The World Radiosport Team Championship is an amateur radiocompetition. Participation is by invitation only. Entry to each quadrennial WRTC requires qualification through high positions in major world radio contests. The main principle of the WRTC is to provide a level playing field for the qualified contestants from around the world to compete against one another using amateur radio stations located in areas with the same propagation terrain and equipped with identical antennas, operating under the keen eyes of qualified referees. Each WRTC event is organised by a volunteer group of Radio Amateurs in the locality where the competition will be held with the help of a standing committee of internationally recognized contesters. The WRTC is the closest thing to a world championship in the sport of radio contesting. In 2018 over 1000 people are involved with a cost of over half a million Euros. WRTC2018 web page
The first World Radiosport Team Championship event was held in July, 1990 in Seattle, Washington, United States and was timed to coincide with the Goodwill Games being held that summer in the same city. Teams of two competitors each operated in a unique, one-time contest, created specifically to coincide with WRTC. All of the stations used by the WRTC teams were located at existing amateur radio stations in the Seattle area, but not all of the stations were in equally advantageous locations, and some had more desirable call signs than others. Twenty-two teams of two operators each represented Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yugoslavia. For some competitors, it was their first trip to a nation outside of the Eastern Bloc. In addition to the two team members, a referee was present at each station to monitor compliance with the WRTC rules. First place went to the team of John Dorr, K1AR and Doug Grant, K1DG of the United States, second place to the team of Mike Wetzel, W9RE and Chip Margelli, K7JA of the United States, and third place went to Jeff Steinman, KRØY and Bob Shohet, KQ2M of the United States.
The next WRTC event was held in the San Francisco, California, USA area in July, 1996, and was organized by the Northern California Contest Club. The format continued to be teams of two competitors each, operating at stations with similar antenna and power restrictions, participating in the IARU HF World Championship, a world-wide operating event that includes both phone and CW operation. A major innovation at WRTC 1996 was the assignment of special-event call signs to each of the competitive stations. The call signs were assigned randomly to each team, and helped prevent other stations in the IARU HF World Championship contest from recognizing their friends. The special call signs also ensured that all stations had call signs that took approximately the same amount of time to speak phonetically or to send in Morse code. Fifty-two teams of two operators each represented twenty-four countries and all six inhabited continents. First place went to the team of Jeff Steinman, KRØY and Dan Street, K1TO of the United States, second place to the team of John Laney III, K4BAI and Bill Fisher, KM9P of the United States, and third place went to the team of Dave Hachadorian, K6LL and Steve London, N2IC of the United States.
WRTC 2000 was held in July in Slovenia. While the event headquarters were in the resort city of Bled, the competitive stations were spread throughout the country. Most competitors arriving in Slovenia were greeted by ceremonial military escort and the nation's top political figures were in attendance at the opening and closing ceremonies. A new innovation to the competition was the inclusion of a "pile-up" competition, in which individual competitors listened to a recording of overlapping call signs sent in Morse code and attempted to accurately identify and record as many as possible. WRTC 2000 was also the first event where all stations were equipped with antennas of identical manufacture installed at identical heights above ground. Fifty-three teams of two operators each represented twenty-five nations. First place went to the team of Jeff Steinman, N5TJ (formerly KRØY) and Dan Street, K1TO of the United States, second place to the team of Igor Booklan, RA3AUU and Andrei Karpov, RV1AW of Russia, and third place went to the team of Doug Grant, K1DG and John Dorr, K1AR of the United States.
WRTC 2002 was held in July in Helsinki, Finland. A major innovation in Finland was a near-real-time scoreboard publish on a web site during the event. On-site referees at each WRTC competition station used cellular phones to send their station's running contact totals and score to a central database each hour. The scores were published during the event on a web site that listed only the call signs of the operators at each site, not the randomly assigned special-event call sign being used on the air. Fifty-two teams of two operators each represented twenty-eight countries. First place went to the team of Jeff Steinman, N5TJ and Dan Street, K1TO of the United States, second place to the team of Igor Booklan, RA3AUU and Andrei Karpov, RV1AW of Russia, and third place went to the team of Frank Grossmann, DL2CC and Bernd Och, DL6FBL of Germany.
WRTC 2006 was held in Florianópolis, Brazil, and introduced a sophisticated qualification scoring system for potential competitors. 47 teams were selected for the event, but only 46 actually participated. Brazilian airline Varig declared bankruptcy on June 26, causing severe travel difficulties for many teams traveling to Florianópolis the following week, and the Czech team was unable to make other travel arrangements in time. Teams were provided with larger antennas and 700 watt amplifiers in 2006, to help compensate for the greater distance from Brazil to the main centers of contesting activity in Europe and North America. Despite taking place during the solar minimum, the contest coincided with a short spike in conditions on the HF bands allowing high scores. After winning three WRTCs in a row, Jeff Steinman, N5TJ and Dan Street, K1TO did not compete in the 2006 event. First place went to John Sluymer VE3EJ and James Roberts VE7ZO of Canada, the first time a team from outside the United States had won the WRTC competition. Dan Craig N6MJ and Dave Mueller N2NL of the United States achieved second place, and third place went to Doug Grant, K1DG and Andy Blank, N2NT of the United States. Ranko Boca, YT6A (now 4O3A) and Djurica Maletin, YT6T of Montenegro had been in third place in preliminary results, but after a scoring adjudication that removed "unique" contacts from WRTC logs, were rescored into eleventh place.
WRTC 2010 was held in Moscow, Russia, organized by the Russian Amateur Radio Union.[1] 48 teams representing 24 countries participated. For the first time in WRTC history, all operating sites were as equal as possible, using flat fields with no significant location advantages. Volunteers from radio clubs all over Russia installed identical antennas and tents at each site. All competitors operated "Field Day style" using portable electric generators. Also new in WRTC 2010, both operators were allowed to operate at the same time, interleaving contacts, as long as only one transmitted at a time, an operating style borrowed from the Russian Radiosport Team Championship (RRTC). Most participants used a triplexer or diplexer to enable the tri-band Yagi antenna to be shared by both transceivers at the same time without interference. First place went to the Russian team of Vladimir Aksenov, RW1AC and Alexey Mikhailov, RA1AIP. Tõnno Vähk, ES5TV and Toivo Hallikivi, ES2RR from Estonia came in second. Dan Craig, N6MJ and Chris Hurlbut, KL9A from the U.S.A. finished third.
WRTC 2014 was held primarily in Eastern Massachusetts, USA.[2] 59 teams representing 39 countries participated in the largest WRTC competition ever held. Similar to WRTC 2010, temporary locations with tents, generators, a 40-foot tower with tri-band Yagi and inverted vee antennas were constructed by over 400 local volunteers. One station was located just across the border in New Hampshire. For the first time in WRTC history, both operators were allowed to transmit simultaneously, as in a "Multioperator, Two-Transmitter" (M/2) competition, providing more opportunity for participants around the world to work the competitors on as many bands as possible. First place went to Dan Craig, N6MJ and Chris Hurlbut, KL9A from the U.S.A. Rastislav Hrnko, OM3BH, and Jozef Lang, OM3GI from Slovakia, finished second. Manfred Wolf, DJ5MW and Stefan von Baltz, DL1IAO from Germany finished third, just edging out the American team of Kevin Stockton, N5DX and Steve London, N2IC, by a single multiplier.
WRTC 2018 was held in Wittenberg, Germany. First place went to Gediminas Lucinskas, LY9A and Mindaugas Jukna, LY4L from Lithuania.
Competition
The process of selection and invitation to compete in the World Radiosport Team Championship has varied with each event. In some years, the selection has been entirely at the discretion of the organizing committee, which has generally relied upon the past contest results of individuals who have applied for inclusion in the competition to make their decisions. In other years, selection has been delegated to national radio societies or major contest clubs, which have voted on the contesters that they wanted to represent them. The selection process is generally structured to ensure a certain number of contesters from each part of the world and a certain number from specific countries will be invited to the competition. Participants selected to compete in WRTC are generally not sponsored and must pay their own travel and lodging expenses in order to attend.
Each team of two contesters participates in the IARU HF World Championship radio contest, held on the second full weekend of July. A random draw is done to assign each team to a particular station, referee, and call sign. Teams are generally allowed to bring their own transceivers, headphones, microphones, telegraph keys, and contest logging software, but are required to use the antennas provided for them at their assigned station. In addition to respecting the rules of the IARU HF World Championship contest, WRTC teams might have additional operating restrictions. Historically, the scoring formula used for WRTC stations has not always been the same as the scoring formula used for the IARU HF World Championship. On-site referees are present to ensure compliance with the WRTC competition rules. Many WRTC site referees are former WRTC competitors.
Automatic Link Establishment, commonly known as ALE, is the worldwide de facto standard for digitally initiating and sustaining HF radio communications. ALE is a feature in an HF communications radio transceiver system that enables the radio station to make contact, or initiate a circuit, between itself and another HF radio station or network of stations. The purpose is to provide a reliable rapid method of calling and connecting during constantly changing HF ionospheric propagation, reception interference, and shared spectrum use of busy or congested HF channels.
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the USA. ARRL is a non-profit organization, and was co-founded on April 6, 1914, by Hiram Percy Maxim and Clarence D. Tuska of Hartford, Connecticut. The ARRL represents the interests of amateur radio operators before federal regulatory bodies, provides technical advice and assistance to amateur radio enthusiasts, supports a number of educational programs and sponsors emergency communications service throughout the country. The ARRL has approximately 161,000 members. In addition to members in the US, the organization claims over 7,000 members in other countries. The ARRL publishes many books and a monthly membership journal called QST. The ARRL held its Centennial Convention in Hartford, Connecticut in July 2014.
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is an international confederation of national organisations that allows a forum for common matters of concern to amateur radio operators worldwide, and collectively represents matters to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The International Amateur Radio Union was founded in 1925 and, as of November 2019, it is composed of 172 national member societies.
Field Day is an annual amateur radio exercise, widely sponsored by IARU regions and member organizations, encouraging emergency communications preparedness among amateur radio operators. In the United States, it is typically the largest single emergency preparedness exercise in the country, with over 30,000 operators participating each year. Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 18:00 UTC Saturday and running through 20:59 UTC Sunday.
The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) is the United Kingdom's recognised national society for amateur radio operators. The society was founded in 1913 as the London Wireless Club making it one of the oldest organisations of its kind in the world. Through its work, it represent the interests of the UK's 80,000 licensed radio amateurs in the United Kingdom and certain dependent territories of the United Kingdom at the International Amateur Radio Union, acting as a medium for communication between the licensed operators and the UK government. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is current patron of the society.
The 6-meter band is the lowest portion of the very high frequency (VHF) radio spectrum allocated to amateur radio use. The term refers to the average signal wavelength of 6 meters.
160-meter band refers to the band of radio frequencies between 1.8 and 2 MHz, just above the medium wave broadcast band. For many decades the lowest radio frequency band allocated for use by amateur radio, before the adoption, at the beginning of the 21st century in most countries, of the 630- and 2200-meter bands. Amateur operators often refer to 160 meters as the Top Band It is also sometimes referred to as the "Gentleman's Band" in contrast to the often-freewheeling activity in the 80- and 20-meter bands.
Shortwave bands are frequency allocations for use within the shortwave radio spectrum. They are the primary medium for applications such as maritime communications, international broadcasting and worldwide amateur radio activity because they take advantage of ionospheric skip propagation to send data around the world. The bands are conventionally stated in wavelength, measured in metres. Propagation behavior on the shortwave bands depends on the time of day, the season and the level of solar activity.
Contesting is a competitive activity pursued by amateur radio operators. In a contest, an amateur radio station, which may be operated by an individual or a team, seeks to contact as many other amateur radio stations as possible in a given period of time and exchange information. Rules for each competition define the amateur radio bands, the mode of communication that may be used, and the kind of information that must be exchanged. The contacts made during the contest contribute to a score by which stations are ranked. Contest sponsors publish the results in magazines and on web sites.
Radiosport is formal competition among amateur radio operators in any of three amateur radio activities. The Friendship Radiosport Games is an international multi-sport event that includes all three types of radiosport. Since 1977, the International Amateur Radio Union has sponsored the IARU HF World Championship. The World Radiosport Team Championship is another international competition.
Amateur radio direction finding is an amateur racing sport that combines radio direction finding with the map and compass skills of orienteering. It is a timed race in which individual competitors use a topographic map, a magnetic compass and radio direction finding apparatus to navigate through diverse wooded terrain while searching for radio transmitters. The rules of the sport and international competitions are organized by the International Amateur Radio Union. The sport has been most popular in Eastern Europe, Russia, and China, where it was often used in the physical education programs in schools.
Single operator two radios (SO2R) is an operating practice employed by some competitors in the sport of amateur radio contesting. By using two transceivers attached to separate antennas, competitors can listen to one amateur radio band while transmitting on another. This capability enables the operator to more efficiently locate other amateur radio stations participating in the competition with which to make contact and score points.
The Friendship Radiosport Games (FRG) is an international multi-sport event that includes competitions in the various sports collectively referred to as radiosport. The Friendship Radiosport Games began in 1989 as a result of a sister city agreement between Khabarovsk, Russia and Portland, Oregon, United States. Since then, participation has been extended to other sister cities in the Pacific Rim. The Friendship Radiosport Games are generally held in the month of August.
In times of crisis and natural disasters, amateur radio is often used as a means of emergency communication when wireline, cell phones and other conventional means of communications fail.
The Trinidad and Tobago Amateur Radio Society, Inc. (TTARS) is the national amateur radio organization in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is a member society of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).
The World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) bands are three portions of the shortwave radio spectrum used by licensed and/or certified amateur radio operators. They consist of 30 meters (10.100–10.150 MHz), 17 meters (18.068–18.168 MHz) and 12 meters (24.890–24.990 MHz). They were named after the World Administrative Radio Conference, which in 1979 created a worldwide allocation of these bands for amateur use. The bands were opened for use in the early 1980s. Due to their relatively small bandwidth of 100 kHz or less, there is a gentlemen's agreement that the WARC bands may not be used for general contesting. This agreement has been codified in official recommendations, such as the IARU Region 1 HF Manager's Handbook, which states: "Contest activity shall not take place on the 10, 18, and 24 MHz bands."
The Kazakhstan Federation of Radiosport and Radio Amateur is a national non-profit organization for amateur radio enthusiasts in Kazakhstan. KFRR promotes amateur radio in Kazakhstan by sponsoring amateur radio operating awards and radio contests. The KFRR organizes and supports Amateur Radio Direction Finding competitions and the Kazakhstan national ARDF team. The KFRR also represents the interests of Kazakhstan amateur radio operators before Kazakhstan and international telecommunications regulatory authorities. KFRR is the national member society representing Kazakhstan in the International Amateur Radio Union, which it joined on February 10, 2009.
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communication. The term "amateur" is used to specify "a duly authorised person interested in radioelectric practice with a purely personal aim and without pecuniary interest;" and to differentiate it from commercial broadcasting, public safety, or professional two-way radio services.
In amateur radio, high-speed telegraphy (HST) is a form of radiosport that challenges amateur radio operators to accurately receive and copy, and in some competitions to send, Morse code transmissions sent at very high speeds. This event is most popular in Eastern Europe. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) sponsors most of the international competitions.
Call signs in United Kingdom include a three letter country code, and a series of letters and numbers.
WJET-TV (1996). WRTC San Francisco. Documentary video. YouTubeVideo, Mar. 26, 2014.
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