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S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL News Editor
k1sfa@arrl.org
October 29, 2009
Now that contest season is in full swing, let's take a look back at the oldest domestic event in the world of radiosport: The ARRL November Sweepstakes. Once called "The January Contest," then-ARRL Communications Manager F. E. Handy, W1BDI, first announced the event in the December 1929 issue of QST.
"During the last several months," he wrote, "a number of amateurs have expressed interesting interest in taking part in more message handling contests and in another International -DX Contest similar to the one held in 1928. Advocates of the national and international competitions have about equal odds, so, we are planning to please both parties by arranging a double-barreled plan of action."
The "national competition" that Handy wrote of morphed into what we know today as ARRL Sweepstakes. The International DX Contest was actually to be the third International DX Contest; the League now runs this test in February (CW) and March (SSB).
But let's not get ahead of our story.
"Stations having truly modern equipment in line with the best practice will have the advantage and can take this opportunity to out-perform 'just ordinary' installations not in line with the requirements of full operation in our present frequency bands," Handy explained. "Our previous contests have in each case trebled and quadrupled the amount of operation normal at a particular season. Therefore it is inevitable that our coming tests will in a measure show up limitations of some of our frequency bands much more severely than do our everyday operating conditions. Intelligent use of all our bands is really the requirement to win. The best equipment made is only as useful of the ingenuity of the [amateur] behind the key can make it."
What was written 80 years ago still holds true today.
But in those 80 years, we have seen technology progress and change. While just like today, hams were not allowed to set up skeds (by ways other than Amateur Radio) during the contest. But they were allowed to set them up before the contest. Of course, without Twitter, instant messaging, e-mail, the telephone and other variances of social networking, they had to do it by mail: "There is no rule against making advance schedules by mail to assist in the message handling work," Handy wrote. "All QST readers are equally free to start lining up such schedules now if they believe it will help. Hit-or-miss work over the air will be necessary in any case to run up a score as QSO's can be made and messages put through in both directions. There will be no particular advantage in lining up a great many schedules. The main thing to be remembered is that only QSO's proved by copies of messages received and sent during the two weeks' test count."
Yes, two weeks! The first January Contest began at 0000 G.C.T. (now UTC) on January 18, 1930 and ran through 0000 G.C.T. on February 1, 1930. Each station was required to send and receive one complete and individually worded contest message of 10 or more words. Each message was to have the proper form and include the city of origin, message number, date, address, text and signature. Participants received 1 point for sending and 1 point for receiving a message. Submitted logs had to show the number of Sections worked -- in 1930, there were 68 Sections -- and the number of stations worked in each Section; each log must include all the messages. The contest was scored thusly: 2 points per completed contact multiplied by the number of Sections.
Awards
In the next issue of QST -- January 1930 -- Handy conveyed excitement about the contest, now officially named the All-Section Sweepstakes Contest: "The prompt and enthusiastic response which followed our announcement of our 1930 competitions bodes well for the success of both events. Just a few weeks more and contest number one will be in full swing. There will be two weeks to cram full of operating enjoyment, two weeks of unparalleled opportunities. How many stations can be worked and messages exchanged in the given time? How many Sections of our A.R.R.L. field organization is it possible to contact in this fashion in fourteen days? And what scores!!"
Handy said that "to do the January tests justice we ought to present the three highest scoring stations in the whole field organization some special trophies or prizes of symbols of victory in addition to the certificates they might win." And no, he was not talking about mugs!
"History gives us some interesting information concerning various symbols of victory," Handy wrote in that January 1930 issue of QST. "A Dutch commander, Admiral Tromp, defeated the British fleet under Admiral Blake at Dover, England in 1652. Complying with the customs of the times, the Dutch commander sailed up the English Channel with a broom hoisted at the masthead of his flagship, denoting that had successfully 'swept the seas.' Prizes in any contest may be referred to as 'stakes.' Webster informs us that among other things, 'sweepstakes' signifies 'clean sweep.' The highest scoring stations in our January contest by virtue of skillful operating will be winners by virtue of having literally 'swept the air,' piling up points by a large number of QSO's with individual stations together with a surprisingly large number of stations contacted!
"Fine! So our first contest has been officially named the All-Section Sweepstakes Contest, the sweepstakes emblems, symbolic of victory, appearing in miniature on each of the award certificates."
Handy wrote that as for trophies, "a sweep-broom for the masthead of our radio stations might be appropriate even if a bit clumsy, but unfortunately, since the advent of high frequency communication and the obsolescence of rotary spark gaps and high multi-wire antennas, we don't all have conspicuous masts. For this reason we have deemed it appropriate to design some real radio man's trophies suitable for display in the winning station.
"A sweep-broom, significant of victory, emblazoned with our A.R.R.L. emblem, and approximately three feet long has been selected as a basis for our trophies. The League colors, black and gold, are used throughout in the design. Like the Wouff-Hong and the Rettysnitch (the traditional emblems of our amateur fraternity) these sweepstakes' insignia are also fashioned of radio materials. A symbolic vacuum tube is firmly affixed to the handles of our three prizes. The call signals of the stations winning our three sweepstakes trophies or grand prizes will be inscribed in black on a background of varnished cambric, better known to amateurs as empire cloth. How would you like to have one of these sweepstakes trophies for your station? By proper application you may win one of the sixty-eight sweepstakes certificates and also one of the three sweepstakes trophies!"
Winners
"With shouts of 'On ye Brave, Who rush to glory, or the grave!' the starting pistol was fired at 0000 G.C.T. on January 18, and the All-Section Sweepstakes Contest was underway," wrote then-Assistant to the Communications Manager E. L. Battey, W1UE, in the results article that appeared in the May 1930 issue of QST. "The participants looked to the two weeks ahead of them and wondered. . . . They knew of the great possibilities of the contest; they knew of the possible high scores; they knew of those three unique trophies set aside for the leaders; they knew of the very attractive brown lithographed certificates awaiting the winners in the sixty-eight A.R.R.L. sections; they knew. As there are 68 sections, there was a possible multiplier of 68. Think what that meant!! There was no limit to the possible scores!"
Battey, more than likely with a sigh, wrote that "now the two weeks of the contest are a memory, the award committee has completed its tedious task of checking over the logs submitted, and we are ready to present the results." He wrote that J. F. Feely, W1ADW, of Danbury, Connecticut, "made the 'clean sweep' with his score of 13,158, and wins first prize!! He swept the air with a signal from a Hi-C Hartley, using an 852 part time, and a UV-203-A for the remainder of the contest. Messages were exchanged with 153 stations in 43 sections on the 3500-, 7000- and 14,000 kc. bands We secretly suspect that W1ADW is now making up for a little lost sleep after that splendid piece of work!"
Donald Wherry, W9DEX, of Churdon, Iowa, "claims second prize by virtue of exchanging messages with 142 stations in 43 sections for a score of 12,212! Work at W9DEX was carried out with a single Type '10 on the 3500- and 14,000-kc. bands. It is interesting to note that both W1ADW and W9DEX succeeded in chalking up 43 sections to their credit.
Close on Wherry's heels was Harry Lacey, W2BAI, of Schenectady, New York, "with a score of 12,090 made by swapping messages with 155 stations in 39 sections! W2BAI did not enter the contest until January 24, a week after the start, but he worked hard, and the third prize is his. He used the 7000- and 14,000 kc. bands. W1ADW, W9DEX and W2BAI are all one-man stations and in view of this we realize how the operators must have stepped up to run up the scores they did. Our hats are off to them!"
Some interesting notes about this first running of Sweepstakes: 90 stations sent in reports. Low- and high-power stations rand neck-and-neck. M. L. Croft, W8APQ, of Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, used 180 V in B batteries and a type 01A tube. William Castanie, W9ACY, of St Louis, Missouri, used 175 V and a 71A tube. D. J. Atherton, W6CTP, of Fullerton, California, used a 12A tube with 300 V raw ac! There was at least one phone entry in the test: R. M. Lawrence, W9GHI, of Baldwin, Kansas, scored 2592 points on 3500 kc.
"There was a certain group," Battey wrote, "that took an indifferent attitude toward the whole affair. Not being actively engaged in or interested in contest work themselves, they had to be persuaded a lot before they would come through with a message. Many actually refused to have anything to do with the contest. Did those fellows stop to think that five minutes spent in an exchange of messages would help the other man in his efforts to run up a good score, and at the same time make the QSO more interesting, and give both operators practise [sic] in message handling? W1WV [Miles Weeks of Brookline, Massachusetts] sums up the poor spirit of the 'indifferent group' quite effectively when he says, 'In looking back over all the various experiences I had in the Contest, I couldn't help but think what a millennium it would be if all amateurs would practise [sic] the Golden Rule."
The More things Change, the More They Stay the Same
The fully decorated sweep-brooms are now a thing of the past. The ARRL discontinued the brooms many years ago, and in 1991, made mugs available to those who had a clean sweep. But in 1983, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sweepstakes, and again in 2008 for the 75th anniversary, whisk brooms were awarded to clean-sweepers. Alas, there was no vacuum tube adorning the broom, no empire cloth, to proclaim your feat. So when you dial around the bands next month, in your "rush for glory" as you search the Maritimes or North Dakota or the Yukon -- trying for that elusive clean sweep -- keep in mind the proud history of this grand event.
