>Is this
>the first instance of major ham radio company doing this sort of
>thing to directly support contesting? I know Icom and Yaesu and
>others have spent a lot to support DXing, but I haven't seen much
>support for contesting before.
Icom was a major supporter of WRTC '96, though I don't know what they may
have done for 2000 or 2002. In the beginning of our fund-raising efforts,
we were having a terrible time getting anyone in the industry to do anything
besides laugh at us and tell us how terrible the times were. Only HRO was
willing to help, kicking in a $10K donation to get us started. Then Icom
America got creative and donated a bunch of radios which we were able to
sell to raise funds. (By donating equipment instead of cash, they were able
to get around the watchful eyes of their JA overlords.) I don't recall
Yaesu's response to our requests, but I do remember Kenwood laughing us
right out of the room. I'm not a fan of Icom radios, since they can't ever
seem to get their CW output waveform right. But they have been a very good
corporate citizen in supporting the contest community
Bruce, N6NT/ZF2NT
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