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

[William Boeckenhaupt]

Now see what you did Tom, you got this guy in Colorado all fired up and now
he is all bent out of shape. Aint you ashamed of yourself. (by the way he is
an ex Kansas ham.)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lance Johnson" <lance@diac.com>
To: <kcdxc@mailman.qth.net>
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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Connect to the W0MW Packetcluster:
> telnet to: w0mw.dynip.com
> KCDXC mailing list
> KCDXC@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/kcdxc