Greetings to all from the Boston area where I am visiting to be a
referee for WRTC. Trip up went as planned and Delta had us on the
ground early. One of the local volunteers, W1FJ, Al, with whom I have
operated CQ WW CW in 1983 from Haiti (HH2VP) and from Bonaire in 2011
and 2012 (PJ4A) picked up me, Kirk, K4RO, the editor of National Contest
Journal and also a referee, and Jon, KL2A from the airport in Boston
since our planes landed pretty much at the same time. The latest issue
of NCJ has all the biographies and photos of the competitors, referees,
and judges. W0YK, Ed, the director of CQ WW RTTY DX Contest, has been
very kind to try to help me get my audio monitoring gear working for
best use by me as a referee. That will be continued tomorrow afternoon,
but we think it will finally work OK, but we can't test it out for sure
before then. Tonight there is a BBQ and also CW pile up competition for
those who are interested and I'm guessing most of us will be
interested. Tomorrow after breakfast, we will have an hour meeting of
competitors and referees, an hour meeting of referees only, and then I
am signed up for an excursion to ARRL HQ by bus. Tomorrow night there
will be opening ceremonies. I think all or nearly all of the
participants have arrived OK. The undertaking by YLCC and volunteers is
tremendous. There is a station signing WR1TC operating from the exhibit
area in the hotel. I have enjoyed seeing everyone, especially my friend
from high school in Columbus, W6OAT, Rusty Epps, who is also a referee.
Rusty was formerly K4BVD. Hope you are all planning to be in the IARU
HF contest this weekend 12Z Sat to 12Z Sun on CW and SSB all six HF
contest bands. The 59 participants are to sign K1, N1, and W1 single
letter suffix calls. Behind one of those station calls, I will be
monitoring as an on site referee. There are some nice awards for
working the WRTC participants as well as the usual recognitions for IARU
contest scoring. It is always fun to try to work all the national
organization HQ stations such W100AW, NU1AW, DF0HQ, TH0HQ, etc. The
WRTC would appreciate your sending them a copy of your cabrillo file
within a few hours of the end of the contest to help check the
competitors' logs. Do a Google search for WRTC 2014 and you will find
all the information you would ever want on this great event-- the
Olympics (c) of ham radio contesting.
We are expecting the birth of our third grandson by Friday of this week,
so I will be away for that great event, but will keep tuned in by cell
phone.
Hope everyone is having a nice week. I should be home by late afternoon
Tuesday.
73, John, K4BAI.
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