The National Contest Journal (also referred to by the acronym NCJ) is a bimonthly magazine published by the American Radio Relay League, with an independent volunteer editor. The magazine covers topics related to amateur radio contesting. NCJ publishes articles aimed at and written by amateur radio operators at all levels of contest still. The magazine is published in English and draws its subscription base primarily from the United States of America and Canada.
History The National Contest Journal was founded by Minnesotan contester Tod Olson, K0TO. In his editorial for volume 1, issue 1 (January/February, 1973), Olson described the motivational purpose of the publication: "We believe that a genuine desire exists for more information about Radio Contests. Most of us have an interest in learning about other stations, operators, etc that we find in competition with us."Luetzelschwab, Carl K9LA, ed. "We Hear from Former NCJ Editors". National Contest Journal., vol. 35, no. 5, Sep/Oct, 2007, p.14. Olson relied upon the National Traffic System to gather claimed scores in order to print tables of likely competition winners months before the official results were published by the contest sponsors. Publication for the first three years was done with typewriters and offset printing. Each issue was 16 pages in 5" x 7.5" format. After printing, issues were assembled at Olson's home and mailed from a local post office.
Editors In over 50 years of publication, the National Contest Journal has had 18 different editors. The first editor, and founder of the magazine, was Tod Olson, K0TO. Olson was one of three editors to have served multiple times in that capacity for the magazine.
Editor YearsTod Olson, K0TO 1973-1975 Pete Grillo, W0RTT 1975-1978Tod Olson, K0TO 1978-1979Randy Thompson, K5ZD 1979-1980Tom Taormina, K5RC 1981John Crovelli, W2GD 1981-1982Rick Niswander, K7GM 1982-1983Randy Thompson, K5ZD 1983-1984Dave Pruett, K8CC 1985-1987Randy Thompson, K5ZD 1988-1989Tom Taormina, K5RC 1989-1993Trey Garlough, N5KO 1993-1994Bruce Draper, AA5B 1994-1996Dave Patton, NN1N 1997Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV 1998-2002Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA 2002-2007Al Dewey, K0AD 2008-2011Kirk Pickering, K4RO 2012-2014Pat Barkey, N9RV 2015-2017 Scott Wright, K0MD 2018-2020Lee Finkel, KY7M 2021-2023John Pescatore, K3TN2024-
Contest sponsorship The magazine organizes, adjudicates, and publishes the results of two series of annual radio competitions, the North American QSO Party (NAQP) and the North American Sprint. The NAQP has three separate events (for CW, voice, and RTTY) run twice a year, managed by volunteers. The Sprint has two separate events (for CW and RTTY) run twice a year, managed by volunteers. The competitions focus on participation from stations in North America. The National Contest Journal publishes the contest rules and results in the magazine and on the magazine's web site.NCJ Contests. National Contest Journal official web site. Retrieved Sep. 26, 2007.
Citations
External links
North American QSO Party North American Sprint