“It still amazes me what fun you can have with just a piece of wire”–M6W (G3WW)
The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that in 1948, the average cost of a house in the United States was $7,700. Gasoline averaged about 16 cents per gallon. A loaf of bread cost 14 cents. And you were a well-paid employee if you were making $2950 per year. It turns out that on November 5-7,1948, the first CQ WW CW contest also took place (ironically, now the scheduled weekend for the ARRL CW Sweepstakes contest). Like the price of bread, inflation has impacted the WW. In its first year, approximately 550 CW logs were received with the winning entry coming from GI6TK, who posted a final score of 452K (817 QSOs/31 Zones/66 countries). It is indeed amazing to examine our CQ WW roots in what most will agree is amateur radio’s premier operating event.
Needless to say, today’s CQ WW contest continues to fill the bands. And, with Cycle 25 well underway, that’s especially the case on the high bands, including the favorite choice of many, ten meters! What a treat it was to return to the land of 28 MHz and hear signals filling the entire band from one end to the other.
Although the number of submitted logs was slightly down from last year, I’m pleased to report that we
