The question of Industry Sponsorship of contest awards was an issue at the past ARRL Board meeting. That started me thinking why do we need to consider such sponsorship of awards? Are these awards important to the contest community? Are the awards important enough to substantially participate in covering the costs of awards to contesters in their own geographical area?

 

The 2005 ARRL Phone Sweepstakes Results are found on pages 100 thorough 103 of the June 2006 issue of QST.  A quick review of the Club competition and plaque sponsorship is interesting. There are 102 categories; 6 overall categories and 6 categories in each of the 15 Division and Canada. Only 14 of the winner’s plaques are sponsored by clubs. An additiona’ 12 plaques are sponsored by individuals. The remaining 76 plaques are being sponsored by ICOM, for which it gets prominent recognition.

 

The club sponsors are as follows:

 

Club                                                      Entries              Plaques Sponsored

 

Central Texas DX  & Contest Club           15                     1

QRP Radio Club International                                          1

North Coast Contesters                          8                      2

Potomac Valley Radio Club                    210                   2

Minnesota Wireless Association             103                   4

Mad River Radio Club                             34                     2

QRP Club of New England                                              1

Raleigh Amateur Radio Society                                       1

NoVa QRP Group                                                          1

Grand Mesa Contesters of CO                21                     1

 

A few observations

 

The 5 clubs participating in the Affiliated Club Competition, Unlimited Category represented more the 825 log entries and certainly a substantial number of plaques winners, yet only 2 clubs (MWA and PVRC) sponsored any plaques.

 

QRP groups sponsored 3 plaques, not surprisingly all in the QRP category. Perhaps, QRP’ers have a better sense of the value of supporting their aspect of contesting.

 

Only one of the four traditional “contest animal” clubs sponsored any plaques. (PVRC) 

 

Questions:

1.         If the contest community is not willing to support and celebrate the successes of its members why should ARRL ?

 

2.         If members of industry are willing to help financially support ARRL activities with the expectation of getting a little recognition for their support, should we squander that goodwill and interest on plaques for 102 individuals where their own community doesn’t see the value in supporting those same award plaques?

 

3.         Why those receiving contest plaques get them without charge when we charge for plaques for similar accomplishments such as 5BDXCC?

 

73,

 

Jay, KØQB