[KCDXC] 1970's Mad River Radio Club "Scandal"

Thu, 14 Nov 2002 09:00:36 -0600

It must have been AE9B that they hired, hi hi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lance Johnson" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 7:55 AM
Subject: [KCDXC] 1970's Mad River Radio Club "Scandal"


> Back in the 1970's, when I was getting started in contesting as an entry
level
> SS type and living in Dayton, Ohio, some enterprising people formed the
> "original" Mad River Radio Club.
>
> There was a nice newsletter and the regional club had some ambitious
goals,
> including the winning of the ARRL Sweepstakes.
>
> Stations were recruited from W8 and W9 land and many handwritten logs were
> properly sent into the ARRL for processing with Mad River Radio Club
> affiliation.
>
> The result was that the Mad River Radio Club, in one of the greatest
upsets in
> the history of contesting, won the SS Club Championship that year..... for
a few
> months.
>
> The sour grapes pressure from the established EAST COAST clubs was so
immense
> and threats to Directors so great that the ARRL disavowed the Mad River
Radio
> Club victory and awarded it to one of the EAST COAST regulars.
>
> The handy vehicle the ARRL used was "meeting attendance" and later the
well
> defined circle game was implimented to precisely sabotage any Midwest
threats to
> EAST COAST dominance.
>
> Rumor has it that the ARRL hired a demographics professional to insure
that NO
> MIDWEST club would ever win the SS and that's how the mileage figures were
> developed at the levels you see today.
>
> If you saved your QST's or have the QST 1970's CD ROM you can read about
the
> whole butt ugly episode. (They made Mad River look like idiots.)
>
> By the way, I got my first clean sweep in that one as WB8IAY and had a
> respectable 120,000 points on SSB as a tyro.
>
> My suggestion would be to change the club name to: "Midwest Christian Hams
for
> Jeusus" and recruit from anywhere in ZERO District that is reasonable.
>
> Trust me, the ARRL would NOT mess with any mileage trivia on your entry,
my
> fellow "religious freedom" enthusiasts!
>
> And now you know why LANCE JOHNSON ENGINEERING has NEVER advertised in QST
in 25
> years of selling ham accessories.
>
> 73, Steve, K0CS
>
> http://www.qth.com/lance
> http://www.qth.com/lowband
>
>
>
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