Heh heh... I've gotten a lot of direct email replies with 1987, 1988, and
1989 as the answer to my question.
What I have in my presentation is this:
The very first RTTY contest was over the Oct 30 and Nov 1 weekend in 1953.
It was a "RTTY Sweepstakes". The winner was Tom White, W3PYW who submitted a
log of 40 contacts in 11 states for a total score of 440 points! (How's that
for "rate"?)
It took another 33 years before the RTTY Journal & 73 Magazine jointly
sponsored the first WW RTTY contest in February 1986. Dale Sinner, W6IWO was
the promoter of this event. I'm not certain what it was named those first
two years.
But two years later, CQ Magazine took over the responsibility, and moved the
contest to the last full weekend in September of 1988. The CQWW RTTY Contest
has remained on this date and has grown in popularity every year.
The ARRL launched the RTTY Roundup in January 1989.
Two people who sent me a message got it right, the contest designer Jay -
WS7I and Ron - KP2N! Thanks for the link Jay, Google didn't seem to hit on
this when I was looking earlier today.
Here's a snippet from the ARRL History and Rationale on the website:
"ARRL's RTTY Roundup was designed by Jay Townsend, WS7I and Hal Blegen,
WA7EGA (K7IRA) in the spring of 1988. It was approved by John, W1XX and the
Membership Services Committee (MSC) in the summer of 1988. The first running
was in January 1989. The 21st running was in January 2009."
Thanks for the feedback everyone. If there is any corrections or historical
"tidbit" that can be added, please let me know. I'm not devoting a lot of
time on the history aspect, but I think it's important to spend a minute or
two on this topic.
73 de Bob - KØRC in MN
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Chudek - K0RC" <k0rc@citlink.net>
To: <rtty@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:09 PM
Subject: [RTTY] RTTY contesting...
I'm putting the finishing touches on a RTTY contesting presentation for the
WØDXCC convention in Rochester, MN this weekend (Saturday, July 18, 2009).
Can anyone tell me the date(s) for the first ARRL RTTY Roundup? I have the
info regarding the RTTY Sweepstakes and CQWW, but I can't find the date for
the Roundup.
73 de Bob - KØRC in MN
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