[RTTY] RTTY Contest History

Thu Jul 16 06:28:06 PDT 2009

Nice Job Jay, only correction the call is now K1RY, still getting in the 
RTTY contests with wire antennas but will have a Tribander up in a week or 
so,

How about that Mud And Rain on top of Guido's QTH on the Mountain for that 
DXpediton on San Cristobal, WOW.

73 Roy, K1RY
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay" <ws7i at ewarg.org>
To: <rtty at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 8:22 PM
Subject: [RTTY] RTTY Contest History

> Just to clarify there were several Worldwide contests previous to the
> 1987 CQWW RTTY Contest.  To include one by the RTTY Journal and
> co-sponsored by 73, and to include "The Giant Flash" contest which
> actually gave away Dovetron TU's to the winners which brought down the
> FCC as I understand the history from Hal Blegen WA7EGA now K7IRA.
>
> The CQWW RTTY Contest was put together by Dale Sinner and CQ. Roy Gould
> KT1N now W1RY was also very instrumental in getting things in order with
> many aspects of this.  Roy was a writer for the RTTY Journal and was the
> first and long-time CQWW RTTY contest manager.  Roy, Hal, Betsy WV7Y my
> XYL and I traveled to and put on HC8 as HD9CQ for this event.  We were
> hosted by our long time friend HC5K.
>
> This is the data that was prepared and released to the CQ Almanac in
> 1994.  This information is herewith released by me into the public
> domain.  I had copyright on all of these early records and on this
> article which included the records at that time.  I have previously 
> released
> the records to Don AA5AU.
>
> Permission is granted to the CQ Almanac and Doug Grant, K1DG editor to
> include any
> or all of the following in that publication.  The "All-Time CQWW RTTY
> records"
> are the basis for an annual article from this author which is usually
> published
> in the RTTY Journal now known as the Digital Journal.
>
> --------------
>
>                    History of the CQWW RTTY Contest
>
> In 1986 the publishers of the RTTY Journal and CQ announced that they
> were joining forces and
> would be co-sponsoring the CQWW RTTY Contest.  Dale Sinner, at that time
> the new publisher of the RTTY Journal felt that an expansion of that
> magazine's old WW RTTY contest into the popular CQ format would be
> beneficial to both magazines.
>
> In the Spring of 1987 both magazines announced the new rules. The fourth
> weekend in September was picked as the spot for the RTTY contest
> weekend.  In that first year a number of special contest Dxpeditions
> were put on which was a first on RTTY. The first event saw a very large
> turnout of contesters with wide spread support and enthusiasm.
>
> RTTY had a long and rich history of contesting going back some number of
> years, but without a clear single big contest that was sustained
> year-after-year.  The majority of contests traditionally had been put on
> by various national organizations such as BARTG, CARTG, SARTG, ANARTS,
> WAE, and VOLTA. These represented British, Canadian, Scandinavia,
> Australia-New Zealand, Germany, and Italy. The U.S. had a number of
> different contests from time-to-time. There was always trouble with
> certificates and sponsorship in America.  The joining of CQ and the RTTY
> Journal ended the American problems and was the beginning of the
> "modern" era in RTTY contesting.
>
> RTTY contests typically have two major differences from CW and SSB
> rules.  First, most RTTY
> contests are fairly short. 24 to 30 hours is the rule. The continuous
> duty cycle of RTTY equipment is very stressful on gear and shorter
> periods are better. Secondly, North America has always had a different
> multiplier basis than most non digital contests. States/Provinces or
> call areas have always been multipliers. So the CQWW has
> States/Provinces, Zones, and Countries all as  multipliers. The CQ 3-2-1
> point multiplier was kept intact to keep foreign interest high and to
> make Dxpeditions a part of the contest.
>
> There were about 300 logs submitted for the 1987 CQWW. The only problem
> that surfaced was that 160 meters was found to be essentially unusable
> by the digital stations.  In later years this band was dropped.  The
> first few years of the contest there was only a Multi-single category
> and Multi-Multi was later added. In keeping with the other CQ contests
> Single Operator Assisted was added. After the huge popularity of the low
> power class of 150 watts in the ARRL's RTTY Roundup this class was also
> included in subsequent years in CQWW RTTY.
>
> Long time CQWW RTTY contest manager, Roy Gould, KT1N, added Ron Stailey,
> AB5KD as his assistant mangager in 1995. The log's have grown over the
> years and the additional help will make sure things stay well organized
> and well done.
>
> [This E-mail scanned for viruses by ClamAV]
>
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