The History of the European CW Association

Revision date 2021.03.10

The Chairmen of EuCW

  1. SMØIX Sven Milander c/o SCAG 1980
  2. DL7DO Ralf Herzer c/o AGCW 1981
  3. G8PG Gus Taylor c/o G-QRP 1982
  4. PAØDIN Din Hoogma c/o VHSC 1983
  5. SM5TK Kurt Franzén c/o SCAG 1984
  6. DL6MK Edgar Schnell (sk) c/o HSC 1985-1987
  7. G4FAI Tony Smith c/o G-QRP 1988-1990
  8. ON5ME Oscar Verbanck (sk) c/o SHSC/EHSC (*) 1991-2006
  9. LZ1PJ Ivan (Johny) Ivanov c/o LZCWC 2007-2013
  10. G5VZ Chris Pearson c/o FISTS 2013-2016
  11. I5SKK Alessandro Santucci c/o INORC 2016/9 to 2019/8
  12. IZ2FME Michele Carlone c/o INORC 2019/9 to 2022/8
  13. RM2D Mats Strandberg c/o UQRQ-C 2022/9 to 2025/8

Growth History of EuCW (dates when new clubs joined)

1979
EuCW founder clubs: SCAG (SM/OZ), AGCW (DL), GQRP (G).
until 1981
TOPS (G), SARS (Scarborough ARS)(G), HSC (DL), CWC (HB9), VHSC (1981.11.28)(PAØ).
1982
BQRPC (PA/ON/LX), INORC (I).
1983
HCC (1983.09.01)(EA).
1986
BTC (1986.02.15)(ON), UFT (1986.09.01)(F), SHSC (1986.12.01)(ON).
1988
FISTS (1988.06.01)(G), U-QRQ-C (1988.12.03)(R).
1989
FOC (1989.09.01)(G).
1990
EHSC (ON).
1991
HACWG (HA), U-CW-C (R/UR).
1992
OK-QRP (OK), CTCW (CT).
1993
HTC (HB9).
1994
3A-CW-G (3A), MCWG (Z3), OHTC (OH), EA-QRP-C (EA),
1995
SPCWC (SP).
1997
9A-CWG (9A), I-QRP-C (I).
1998
OE-CW-G (OE).
1999
ITC (I), YL-CW-G (DL), RTC (DL).
2000
GTC (SV).
2001
CFT (ON).
2002
EACW (EA).
2003
CTC (9A).
2004
LZCWC (2004.08.20)(LZ), RU-QRP (2004.12.22)(R).
2005
IS-QRP (2005.09.21)(IS0).
2010
Marconisti (2010.04.01)(I), Essex CW Club (G).
2018
GPCW (2018.01.01)(CT).
Refoundation of CTCW
2018
Long Island CW Club (2019.12.01)(W, Associated Club).
2021
NTC - Netherlands Telegraphy Club (PAØ, member since 2021-09-15)

Other Events in EuCW

1978
SCAG took the first initiative. Statutes were proposed on 1978.06.27 (These statutes are re-printed in SCAG-NL #50 from April 1978). According to these statutes only clubs with at least 100 individual members could be members. The leadership of EuCW should rotate on a yearly base.
1979
EuCW founded officially.
1986
CWC (HB9) deleted on 1986.02.15. SCAG leadership proposes withdrawal of SCAG from EuCW (1986.03.01), to be decided by the annual assembly. 1986.05.31: SCAG Assembly in Copenhagen postpones decision about EuCW withdrawal. DL6MK encounters difficulties to find a new EuCW president. TOPS, SARS, HCC, INORC could not take over presidency. UFT proposes a EuCW award.
1987
DJ2XP takes over the Fraternizing Party. The FP date changes from June to late November. 1987.04.25: SCAG assembly in Täby gives up plans for withdrawal from EuCW.
1988
EuCW Net (80 m QTC net) established
1990
TOPS withdraws from membership because of a lack of activity (1990.07.01), the option to re-join remains open. Fraternal links to non-European clubs established: QRP-ARCI (W/K) and GPCW (PY). The SCAG Straight Key Day on New Year's Day becomes an official EuCW activity.
1991
Worked EuCW Award created (1991.04.27) to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Samuel F.B. Morse. HCC (Spain) generously met the cost of printing the certificates (in the UK), which were designed by G4FAI. First award winner: DK9EA (1991.09.30). Generous donations received from other clubs were reserved for use on future EuCW special projects. CWAS (PY) associates as another overseas guest. It takes over the tasks of GPCW (PY).
1992
Membership rules were modified in order to open EuCW for small clubs. The decision was taken by mail vote. 18 clubs were invited to vote, 13 were in favor of the change, 1 disagreed, 1 agreed conditionally, 3 clubs did not respond.
1993
SLDXC (Saar-Lorraine DX club) applied for membership but was vetoed down for being rather a DX club than a CW club. Well-defined membership application policy established, all non-CW clubs and all non-European clubs will be excluded from the application procedures. QRP clubs will remain an exception because QRP is inherently linked to CW. The Fraternizing Party gets an extra sponsorship from EA3DOS who donates miniature ("Lilliput") keys to winners.
1994
New statutes were adopted. Changes include: Clubs with at least 100 individual members will have FULL (i.e. voting) membership. Clubs with 5 to 99 members will have RESTRICTED (i.e. non-voting) membership. The term of office of chairmen is 3 years.
2000
Membership application from CFT (Belgium) published in EuCW Bulletin 2000/2. Likewise the GACW from Argentina offered co-operation with EuCW. Proposal for a new constitution.
2001
FISTS creates a new QRS Week and dedicates it to EuCW. First QRS Week held in April 2001. UFT dedicates a 160m contest to EuCW.
2002
Professional Radio Operators CW Club International from Romania applied membership but was vetoed down.
2006
DJ2XP retired from his post as EuCW AWARD and Fraternizing Party manager. These jobs are taken over by DK7VW. Unfortunately, the results of the 2005 Frat Party got lost in the takeover procedure. LZ1PJ accepted to be the president of EuCW from 2007 on.
2007
ON5ME passed away in January. He was an extraordinary sponsor in general and EuCW in particular. His donations covered the running costs of the presidency at 100% during his term of office.
Ivan Ivanov, LZ1PJ, took over as chairman, it was his merit to introduce electronic media into the regular operation of the club.
2010
The Essex CW ARC was presented as a new candidate for EuCW membership. The membership was confirmed eventually.
2013
The clubs OHCW, BTC, GACW, and HCC were declared dormant. The term 2013-2016 of the chairman was offered to BQC. BQC chose not to fill the office as Chairman. Elections for a new chairman are being held in summer. G3VTT (ECM FOC) volunteered as election officer for the 2013 elections. During the month of July potential candidates were invited to present themselves for the election. Two candidates were found.
During the month of August the elections were held. The winner was G5VZ who took office in September.
After a consultation period the traditional contest EUCW Fraternising Party was discontinued. EUCW thanked DK7VW for the good work done as Manager from 2006 to its final edition in 2013. The consultation showed a declining interest of EuCW club officials in a contest. In fact many realized that a classical contest is hardly useful to foster friendship. Moreover, there is no lack of contests on the HF bands and one more ore less won't make too much of a difference. The chairman got the task to order the different alternative proposals and come up with an on-air activity far beyond contesting.
2014
The long-term activity "Snakes And Ladders" was presented for the time period April 2014 through March 2015. The basic idea is to foster normal CW QSOs on the CW bands preferably on the upper parts of the CW bands far away from contests and from pile-ups and DX operation. A minimum duration of the QSO was set to 5 minutes in order to promote a culture of conversation.
As an additional incentive a game of luck is presented based on the QSOs of a calendar month. DM4RW could be won as manager of this activity.
Though participation itself is as easy as providing an ADIF QSO list the rules of the game of luck is a bit more sophisticated and harder to read than a usual description of award or contest rules. A group of enthusiastic ECMs provided the rules in at least TEN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. Never before in history of EUCW there was a project with so many ECMs involved. Special thanks go to the main authors of the language versions as listed in here.
The company Begali promised to sponsor two free keyers that will be donated to two selected participants after the first of S+L.
S+L produced about 1000 QSOs per month which is a good start.
Updates for the version after March 2015 were decided. The appearance of snakes was randomized, the role of the preferred frequencies was emphasized.
2015
Snakes and ladders version 2 was organized from March to December.
2016
Snakes and Ladders was upgraded to its third version. Friendship between operators is now in the foreground. Even repetitive QSOs with the same station contribute to the individual results.
Sadly the German club RTC became inactive and its web page and domain were erased in April. Likewise the German YLCWG was declared dormant since August.
On 1-SEP-2016 the new EUCW Chairman took office. This new three year term is under the responsibility of INORC. INORC supports EUCW with Alessandro, I5SKK as EUCW Chairman, and Italo, I0YQX, as ECM of INORC.
2017
Snakes and Ladders remained stable and created typically 1000 QSOs per month. The center of activity is in the United Kingdom.
2018
Snakes and Ladders remained stable and well. CTCW and 3A-CWG retracted their membership, EACW was declared dormant since there were no news for years. CTCW was replaced by GPCW. First measures were taken to prepare the succession of the chairman I5SKK. According to the rotary principle UFT had the right of succession. UFT declined early and the chairman launched a call for candidates for chairmanship.
2019
LZCWC was declared dormant in Jan 2019. No contact to the club could be established by the chairman.
Two candidates volunteered for the chairmanship of the term Sept. 2019 through Aug. 2022. The candidates and their host clubs were ON4LDL c/o CFT (Belgium) and IZ2FME c/o INORC (Italy). Elections were held among the clubs with more than 100 active members.
On Sep 1, 2019 IZ2FME took office as EUCW chairman after winning the elections.
2021
The EUCW award manager passed away, the stock of paper awards could not be recovered. The award is now digital and free of charge. In November 2021 DF4WX volunteered as new award manager.
According the rotary principle of EuCW, the presidency was offered to U-QRQ-C because it is the oldest member club which neither had a presidency no rejected a presidency in the past. Eventually, the United QRP club has chosen Mats, RM2D as chairman.
2022
On Sep 1, 2022 RM2D took office as EUCW chairman as appointed by his club.

Notes:

This list is based on archives of AGCW-Info, SCAG-NL, and EuCW Bulletins. Several friends helped (see acknowledgments below). Yet, this list is incomplete and may contain errors. Please send corrections or additional infos to:...eucw (at) agcw.de... Thanks in advance.

Acknowledgments to contributors:
Corrections and updates came from: PAØDIN, ON5ME, DK5KE, G4FAI (chronological order).

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