I think the Rag Chewers Club (RCC) was the first Amateur Radio award I qualified for. To qualify, one need only provide evidence of having made a single QSO that lasted more than 30 minutes. The implication being that such a contact involves interacting with another Ham to cover more than the abbreviated signal report and location contact.
To be honest though, I’m not sure what I did should have qualified. At the time I was making contacts as a CW operator at speeds near 5 WPM. A 30 minute QSO probably covered little more than RST, location, rig and antennas being used, if that.
Still, it was the first of several, and in the future hopefully many, awards and Amateur Radio certificates.
For years the award had been offered by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). In 2004 it was discontinued by the League and taken up by a group calling itself the The Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio (SPAR). It’s unclear whether or not the award is still actively issued.
Been in Ham Radio since 2015
I was licensed in 1969 and the RCC was my first ‘award’. My certificate is long gone. I was in and out of the hobby for years and returned full bore in Jan. 2023 after a 30 year hiatus. I was curious about whether or not the RCC still existed and found your post. Like you, I think I got my RCC on 80m or 40m CW. Later on, I chewed away on 20m SSB. Nowadays, being in a condo community, my HF is capable but very limited. However, I do monitor a repeater network and get my ‘fix’ there.
The ARRL seems to be more involved in DX and contests now. Maybe that’s why they dumped the RCC. I also found that their support of the NTS has waned, and that’s what the ARRL was founded for originally. I was also a traffic handler back then, and now. 73 de N1CVO
Welcome back to the fold! Lots has changed over the years but there’s still plenty of fun things to keep us all busy.