The ARRL is hosting a special event in his honor from Sept. 2- Sept. 9.:
The operating event is open to all amateurs, and the goal is straightforward: Find the stations adding /140 to their call signs, and contact as many as possible during the event period, September 2-9. Who is eligible to sign /140? ARRL members who hold ARRL appointments, ARRL elected volunteers (such as ARRL Directors and Section Managers), ARRL Life Members, ARRL Headquarters staff and VEs, AECs, QSL bureau workers
and awards managers (who are ARRL members). The complete list of eligible positions can be found on page 20 of the September 2009 issue of QST. If you work at least 25 /140 stations, an attractive certificate can be yours! The certificate can be endorsed in increments of 25 QSOs, up to 100.

Time Period: 0000 UTC September 2 until 2400 UTC September 9.

Exchange: All stations signing /140 send RS(T), their appointment and their name; others send RS(T) and their name.

Eligibility: All amateur stations may participate. ARRL Life Members, and those persons holding ARRL appointments, elected positions or ARRL HQ staff, may add /140 to their call signs for the duration of the celebration. Volunteer Examiners, Assistant Emergency Coordinators, QSL Bureau workers, Registered Instructors and Awards Managers who are ARRL members are also invited to participate.

Miscellaneous: /140 stations may be contacted on any band or mode for credit. You can work a station once per band and mode. Repeater contacts are valid for credit, but please be considerate of the users during a repeater’s busy periods. All /140 stations are encouraged to be as active as possible on local repeaters and nets. The certificate
is available for making at least 25 contacts with /140 stations, with endorsement increments of 25, and a maximum endorsement of 100. To receive the award, send in a log extract with the date, time, band, call sign worked and exchange for each /140 contact. Include your name, call sign and address, and tell us how many /140 stations you worked. Mail everything to HPM/140 Celebration, c/o W1AW, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111-1494. You can also send in your entry on a disk or CD in regular text format. All entries must be accompanied by a check or money order for $5 (US) payable to ARRL. Please make sure your entry is postmarked by October 9, 2009.

6 Responses to Happy Birthday Hiram Percy Maxim

Bob on September 2nd, 2009 at 1:52 pm said:

Never mind “father of amateur radio”, is this not the same Hiram Maxim who is more correctly the ‘father of meccanized death’ …….ie., the inventor of the machine gun that resulted in the trench stalemate and universal slaughter of WWI….??

……Nice!….My grandfather was in the trenches, in fact he never left them thanks to people like Maxim.

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- Diana Eng on September 2nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm said:
  
  I read in several “reputable” online sources that this is actually a different Hiram Maxim.
  
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Arno on September 2nd, 2009 at 2:10 pm said:

Yes it is.This is actually his son.

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Jack of Most Trades on September 2nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm said:

Hiram P.’s father was the inventor of the Maxim machine gun. THIS Hiram notably invented what we call the “muffler”, the bane of the “Loud Pipes Save Lives” bunch.
Oh, it makes a dandy firearm silencer, too.

He died on my birthday, indeed, 21 years to the day before i was launched.

Sorry about your grandfather, bob. Mine was gassed and lost a lot of lung capacity.

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cranky_EE on September 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 pm said:

And even if this was “THE” Hiram Maxim, I suppose it’s kosher to exclude him from Makerdom because of what others did with the technology he created.

That being said, the birthday of Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim seems to be approaching on Nov. 24. I may not celebrate, but I will at least take the opportunity to consider what this Maker’s contributions truly mean.

Peace through superior firepower? Like it or not, superiority is an excellent deterrent.

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Anonymous on September 3rd, 2009 at 1:49 pm said:

Think of radio frequencies as a nature resourse, like, say, an undisturbed wilderness. When HPM came on the scene, the US Government was in the process of deciding whether or not ANY of the radio frequencies should be available to amateur experimenters, or all of it should be “taken” and “sold” to broadcasters or military users. HPM and the ARRL were instrumental in making sure that open space was left for ordinary citizens like you and me. Think of the amateur bands as the National Parks of the electromagnetic spectrum. Respect the rules and visit for free. Great makers like Grote Reber (callsign W9GFZ), father of radio astronomy, and Steve Wozniak (WA6BND) have benefited from the use of these radio frequencies and the culture of learning and technical experimentation that has grown up around them. All of their inventions (and COUNTLESS others) were possible as a result of HPM and the ARRLs existence and persistent defense of amateur’s right to use the airwaves. Fine Business HPM! And Happy Birthday!

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