Terry Hatton - W1QF - NAQCC # 4025
First Licensed 1999 as KI8JA.
Equipment: Elecraft K2 S/N 974; K1 S/N 962; Tentec TT1330; SMK-1(4W mod); HW8 S/N 9831, and MultiPig MP20/40 (4W)
Antennas: 40m Inv Vee dipole at 30ft.
FISTS 7221; CC/QRP 56; FPQRP 79; w1qf_at_yahoo_dot_com
Interests: CW; QRP; Homebrew; Antennas; Orienteering.
Proud Owner of MultiPIG Xcvr S/N 006. Oink Oink.
Pet Hate: email QSL cards.
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The Story of W1QF 12/27/2007
The U.S. government started licensing radio stations in late 1912. In the July 1, 1914 edition of the US Department of Commerce's "Radio Stations of the United States", 1QF is listed as assigned to Paul Nash, 64 Fairmont Ave., Newton, Massachusetts, who appears to be the first person to ever use this call. Mr Nash is still listed as 1QF, at the same address, in the July 1, 1915 and July 1, 1916 editions.
With the entrance of the United States into World War I in April, 1917, all amateur stations were shut down, and all the licences expired during the war. The U.S. began to relicense amateur stations in October, 1919, and most people got new callsigns. The first post-war annual list was issued on June 30, 1920, and 1QF was assigned to Kenneth E. Hiorns, 36 Central Avenue, Seekonk, Massachusetts. He was still listed in the Sept 1928 book, so he was probably the first W1QF when the W prefix was mandated on 1 October 1928.
By June 1930, W1QF was reassigned to J. Minot Fowler of West Roxbury MA. He held the call through the Fall 1931 book, but is missing from the Spring 1932 book.
By Fall 1933, W1QF was assigned to Richard A Hall of Lowell MA. The first listing notes this as a "Portable call." Back then, all station licences were presumed to be fixed locations, and portable operations had to be specifically authorized. Some stations were officially recognized as "permanently portable," and this was one of them. Mr Hall had moved to Nashua by 1970, was still there in 1987, and subsequently moved to Attleboro. The call was vacated in 1998.
Terry Hatton was first licensed as KI8JA, in Rochester Michigan, in July 1999, and passed Extra class in December 1999. He was then granted W1QF as a Vanity Call in January 2000 before retiring to Berne NY in 2003. W1QF is now operated almost exclusively as a QRP CW station using wire dipoles and an Elecraft K2.