The 2013 CQ-WE Contest

To be held the weekend of November 9-10 — 54 years and still going strong!

CQ-WE stands for CQ - Western Electric, the company whose ham employees originated the contest. The annual CQ-WE Contest is open to all Radio Amateurs. The objective is to contact as many Bell System Radio Amateurs as possible via ham radio. A Bell System amateur is any ham who is a current or former employee of any part of the pre-divestiture Bell System -- that is, any company that was spun off from or shares a part of its heritage with the original AT&T Corporation. Examples include the current-day AT&T, Bell Labs, Western Electric, the Baby Bells, Bellcore, NCR, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Agere, as well as other companies that have sprung from them. Normally held the second full weekend in November, the contest combines a spirit of competitive contesting with the chance to relax, have fun, and renew acquaintances with old friends and colleagues while fostering friendships with new ones.

CQ-WE 2012: The Results are in... and it looks like we can bank another successful contest. Congrats to our high scorers:

High Total Score      W8MET   Metro Sinko
   2nd Place          W4BXI   John Drum
   3rd Place          W2EQ    Tom Brown
   4th Place          W2MN    Tom Nevue
   5th Place          WA2UBK  Shel Darack
High Active Employee  W2EQ    Tom Brown
High Phone            W8MET   Metro Sinko
High CW               W8MET   Metro Sinko
High QRP Score        K3TW    Thomas J. Warren
High Non-Bell Score   W2MN    Tom Nevue
High Digital Score    N2FYE   Andreas Meyer

Metro Sinko has been a force to be reckoned with in the contest for many years. In past contests he has taken High CW, High Retiree, as well as 2nd and 3rd place wins, but this is the first time he has won the contest outright. So congratulations are due Metro and the QN location! The rest of the slate above are old hands at the contest, but none-the-less deserve kudos for their fine performances.

In many respects, 2012 was a challenging contest: Band conditions were abysmal on Saturday, but improved on Sunday. And, many on the East Coast were still digging out of the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. Still we had 58 people who set aside a portion of the weekend to help keep our contest alive and vibrant 53 years in the running.

The complete results may be found here.

On behalf of the CQ-WE Contest Committee, thanks to all who helped make the contest another success. We hope to see you on the bands once again next November, if not before.

And the Certificates should be in your In-Box: The LJ location, which was selected as our 2012 Host Location, has already processed the 2012 Contest Certificates and they should be in your e-mail box. This certainly takes the prize for the fastest delivery of Certs by any location in the contest. George Foy/N4DLR, a retiree from AT&T Communications, served in the role of host coordinator for LJ and is the one responsible for this stellar service. This is the first time the LJ location has been honored in the CQ-WE contest. We congratulate them on their selection and look forward to receiving a 2012 certificate commemorating their proud piece of the Bell System legacy.

The role of Contest Host is an important one, and we appreciate the time and effort the various locations put into designing and distributing their certificates. If you'd like to highlight your own location by hosting a future contest, please contact the National Coordinator. It does take a modicum of effort, but with it comes a tremendous feeling of accomplishment to show off your location in the contest, and your handiwork will be preserved for posterity not only on this website, but also in the shacks of your fellow Bell System colleagues.

CQ-WE Contester K2KYG Silent Key: It is with sorrow that we must report Ken McGuinness/K2KYG has become a silent key. Ken and his wife Mary/K2KYF have only missed two CQ-WE contests since we began keeping online records in 1996. We understand that Ken once operated the contest aeronautical mobile with his friend Peter Guerlain/WA1VMI. Ken will be missed, and our sympathies go out to Mary and their family.

HELP US COMPILE a Historical Record of our Bell System Locations and Ham Clubs: A big part of the CQ-WE contest is communicating with as many different Location Codes as possible. The locations these codes represent made up the once great Bell System. Today, many — actually, most — of these locations, along with their location-sanctioned ham clubs, are either defunct or a shadow of their former selves.

The CQ-WE committee is undertaking a project to resurrect and preserve a history of the various Bell System locations before this information and heritage is permanently lost. But, its success depends on you! Please check our Location Histories page, and if you can provide some information on a missing location — or additional information on one that has already been published — consider authoring a short article describing your location. If it supported a corporate ham club, please include your remembrances of that, too. Use the existing write-ups as guides for style and format. Please send your material to the CQ-WE webmaster, cqwe-web-2013@cqwe.cboh.org, and we'll put it up on the web site to highlight your location for posterity, and even give you credit in the byline. By taking a few minutes to document what you know from your personal experience with AT&T and its subsidiaries, we hope to preserve some of the rich history of the many facets of the once proud and great Bell System.

HAVE A QUESTION about CQ-WE? Email the National Coordinator. Interested in discussing the contest or just want to keep in touch? Feel free to join Ma-Bell-Hams, a Yahoo E-mail Group where such discussions are welcome: Just enter your email address in the space below and click "Join Now!".

cqwe web maintainer