The Ham Widows Ball Started With $100—and You’re Not Invited

There’s a side of the World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) that has nothing to do with radios, antennas, multipliers, or scores—and Bill Vinci believes it can make ham radio stronger.

Bill Vinci is the husband of noted contester and WRTC judge Rusty Epps W6OAT, and for years Bill has watched serious operators disappear into the intensity of contests while their spouses and significant others are left on the sidelines. Instead of getting licensed himself, Bill found another way to contribute.

The idea began at WRTC Finland. With little for non-operating partners to do during the competition, Bill organized a night out. The next day, an operator handed him $100 and asked him to take his wife out again. Eventually, Bill was taking roughly 60 people by charter bus to Estonia—and the idea that became the Ham Widows Ball was born.

At WRTC Wyboston, that idea had matured into something much bigger: an early-week event designed to help spouses and partners make their own connections before the operators disappear into competition. In fact, so many operators signed up that Bill and the organizers had to enforce one of the event’s defining rules: generally, if you had a callsign, you weren’t invited. A few ham radio operators even had to be escorted back out.

Bill and Kevin also get into the larger lesson for Dayton, Visalia, WRTC, and other ham gatherings. If amateur radio wants healthy events and committed operators, perhaps organizers need to think beyond the people behind the radios. Give families and partners a reason to enjoy the experience too, and everybody wins.

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A party is a party, I'd probably rather party than contest... I'm sure I would actually; never contested yet...

 

That is a heck of an idea.

 

But, I am not dead yet....

 

I fully agree. My wife is not a ham and has absolutely no interest in becoming one. Having things for her to do is vitally important, whether it is at Hamcation, Hamvention, RV Radio Network, WBCCI, FRVCA, etc. Thankfully, some of the non-ham spouses where we have been have gotten together for things they like. I hope more organizations take that into account.

 

Ha...

Considering all the CHEATING that went on during the actual WRTC contest, no telling what fun and games might take place in the side-parties.....

Ham Widow's Ball not Ham Widow Balls

It's a good idea, good concept, and as Kevin and other posters here suggest, keeping the spouses happy is a good thing! Lots of programming especially when travel that can go beyond Radio. Happy wife, happy life....

Love all... Serve all.... be a good human.

 

100% in agreement. Since my first ham license, Novice in 1960, I've never understood the draw of "contesting" - just can't comprehend the mindset. In fact, I'm not ever sure there WAS "contesting" back then - nobody needed it.

What's the point? Are contesters so insecure that they think they need to prove something? Copy a callsign and a signal report, and move on - that's rewarding? If you win the contest, WHAT do you win, a piece of paper saying so? That, and $ .50, will buy you a cup of coffee. Whoopee! Not for me.

 

In the "good old days" before "radiosport" all the "true" hams were heavily involved in the NTS, and ideally on CW.

The more radiograms (traffic) you handled, the higher your monthly score was, and lists were published in QST.

Ops jockeyed to maintain their high standings on the list. The "reward" of seeing your "status" every month brought
out the same highly competitive nature that contesting does.

I did traffic handling in both NTS and MARS until I lost interest in it.

73 Frank KC3JH

 

https://cqww.com/results/1955_cqwwdx.pdf

https://cqww.com/results/1950_cqwwdx_ssb.pdf

https://cqww.com/results/1952_cqwwdx_cw.pdf

 

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Not even a signal report, in a contest: because everybody's 59 (even if it takes 4 tries to get the callsign across) ! A contest 'signal report' is completely meaningless (and probably also for a state, within the US). It/they could just as well be omitted.

What'd be interesting would be some system to generate a unique alpha-numeric string for each contact, somehow, something that couldn't be inferred / guessed (i.e. not contact serial number). Long enough to make it a challenge to get correct, and somehow cross-checkable after the contest, to throw out all the incomplete / bad contacts.

 

I'm a contester and I have to admit, that's a pretty good idea. In reality, if everyone is 59 or 599, why do we even need to use the RST system?

 

Some contests don't use a signal report. And for many the signal report kinda serves as a "get ready" for the actual exchange of information required, especially if high speed CW is used. Whatever the rules require...no big deal. Just have fun, and don't over-analyze.

In regards to the thread's topic, if the spouses want to get together during a contest, fine. If not, that's fine too...whatever. In every healthy relationship, you gotta give each other some space to do whatever makes them happy. Spouses don't have to have the same interests. When I contest, she finds other things to do that she enjoys, and we're fully supportive of each other's interests/hobbies.

Most contests are 24 hours or less, and the majority of participants don't stay engaged for the entire duration in any contest. I don't consider a spouse to be a "widow" while a ham operates a contest. At least they know where you are. IMO, I consider this thread to mostly be a nothing-burger.

 

You just ruined my day. I'm so upset that I won't be working you in a contest. Are you "so insecure" that you feel compelled to criticize them? Here's a clue...nobody cares.

 

In the mid 1980s I was one of about 6 fellows that founded the Northwest Ohio Blacksmiths - NOB. We all were blacksmithing as a hobby. Most members were married and meetings involved a potluck lunch. The ladies would meet in the house while we were in the forge shop. Over time the ladies group grew in size and they decided to form their own group and needed a name for the group. NOBetts was proposed but rejected, They finally settled on SNOBS - Spouses of NOBS. Most of the original members have passed but a younger group of NOB and SNOBS are continuing the tradition.
Full disclosure, amateur radio and blacksmithing are not my only hobbies.

Bob

 

Try WAE and handle QTC traffic! SSB and CW only EU can receive QTC’S on RTTY everyone can send and receive QTC’S, amazing how many stations will not work QTC traffic even when asked on RTTY?