World Radiosport Team Championship
Encyclopedia
The World Radiosport Team Championship is an amateur radio
contest
. WRTC is an invitation-only event in which the world's elite contesters compete against one another using amateur radio station
s that are in one geographic area of the world and are equipped with similar antenna
s and operating restrictions. Each WRTC event is organized by a standing committee of internationally recognized contesters and a host organization in the locality where the competition will be held. WRTC is the closest thing to a world championships in the sport of contesting.
The first World Radiosport Team Championship event was held in July, 1990 in Seattle, Washington
, USA 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 sign
s 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 the Europe
an nation of 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 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. Rank Boca YT6A 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.
It has been announced by the WRTC Sanctioning Committee that WRTC 2010 will be held in Russia, organized by the Russian Amateur Radio Union
.
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 transceiver
s, headphones
, microphone
s, telegraph key
s, 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.
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
contest
Contesting
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...
. WRTC is an invitation-only event in which the world's elite contesters compete against one another using amateur radio station
Amateur radio station
An amateur radio station is an installation designed to provide radiocommunications in the amateur radio service for an amateur radio operator. Radio amateurs build and operate several types of amateur radio stations, including fixed ground stations, mobile stations, space stations, and temporary...
s that are in one geographic area of the world and are equipped with similar antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
s and operating restrictions. Each WRTC event is organized by a standing committee of internationally recognized contesters and a host organization in the locality where the competition will be held. WRTC is the closest thing to a world championships in the sport of contesting.
History
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, USA and was timed to coincide with the Goodwill Games
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games was an international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s...
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 sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
s than others. Twenty-two teams of two operators each represented Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. For some competitors, it was their first trip to a nation outside of the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
. 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
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, 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
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
and CW
Continuous wave
A continuous wave or continuous waveform is an electromagnetic wave of constant amplitude and frequency; and in mathematical analysis, of infinite duration. Continuous wave is also the name given to an early method of radio transmission, in which a carrier wave is switched on and off...
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
Phonetic alphabet
Phonetic alphabet can mean:* phonetic transcription system: a system for transcribing the precise sounds of human speech into writing.** International Phonetic Alphabet : the most widespread such system...
or to send in Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
. 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 the Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an nation of Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. While the event headquarters were in the resort city of Bled
Bled
Bled is a municipality in northwestern Slovenia in the region of Upper Carniola. The area, within the Julian Alps, is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
, the competitive stations were spread throughout the country. Most competitors arriving in Slovenia were greeted by ceremonial military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
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 and Dan Street K1TO of the United States, second place to the team of Igor Booklan RA3AUU and Andrei Karpov RV1AW of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and third place went to the team of Doug Grant K1DG and John Dorr K1AR of the United States.
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
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.
Florianópolis
-Climate:Florianópolis experiences a warm humid subtropical climate, falling just short of a true tropical climate. The seasons of the year are distinct, with a well-defined summer and winter, and characteristic weather for autumn and spring. Frost is infrequent, but occurs occasionally in the winter...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, 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
Varig
VARIG was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990 it was Brazil's leading and almost only international airline...
declared bankruptcy on June 26, causing severe travel difficulties for many teams traveling to Florianópolis the following week, and the Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
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. Rank Boca YT6A and Djurica Maletin YT6T of Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
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.
It has been announced by the WRTC Sanctioning Committee that WRTC 2010 will be held in Russia, organized by the Russian Amateur Radio Union
Russian Amateur Radio Union
The Russian Amateur Radio Union is a national non-profit organization for amateur radio enthusiasts in Russia. The organization often uses SRR as its official abbreviation, based on the standard Romanization of the Russian name...
.
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
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
, and call sign. Teams are generally allowed to bring their own transceiver
Transceiver
A transceiver is a device comprising both a transmitter and a receiver which are combined and share common circuitry or a single housing. When no circuitry is common between transmit and receive functions, the device is a transmitter-receiver. The term originated in the early 1920s...
s, headphones
Headphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user's ears and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable Media Player. They are also known as stereophones, headsets or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear...
, microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
s, telegraph key
Telegraph key
Telegraph key is a general term for any switching device used primarily to send Morse code. Similar keys are used for all forms of manual telegraphy, such as in electrical telegraph and radio telegraphy.- Types of keys :...
s, and contest logging software
Contest logging software
Contest logging software refers to specialized computer software programs designed for use by competitors in amateur radio contesting. Most contest logging software is written by individual programmers who are active radio contesters.- Purpose :...
, 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.