A while back, I began researching some of the changes made over the
years in the ARRL and Canadian sections used in the Sweepstakes (mostly
using the online QST archive at http://www.arrl.org/qst/). I learned
quite a lot, but I still have some gaps in my timeline about when certain
changes were made.
The first "All-Section Sweepstakes" was held in 1930 and there were 68
sections. In addition to the sections we know today, there were some
interesting differences. Minnesota was orginally two sections - Northern
Minnesota and Southern Minnesota. Utah and Wyoming were originally one
section. The Philippines were a section (part of the Pacific Division).
But the most interesting section was probably Georgia-South Carolina-Isle
of Pines. The Isle of Pines is an island off the coast of Cuba (today
known as Isla de la Juventud or Isle of Youth). After the Spanish-American
War was concluded in 1898, the sovereignty of the island remained in
dispute, claimed by both the United States and independent Cuba. The
U.S. Senate ratified a treaty recognizing Cuban sovereignty over the
island in 1925. I have no idea why the Isle of Pines was still being
used in the section name as of 1930.
Here are my notes for the last 40 years:
1 Jan 1973 Eastern Florida (EFL) deleted 76
Western Florida (WFL) deleted
Northern Florida (NFL) created
Southern Florida (SFL) created
1 Oct 1979 Canal Zone (KZ5) deleted 76
1 Jan 1987 West Texas (WTX) created from counties previously 75
assigned to North Texas (NTX) and South Texas (STX)
Aug(?) 1988 West Indies (WI) deleted 76
Puerto Rico (PR) section created
Virgin Islands (VI) section created
Guantanamo Bay assigned to Virgin Islands section
6 Feb 1989 Washington (WA) deleted 77
Eastern Washington (EWA) created
Western Washington (WWA) created
1 Jan 1996 Northern New York (NNY) created from counties 78
previously assigned to Western New York (WNY)
1 Apr 1996 Two counties (Herkimer and Otsego) assigned to 78
the newly-created Northern New York (NNY) section
are returned to the Western New York (WNY)
section
1 Jan 1998 Newfoundland-Labrador section (NL) created, 79
removing that province from the Maritimes (MAR)
section
15 Jan 2000 West Central Florida (WCF) created from counties 80
previously assigned to Northern Florida (NFL)
and Southern Florida (SFL)
12 Sep 2012 Ontario (ON) deleted 83
Greater Toronto Area (GTA) created
Ontario East (ONE) created
Ontario North (ONN) created
Ontario West (ONW) created
--
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker@kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|