Andy Blank, N2NT, new Director of CQ World Wide 160-Meter Contest

Veteran contester Andy Blank, N2NT, of Dayton, New Jersey, has been named Director of the CQ World Wide 160-Meter Contest.

Andy succeeds Dave Thompson, K4JRB, who has decided to retire after 16 years at the helm of the event. During Dave's tenure, the number of logs submitted more than tripled.

Andy has been a ham since 1972, a 160-meter operator nearly as long, and a contester for more than 30 years. He has operated not only from his own station but from various multi-op stations in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

He is a past winner of the CQWW DX Contest, the ARRL DX Contest and others, and has been a three-time competitor in the World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) competition. Andy says the CQ WW 160-Meter Contest is among his favorites.

Andy's plans for the contest are to build on K4JRB's record of success and growth by making the log-checking procedures consistent with those used in other CQ contests, creating a web presence for the contest and updating some of the rules.

The 2009 rules will appear in the November 2008 issue of 'CQ' magazine."