Mike the Headless Chicken – May 30th!

That’s right, the event you all have been waiting for, Mike the Headless Chicken (W0M) Activation this weekend!  We are still looking for assistance with this activation from our club members.  To sign up please check the Members Section for schedule openings and additional information.

Who is Mike and what happened to his head? Is there really a festival about Mike? Sure is.

In 1945, a farmer in Fruita, Colorado, Lloyd Olsen, whose mother-in-law “loved” the neck of a chicken, always chopped the head off as high as possible when butchering his chickens. On September 10, 1945 he cut a little too high and the chicken survived the beheading with at least part of his brain intact. Gruesome huh. It gets worse. Mike, the now headless chicken, was fed with an eye dropper and lived for eighteen months and gained five and a half pounds. Mike became nationally famous, and was taken on a tour of local fairs and exhibitions.  Unfortunately, he choked on a piece of corn while being exhibited in Phoenix, Arizona, and died.

Mike was the inspiration for a punk rock band, the Radioactive Chicken Heads, who recorded an … interesting … music video. Somebody posted a tribute to Mike on YouTube. He was the subject of a BBC documentary, a British quiz show, and has his own Facebook page, website and Wikipedia page.

Mike has a permanent sculpture downtown. 

In order to honor one of the town’s most famous chickens, the Fruita city fathers in 1999 established the annual Mike the Headless Chicken festival held every year at the end of May.  The 22nd annual festival, originally scheduled for the weekend of May 29-31, was expected to attract thousands of visitors.

Unfortunately, because of Covid-19, the festival had to be postponed until 2021.

But you can still participate in the fun by contacting one of the members of the Western Colorado Amateur Radio Club who will be using the WØM special events callsign from their homes on Saturday, May 30.  A schedule will be posted as we get closer to the event, but we will be operating 40, 20 and 15 meters on SSB, 40, 30 and 20 on FT8, and will also be working the CQ WPX CW contest using the WØM callsign, for the length of the contest.  There is a chance we might have members working D-Star and DMR as well.  So if you don’t have the license or equipment to work HF, you can still participate and get a QSL card.  Check the schedule posted on this site, Friday, for specific Bands, Modes and Details.  If anything changes during the event, the schedule will be updated.

So for now, please work and spot us.  We’ll QSL via LOTW and probably eQSL, and if you send a SASE for domestic, and US$2 for other countries, we’ll send you our very special QSL card.  Just send your request to:  WCARC, Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, 2695 Patterson Rd Ste 2, Box 118, Grand Junction, CO 81506-8815

Join in the fun!

And when it becomes again sensible to take vacations, please consider taking one to western Colorado.  There’s a lot for the whole family to enjoy.

73’s and GL.