Introduction

The Wasteland Communication Corporation is both a group of people who attend various post-apocalyptic festivals and events, and an FCC licensed ham radio club.

History

Getting our start at Wasteland Weekend in September 2011 as a post-apocalyptic amateur radio-themed tribe, we soon expanded both physically and conceptually. Licensed by the FCC as K6WCC in early 2012, the WCC returned to Wasteland Weekend with a first wood structure and full radio tower. This facility was briefly featured in the intro video to the game Wasteland 2, and was awarded the Best Camp 2012 award by Wasteland Weekend. It is believed to have housed the first couch in Wasteland City.

In 2013, the WCC ventured out of California into Arizona, to the newly founded Uranium Springs. Constructing the first wood structure in what is now a bustling village, we established our first post office as part of the WCC Postal Service. At Wasteland Weekend 2013 we opened our second post office, which now handles thousands of intra-event letters and postcards to the outside world every year. The need for more room meant our first big expansion of the WCC wood structure at Wasteland Weekend, as well as the first in a series of fountains. Co-locating our camp with the Dukes of the Nuke tribe allowed for combined resources, and the site became a popular spot to relax after hours during the event.

By 2016, we went into print! The Wastelander started as a magazine, but ended up not being sustainable. The concept lived on, however, as the WCC Print Service began printing a daily newspaper at Wasteland Weekend. The WCC facility at Wasteland Weekend had to expand further, and came to include a larger atrium, as well as a Board Room for meetings. The WCC facility at Uranium Springs finally got a permanent radio tower in this period as well.

By 2017, we had to part ways with our long-time security, the Dukes of the Nuke, as both our camps had just grown too large to fit together. As our transport requirements increased, we found ourselves needing to upgrade from small pickups and vans to some larger logistics solutions. Wasteland Radio was moved into its own trailer, and made its debut in Wasteland Valley, the first year at Wasteland Weekend's current home. Our main hauler WCC#012 was soon joined by our first dry van semi-trailer, WCC#052. These still serve as our main method of transporting heavy goods and furniture to and from Wasteland Weekend.

During the pandemic, most WCC members sheltered in place and took to spending time with each other online. The WCC#990 Discord server was repurposed from merely a place for ham radio training to a fully-fledged employee lounge. We screened movies and TV-shows with each other, played games, and tried to keep each other sane. It is still in operation, and recently hosted a weeks-long study group for members to earn their ham radio licenses. Check it out for planned future classes!

With our needs ever expanding, our campsite came to include a large outdoor camping area in 2022. It was boxed in between our main transport trailer and a new Wasteland Radio trailer, and contained the "Taking Care of Business" bar run by the famed "Wasteland Elvis".

Goals

Besides having fun, our main objective is to spread knowledge about communication to fans of the post-apocalyptic genre, and young people in particular. We believe that to display both high regards for ethics and technical competence in all forms of journalism and communications infrastructure in a fun and enjoyable atmosphere is vital to keeping our hobbies alive. Portraying ourselves in a fictional setting as a beacon of civilization even after a total collapse is a hopeful message. We try to do this while providing a high quality entertaining, but also educational, experience for our fellow attendees at various festivals.

For our own members, we want to both encourage and challenge ourselves to expand our skills and knowledge. Nobody is born with the ability to build a wood structure, or drive a truck, or program a computer. But by constantly giving ourselves new challenges to overcome, we find reasons for learning beyond the learning in and of itself.

Things We Do

The WCC attends Wasteland Weekend in southern California annually, as well as Detonation in northeast Arizona. Besides these costume-focused festivals, we do the occasional side job! We've participated in ARRL's annual amateur radio Field Day in June many times, usually from a mountain top near Santa Barbara, CA. From that same site, we've also participated in ARRL UHF contests, and high altitude balloon tracking and telemetry projects. Additionally, as mentioned before, we do run ham radio classes online.

For more information about events we attend, or about the organization and our activies, please contact us using any of the links below.

The Future

The future is bright for the WCC, and we are constantly on the lookout for more talent! If you're planning on going to any of the events we attend, and think you have what it takes, get in touch. You can visit any of our social media links, or email hr@wccorp.org to talk to a rep.

All new WCC members go through an onboarding process designed to make sure you're the right fit for us, but especially that we're the right fit for you. You'll be assigned a Supervisor who will be your contact person for any questions or help you need during the process, and once you've completed one Wasteland Weekend visit with us as a "New Hire", you can become a full member.

You can visit the WCC virtually via facebook, IG, TikTok, or by joining our Discord!