An award that's still awaiting a winner

Are you a 'contesting type operator?'  Have you thought of trying to win the ARRL's Elser-Mathes Cup?

The Cup is carved of a dark tropical hardwood. It shows four stylised human figures, two standing, two seated. The standing figures are using one hand each to support a wooden bowl (the cup part) and the other hand rests on the
head of the rather-dejected looking seated figures.

It was carved in the Philippines and taken back to the USA by Elser and Mathes, who gave it to the folks at ARRL Hq.

It's been waiting to be won for more than 80 years.

To understand the Cup, you must understand its times.
From the earliest days of radio, DX had always been hard-won. The professionals had spanned the globe, but compared to the small power of we Amateurs, they could use tens of kilowatts to gigantic skyhooks using waves thousands of meters long.

Even the most well equipped radio amateurs could not match the big commercial stations. And even after the 1912 restrictions, that gave amateurs one kilowatt input and wavelengths no longer than 200 meters, the DX situation
looked hopeless.

By 1920, a well equipped 200 meter amateur station might reach 1000 miles. 1500 miles was exceptional. Bridging the Atlantic seemed a dream.

Then, in late 1923, three radio amateurs tried a shorter wavelength (110 meters) and the Transatlantic barrier was broken. Others soon followed, and overnight the old records were dust.

No sooner would a record be set than it would be smashed by a new one.

It was in those days that Elser and Mathes decided to create the Cup, hoping that its requirements would take more than a few weeks or months to achieve. They succeeded - the Cup arrived at ARRL in the mid-1920s, and still waits to be awarded.

But, the 'kicker' to this story..

The Elser Mathes Cup will be awarded to the first two-way radio contact between radio amateurs on Earth and the planet Mars. Elser and Mathes thought the Moon to be too easy a target, and this in the roaring twenties!

So.. will the advent of the AMSAT-DL P3 mission to mars make winning the Cup a reality? Only time will tell, and if per chance H G Wells type robots are discovered on Mars... the full set of rules for taking out the Elser Mathes Cup states... QSO's with robots will not count!

John VK5BUI

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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