[CQ-Contest] A little section history

[Kenneth E. Harker]

     A few people have pointed out that I goofed on the last entry in the 
timeline.  It should say Ontario South (ONS) created.

     I would love to fill in a lot of the gaps between 1930 and 1970, but 
researching the changes in the online QST archive is time-consuming and
somewhat difficult.  It is organized by articles, so some of the pages in
the front of each issue that list the field organization details just are 
not available online because there was no article content on those pages.
I do know that the first change was in 1931 (impacting just the second running 
of Sweepstakes) when Florida (FL) was split into Eastern Florida (EFL) and 
Western Florida (WFL).  South Carolina (SC) became its own section in 1937.
What I'm missing details on (at least) are when Utah-Wyoming (UTWY) was split
into two sections, when Northern Minnesota (NMN) and Southern Minnesota (SMN)
were reorganized into a single Minnesota (MN) section, when the Philippines 
were officially dropped as a section, when Hawaii (HI) changed to Pacific 
(PAC) section to include the newly-acquired possessions in the Pacific 
like KH0, KH2, etc, and when the Santa Barbara (SB), Orange (ORG), Santa 
Clara Valley (SCV), and San Joaquin Valley (SJV) sections were created in 
California.

     Another interesting bit of trivia is that in 1930, Canada was 
organized as five Divisions rather than one: Maritimes Division (MAR),
Quebec Division (QC), Ontario Division (ON), Prairie Division (MB, SK),
and Vanalta Division (AB, BC).  The Yukon Territory was administered as 
part of BC, and the Northwest Territories were administed as part of AB.

-Ken WM5R

On Thu, Aug 09, 2012 at 07:44:36PM -0700, Kenneth E. Harker wrote:
>      A while back, I began researching some of the changes made over the 
> years in the ARRL and Canadian sections used in the Sweepstakes (mostly 
> using the online QST archive at http://www.arrl.org/qst/).  I learned 
> quite a lot, but I still have some gaps in my timeline about when certain 
> changes were made.
>  
>      The first "All-Section Sweepstakes" was held in 1930 and there were 68 
> sections.  In addition to the sections we know today, there were some 
> interesting differences.  Minnesota was orginally two sections - Northern 
> Minnesota and Southern Minnesota.  Utah and Wyoming were originally one
> section.  The Philippines were a section (part of the Pacific Division).  
> But the most interesting section was probably Georgia-South Carolina-Isle 
> of Pines.  The Isle of Pines is an island off the coast of Cuba (today 
> known as Isla de la Juventud or Isle of Youth).  After the Spanish-American 
> War was concluded in 1898, the sovereignty of the island remained in 
> dispute, claimed by both the United States and independent Cuba.  The 
> U.S. Senate ratified a treaty recognizing Cuban sovereignty over the 
> island in 1925.  I have no idea why the Isle of Pines was still being 
> used in the section name as of 1930.
> 
>      Here are my notes for the last 40 years:
> 
> 1 Jan 1973   Eastern Florida (EFL) deleted                            76
>              Western Florida (WFL) deleted
>              Northern Florida (NFL) created
>              Southern Florida (SFL) created
> 
> 1 Oct 1979   Canal Zone (KZ5) deleted                                 76
> 
> 1 Jan 1987   West Texas (WTX) created from counties previously        75
>              assigned to North Texas (NTX) and South Texas (STX)
> 
> Aug(?) 1988  West Indies (WI) deleted                                 76
>              Puerto Rico (PR) section created
>              Virgin Islands (VI) section created
>              Guantanamo Bay assigned to Virgin Islands section
> 
> 6 Feb 1989   Washington (WA) deleted                                  77
>              Eastern Washington (EWA) created
>              Western Washington (WWA) created
> 
> 1 Jan 1996   Northern New York (NNY) created from counties            78
>              previously assigned to Western New York (WNY)
> 
> 1 Apr 1996   Two counties (Herkimer and Otsego) assigned to           78
>              the newly-created Northern New York (NNY) section
>              are returned to the Western New York (WNY)
>              section
> 
> 1 Jan 1998   Newfoundland-Labrador section (NL) created,              79
>              removing that province from the Maritimes (MAR)
>              section
> 
> 15 Jan 2000  West Central Florida (WCF) created from counties         80
>              previously assigned to Northern Florida (NFL)
>              and Southern Florida (SFL)
> 
> 12 Sep 2012  Ontario (ON) deleted                                     83
>              Greater Toronto Area (GTA) created
>              Ontario East (ONE) created
>              Ontario North (ONN) created
>              Ontario South (ONS) created
> 
> -- 
> Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
> kenharker at kenharker.com
> http://www.kenharker.com/
> 
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-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/