Last year's big summer news was the WRTC-2002 competition, held in Finland.
This year, we don't have a WRTC event, so...
Announcing - The WRTC-Style IARU HF Championship 2003 Team Competition!
What Is It? Two-operator teams will participate in the IARU HF Championship
contest following WRTC-style rules. Teams will pre-register the operators
and callsign to be used. Results will be collected and reported on an
honor-system basis via the CQ-Contest and 3830 reflectors.
Why? WRTC-style competition has created quite a bit of interest since 1990.
Since WRTC can't be held every year, it's important to keep the WRTC flame
alive. By operating under WRTC-style rules, within the IARU HF
Championship, contesters have the opportunity to sharpen the skills needed
for WRTC-style events. Plus, it's fun to operate as team.
How Are IARU Logs Submitted? Since operation will be completely within the
existing rules for the Multi-Single, Mixed-Mode category, submit your logs
to the IARU log checkers normally. There is no effect on IARU scoring or
reporting. Regular IARU participants will get no extra points from working
a WRTC-style team callsign.
How Are WRTC-Style Scores Submitted? Email your team's score to me
(n0ax@arrl.net) within 1 hour of the end of the contest (by 1300Z, 13 July)
including QSOs, QSO points, and multipliers by band and a total score. I
will sort out the scores by IARU Zone and publish the list on the 3830 and
CQ-Contest reflectors within 24 hours.
How Are Teams Registered? Your team's operator calls and the callsign that
will be used during the contest should be emailed to me no later than 1200Z,
July 11th - that's 24 hours before the start of the contest. I will
regularly publish a list of team calls and operators up until that time.
You will also need to provide an email address to me that I can use for any
updates to the rules, score submission addresses, etc.
What Are the Rules? Use the WRTC-2002 Rules
(http://www.wrtc2002.org/rules.htm) with the following exceptions:
Rule 3 - 160-meter QSOs are allowed.
Rule 8 - This set of rules is waived with the exception of using DX spotting
assistance and non-amateur means to solicit QSOs - these are still
prohibited.
Rule 9 - Any logging program may be used.
Rule 12 - No log checking is performed - only scores are submitted.
Rule 14 - Winners will be announced from each ITU Zone.
Rule 16 - The only Setup Restrictions are:
(1) 100-watts maximum output power.
(2) A single multi-band directional antenna for operating on any of the
20-15-10 meter bands, no higher than 25 meters from the ground.
(3) A single wire antenna for the 160-80-40 bands no longer in any dimension
than a 160-meter half-wave dipole and no higher at any point than 25 meters
from the ground.
(4) There are no restrictions on interconnection of the station computers or
radios.
(5) Operators may use either radio at any time within the limitations of the
IARU rules.
Will There Be Referees? If you can convince some poor soul to sit there and
listen to you operate for 24 hours, be my guest, but it's not required.
Will There Be A Big Party Afterwards With Food and Beer? Go for it.
That's it! Let's keep it simple and have fun. Think up some interesting
antennas or challenge other two-person teams in your region. Remember -
this is an HONOR SYSTEM contest. Operate within the IARU rules and we'll
just trust everyone to follow the setup rules. I encourage you to post a
complete description of your operation in the IARU Soapbox Web page that
will be hosted by the ARRL. We can have a little bit of WRTC fun every year
until the next event comes along!
73, Ward N0AX
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