[UK-CONTEST] CQ magazine to withdraw contest sponsorship?

[Bob Harrison]

and the date of the anouncement is.......................................

73 de Bob G4UJS

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clive Whelan" <clive.whelan at btinternet.com>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2007 11:22 AM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] CQ magazine to withdraw contest sponsorship?


>I thought uk contesters might be interested in the following
> from a meeting between the CEO of CQ magazine and the
> general manager of ARRL, reported in the Washington Post. I
> am personally saddened by this news.
> 
> " CQ magazine has sadly decided to withdraw support from all
> the contests it currently sponsors. As well as the huge
> amount of adjudication work undertaken by our band of
> willing volunteers, they have recently been the recipients
> of an increasing volume of complaints about conditions,
> sometimes virile, and occasionally abusive. In the current
> sunspot minimum conditions entrants around the world have
> typically been unable to make few if any QSOs on 28Mhz, and
> even 21Mhz has been very patchy. We are puzzled that the
> Amateur Radio community does not seem to realise that CQ
> magazine has little control over  conditions, despite state
> of the art "ionosphere warming" equipment and antennas
> installed at Hicksville N.Y. However, it does seem that CQ
> magazine has become negatively associated with these poor
> conditions, and our circulation has suffered as a
> consequence. While other magazines might  be happy with such
> a scenario, CQ magazine does not wish to be associated with
> anything except the highest quality , both of technical
> articles, but also the results of the contests it sponsors.
> Therefore, effective 4/1/2007 CQ magazine withdraws entirely
> from its contest sponsorship. We are anxious to point up
> that this is purely a matter of suspension rather than
> termination, and the board of CQ magazine will review this
> decision in 3-5 years time, and hopes to reinstate all
> events at this time, subject to sufficient solar activity.
> Finally, we envision a bright future for contesting in the
> long term"
> 
> The full text of the conversation may be seen at :
> 
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=admin/registra
> tion/register&destination=login&nextstep=gather&application=
> reg30-liveonline&applicationURL=http://www.washingtonpost.co
> m/wp-dyn/content/liveonline/?nid%253Droll_discuss
> 
> 73
> 
> 
> Clive
> GW3NJW
> 
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