[CQ-Contest] First IARU HF Championship

[Tim Shoppa]

The first 24-hour "IARU HF" was 1987. For 10 years before that, it was the
"IARU Radiosport", allowing 36 of 48 hours as well as VHF activity to count.

Quoting my brief history in my July 2023 CQ Contesting column:

"The deep origins of this July contest can be traced to a one-off
predecessor, the 1976 ARRL Bicentennial
Celebration. This 48-hour event was held in late July 1976. It was hugely
popular, with 2500 logs
submitted; US stations celebrated their history by using as their exchange,
a number corresponding to
the order of their state’s entry into the union. There were no multipliers,
but action was livened up by
allowing contacts on both voice and another mode (most commonly CW, but
also allowed were SSTV
and RTTY.) US stations were encouraged to use their special bicentennial
prefixes.


>From 1977 through 1986, the IARU Radiosport Championship continued the
lively July contest tradition,
settling down on the second weekend in July. Stations operated for up to 36
hours of the 48 hour
weekend and ITU zones were the exchange for all entrants. There were no
multipliers, but DX activity
was motivated by awarding 5 points for intercontinental QSOs, as opposed to
just a single point for
working stations in your own zone. VHF activity on both the 6 Meter and 2
Meter bands was also
allowed.


A major revamp took place beginning in 1987. The new contest, called “The
IARU HF World
Championship”, began the current 24-hour period, and introduced not just
ITU zones but IARU HQ
stations as multipliers. The IARU HF contests was one of the last contests
to include a category for
assisted operators using telnet clusters for spotting, finally adopting the
“Single Op Unlimited” category
in 2015."

Tim N3QE