Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (D)
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Jul 20 2018 10:16 am

SPECIAL REPORT FROM WRTC

JIM/ANCHOR: The World Radiosport Team Championship is now history, and
reporter Ed Durrant, DD5LP, was there for this global contest, that put
the best of the best on a level playing field in Germany. Here is his
special report in this expanded segment of Amateur Radio Newsline:

ED: Think of an event organized by a small group of Hams, that is a
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, with 124 contestants, 300+ volunteers, and a small
management team, that costs half a million Euros to put on needs 4 years
work, and negotiations with 3 regional governments, and you have the
World Radiosport team championships, or the Olympics of Radio Contesters
as some know it.

I was very happy to offer my support as a volunteer, and was allocated
to the Media team, in the heart of the organisation. What I saw in my
position was an amazingly well organized, highly skilled, and effective
organisation, of which any large company in the world would be happy to
have, and these are all unpaid workers doing it for the love of the hobby.

Contestants, referees and the majority of the volunteers arrived on the
Wednesday, and there were various meetings and events arranged over the
next couple of days, until on Friday, the contestants saw their sites
for the first time, before returning on Saturday for the contest itself.
The WRTC championship coincides with the IARU HF contest, and apart from
160 metres takes place on the same bands but with only 100W output to
completely identical antenna systems on identical locations as far as
ground geography is concerned around the Wittenberg-Jessen area in the
eastern part of Germany. The organisers had another surprise up their
sleeves, to make sure there would be enough stations calling the
championship stations - they got a very special range of call signs
allocated from BNetZa - the national licencing authority and they were
call signs starting with Y8 - call sign letters that belonged to the
old East Germany, and were stopped 28 years ago. While the BNetZa has
this range available, they issued the required 63 short callsigns, but
ONLY to be used for the 24 hours of the contest. That adds a special
reason for amateurs from around the world to call the WRTC stations as
it is quite possible that these callsign prefixes will never be used
again.

Linked to the championships, there were regular daily video reports as
well as text & picture press releases. The opening and closing
ceremonies were live streamed to the Internet, and during the
competition, the biggest hot item for the spectators was the online,
real time scoreboard, where on a minute by minute basis everyone APART
FROM the contesters (as they are allowed no Internet access), could
watch how each of the teams were doing.

As well as the materials and Internet broadcasts produced by the WRTC
media team, RADIO-DARC a group linked to the national radio society
put out two special radio shows on Short Wave AM using a pair of 300kW
transmitters from the ORS company near Vienna, Austria. One in English
on the Saturday covering Europe and North America, and one for Europe
in German on the Sunday. However, everything almost didn't go to plan.
The 20dB curtain antenna used with one of the two 300 KW transmitters
to put 30MW of EIRP into the US, was damaged in the week coming up to
the WRTC. The professional teams worked long hours to try to repair the
damage, and the transmitter site manager (who just happens to be a Ham)
called in two local Hams to help out. On Friday evening the antenna was
fixed and working. A case of both ORS, and the Vienna amateur community
putting in extra effort to make sure everything went without problems
with the WRTC.

Back in the organisations centre, problems were logged in the ticket
system and efficiently resolved. Such interesting calls came in as one
(obviously rather large) operator kept breaking chairs, and had to have
them replaced, in the end with a heavy duty one. On one site the
Port-a-loo was blown over, and was unable to be righted, so a backup
was sent. A couple of antennas were damaged prior to the start of the
contest, and replaced from the spares.

Overall, for such a large and complex event everything ran very well.

So you're all waiting to hear WHO WON ?

At the time of recording - the Monday following the contest, the result
is not official, and will only be announced at the closing ceremony,
however, it's unlikely that the record-breaking score set by the
Lithuanian team of Gedas, LY9A, and Mindis, LY4L, will be beaten.

Your reporter was lucky enough to be outside the tent of the winning
team right after completion of the 24 hour, no-break, competition. So
what did the LY's say was the secret of their success? It seems,
practice, practice, practice is the answer. They also mention their
respect for the organisation, and especially the volunteers at WRTC2018
in the following short audio clip.

<<<  Insert Audio Clip here >>>>>

So, it only now remains for me to wish those planning to compete in
WRTC 2022 all the best, and remember - PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE,
and of course, I congratulate ALL teams that took part in WRTC 2018 !

Thanks to the organisers for letting me be a small part of this great
event!

For Amateur Radio Newsline, this is Ed Durrant, DD5LP.

JIM/ANCHOR: Our thanks to Ed, DD5LP, for his thorough coverage
throughout the championship. At the closing ceremonies, it was
announced that the 2022 contest is to be held in Bologna, Italy, the
birthplace of Guglielmo Marconi in 1874. So, as Ed advises, practice,
practice, practice!

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE: With thanks to Alan Labs; Amateur News Weekly; ARISS:
the ARRL; CQ Magazine; the Derry Journal; Hap Holly and the Rain
Report; Irish Radio Transmitters Society; Korean Amateur Radio League;
K2BSA; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; QST Magazine; Rapid Deployment Amateur
Radio; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show;
South African Radio League; Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW
Shortwave; and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio
Newsline. Please send emails to our address at [email protected].

More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official
website at www.arnewsline.org.

For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York,
and our news team worldwide, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW, in Charleston West
Virginia, saying 73, and as always, we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.
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