W1AW

W1AW is both the amateur radio call sign and the primary operating station of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). This station, which is commonly called the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station, is located on the grounds of ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. It was inspired by Maxim's 1AW callsign which predated the use of the AA-AL, K, N and W prefixes. The station routinely transmits bulletins and Morse code practice using common amateur radio frequencies. During a communications emergency bulletins are transmitted hourly in order to keep amateur radio operators informed.

History

The original ARRL station was licensed with the callsign of W1MK and located in a National Guard building at Brainard Field in Hartford, Connecticut. After eight years of operation this flood plain location was destroyed by the waters of the Connecticut River in a 1936 flood. During this same year Hiram Percy Maxim, president and co-founder of the ARRL, died after serving 22 years as the organization's president. It was decided by the ARRL board of directors that a new station would be built as a memorial to their recently lost president and that the new station would assume his callsign of W1AW. On September 2, 1938 the new station was dedicated with the ceremonies being broadcast nationally over the radio. The Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station building appears much as it did when first built in 1938 and is now located next to the ARRL headquarters which was built much later, in 1963.