Previous Ohio Section

Newsletter Winners

The Ohio Section Newsletter contest is the longest running contest of its kind in the country. It started in 1992 when then Pubilc Information Coordinator (PIC) Joe Phillips, K8QOE decided that we needed to have a contest to find the "Best of the Best" in newsletters in the Ohio Section.

Joe's idea wasn't the first. In 1992 there were a number of contests such as this one going on all over the country. Joe, however wanted the Ohio Section's contest to be different. He didn't want it to be just a contest of winners and losers, he wanted to do this in order to improve the quality of the newsletters. He was often heard saying that there were no "winners' or "losers" because each newsletter was really a winner in that it informed its readership of happenings in the Amateur Radio world.

Joe was by profession a reporter. He wrote regular columns for a number of major newspapers around Ohio and Indiana. He also had a television show as well.

Joe created an actual formula for grading newsletters. Before this it was just left up to a judge to determine if he liked it or not. Now with Joe's formula there is a better standard for judging newsletters on a consistent basis, and has been modeled by a number of Sections and even several Divisions as well. It has become the "base-line standard" for judging newsletters.

The Ohio Section is extremely proud of the fact that we have this contest as that it has only made the newsletters in the Ohio Section the "Best" written newsletters in the country.

Past Newsletter Winners