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Re: [CQ-Contest] A Peek at Next Weekend's WRTC2018

To: Randy Thompson K5ZD <k5zd@charter.net>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] A Peek at Next Weekend's WRTC2018
From: Bruce Horn <bhorn@hornucopia.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2018 08:16:11 -0500 (CDT)
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
http://sb.wrtc2018.de/ seems to be it.

73 de Bruce, WA7BNM   (bhorn@hornucopia.com)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Randy Thompson K5ZD" <k5zd@charter.net>
To: "David Siddall" <hhamwv@gmail.com>, "cq-contest" <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 8, 2018 5:56:17 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] A Peek at Next Weekend's WRTC2018

The link to the live WRTC scoreboard is not correct.  I can't find a link to 
the scoreboard on the wrtc2018.de web site.

Dave - hoping you can find and publish the correct URL.  Always fun to watch 
the race unfold over 24 hours period.

Randy, K5ZD

> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest <cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com> On Behalf Of David
> Siddall
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2018 8:20 AM
> To: cq-contest <cq-contest@contesting.com>
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] A Peek at Next Weekend's WRTC2018
> 
> Good luck to all at WRTC next week.
> 
> Below is a "peek behind the scenes" that I thought contesters would enjoy.
> 
> Please get on the air and work all the competitors.  Submit your log
> immediately after the contest ends.  Your WRTC award(s) will be made
> automatically based upon your log-- no other application required -- and
> downloadable from the WRTC2018 website.  All but one WRTC award (WAWRTC)
> require log submission by no later than 1800 UTC Sunday (July 15).
> Several are geographic-based, so your ranking will compare with others in
> your vicinity.
> 
> And please: spot all the WRTC stations as much as possible, BUT DO NOT
> IDENTIFY to others who the operators are if you recognize them. The
> competitors are as adamant on this point as anybody else.  Any "bump" in a
> log compared to other logs will invite extra scrutiny by the judges, and
> computer software is very good at flagging such anomalies.
> 
> Live webcasts of the opening ceremony on Thursday and closing ceremony on
> Monday are scheduled to begin at 1700 UTC.  During the event a live
> scoreboard will track all teams and afterward claimed scores will be
> posted.   Links for all will be on the WRTC home page: http://wrtc2018.de/
> index.php/en/.
> 
> There also will be two special broadcasts of WRTC news and information on
> shortwave, as I posted yesterday.  These broadcasts will use 30 GIGAWATTS
> (30,000,000 watts) ERP (300 KW > 20dB antenna)!  Sat. July 14 @ 11-1200
> UTC and Sun. July 15 @ 0900 UTC, both on 6.070 MHz and 13.860 MHz (best
> for North America).
> 
> 73, Dave K3ZJ
> 
> 
> *WRTC2018 Activities and Information*
> 
> 
> *Time Schedule*
> 
> You can find the *sequence of events* in http://www.wrtc2018.
> de/index.php/en/competition/schedule . Chris, DL1MGB, President of WRTC
> 2018 e.V. and Michael, DL6MHW, VP of WRTC 2018 e.V. are already at the
> site in Wittenberg to overview and participate in the final preparations
> for the big event. Most of the other organizers – including myself - will
> arrive at the latest on *Tuesday, July 10th*.
> 
> *Wednesday* is the official arrival date. The *“Ham Widows Ball”*,
> sponsored by the YASME Foundation, certainly will be the highlight of the
> day.
> 
> The official *opening ceremony* cum dinner will be on *Thursday,* July
> 12th .
> 
> On *Friday *we’ll *raffle the sites* among the 63 competing teams
> 
> On *Saturday, July 14th at 11:45 UTC* (13:45 local time)  the referees
> will open the envelopes containing the *special callsigns *assigned to the
> competition teams.  And, of course, at *12:00:00 UTC* a massive outburst
> of “CQ Test” messages will be heard on the bands….
> 
> The contest will *end at 11:59:59 on Sunday*, July 15th and I would not be
> surprised if the top competitors would score in excess of 4 K QSOs in
> spite of the fact that the competitors may only use a maximum of 100 W of
> RF power.
> 
> *Log evaluation* will start immediately after the end of the contest and
> will last *until 16:00 UTC on Monday*, July 16th followed by the closing
> ceremony and the YAESU Award Dinner.
> 
> 
> 
> *The calls behind the calls*
> 
> WRTC is all about fairness and equal chances. Thus, we are trying hard to
> keep the structure of the calls to be used in the competition a secret. We
> are trying even harder to prevent any link between the original calls of
> the competitors and the call signs used by the competitors during the
> contest from becoming known to the thousands of participants in the IARU
> HF championship resp. the participants of the WRTC competition.
> 
> 
> 
> *Live Score Board*
> 
> For those who cannot personally attend, one of the highlights of the event
> will be to watch the live scoreboard. A team of high caliber professionals
> *headed and coordinated by Ben, DL6RAI*, has worked hard to come up with
> something which we call the SCC (*score collecting computer*). There will
> be an SCC for each competing team and it will automatically send the score
> by means of mobile radio technology to a central computer. Here the scores
> will be configured to provide meaningful information for the thousands of
> WRTC fans all over the world. Of course, the calls presented in the live
> scoreboard will not list the actual contest calls but rather the original
> calls of the teams for reasons of fairness and equal chances. Neither the
> competitors nor the referees will have access to this information.
> Internet and mobile phones are a strict no-no to them.
> 
> The scores will be updated every 60 seconds!
> 
> Our thanks go to *Dave Pascoe, KM3T, and Bob Raymond, WA1Z*, for allowing
> us to make use of their sophisticated software designed for the 2014 event
> in Boston.
> 
> *The live scoreboard may be accessed at sb@wrtc2018.de*
> 
> 
> 
> *Logistics*
> 
> This definitively is no kiddy stuff! We’ll rent about 16 vans and put
> another 3 mini-buses at our disposal in order to transport material, food,
> and petrol to and from the sites as well as people between  Berlin airport
> (TXL)and Wittenberg and its vicinity. Robby, DM6DX,
> 
> wrtc2018@dm6dx.de is in charge of all our vehicles and mobile services.
> 
> 
> 
> And there are such smallish issues like 65 portaloos needed to be hired
> and brought exactly (by means of exact coordinates down to the second) to
> the sites. Not to talk about 1,300 pieces of broom handles plus 30 km of
> barrier tape to seal off the competition sites from curious spectators. A
> metric ton of gasoline is needed to be brought to the sites to fuel the 65
> generators providing the electric power to the competition tents. Not to
> talk about the 10 km of coaxial cable needed and donated by our gold
> sponsor Messi & Paoloni from Italy. Although very light weight, the total
> weight of the coaxial cables alone exceeds 1,000 pounds!
> 
> 
> 
> We had subcontracted the services of an outside agency, namely DALICHOW
> events, to handle hotel reservations, sightseeing tours, and airport
> transfers. Unfortunately, the start of their involvement was everything
> else but smooth. *We sincerely apologize for the various initial hickups
> and the inconveniences caused.* In the meantime *DALICHOW Events* deliver
> and I feel they are coming closer to the mark. At least, I finally
> received the confirmation for the various events I had booked for my XYL
> Richardis and myself….
> 
> 
> 
> Quite a number of fellow hams have volunteered for the *transfer service
> from the Berlin airport (TXL) to Wittenberg*. If you are lucky your driver
> will be *Ben, DL6FBL*, one of Germany's top contesters. As you know, there
> is no speed limit on German highways (Autobahn); yet, Ben has promised.,
> not to exceed 200 km per hour in consideration of the feelings of our
> American guests….
> 
> 
> 
> *Axel, DL6KVA, dl6kva@wrtc2018.de*  is in charge of recruiting and
> coordinating the more than 300 volunteers needed to get things rolling.
> 
> 
> 
> *Bookings*
> 
> Wittenberg is a *small, yet quite a historic town* with kind of limited
> facilities and resources. Everything is a bit tight from parking lots to
> hotel rooms. When deciding on the location we had to compromise to some
> extent between rf-quietness, availability of plots and infrastructural
> strength. Overall, I think we came up with a good compromise: Very quiet
> locations – they have all been tested by Uli, *DJ2YA, dj2ya@wrtc2018.de* –
> and good sightseeing opportunities.
> 
> 
> 
> Of course, the *hotels are heavily booked* but *Ralf, DK1DSA,
> dk1dsa@wrtc2018.de* , in my opinion, does an outstanding job in getting
> things straightened out: I am sure, nobody needs to bring a tent to
> survive somewhere in the wilderness!
> 
> *Opening and closing ceremonies are heavily booked out as well as dinners
> in the HQ-hotel*. However, I have been told that there are *many small-
> scale restaurants in Wittenberg*. So, my xyl and I gave up my options for
> dinner at the HQ hotel in favor of meeting and dining in a cozy atmosphere
> in one of the *restaurants within walking distance* of the HQ-Hotel.
> 
> 
> 
> *Safety*
> 
> Wittenberg is a *socially safe* area. The only safety risks I can see have
> to do with environmental risks, namely
> 
> a) the Wittenberg area at the moment is plagued by a *severe drought*. *As
> a consequence barbecuing at the sites as well as any kind of open fire or
> smoking inside or outside the tents is strictly prohibited. *Fire
> extinguishers are part of the set up for each site.
> 
> b) *Heavy thunderstorms*, unfortunately, cannot be ruled out at this time
> of the year. On the contrary, they are likely to occur and they might be
> heavy. We’ve come up with a scheme to warn and to safeguard competitors at
> least to some extent as well as to maintain equal chances to all the
> competitors. Details will be provided to the referees and competitors
> prior to the start of the competition.
> 
> Hartmut, DM5TI,
> 
> 
> 
> *Creating pileups*
> 
> Chris, DL1MGB and Michael, DL6MHW, have come up with a number of “award-
> winning *contests within the contest*”.  The details can be found in
> http://wrtc2018.de/index.php/en/activities/wrtc-2018-en . As you can
> easily see the choice is yours: Anything from SPRINT (who is the first one
> to work all the WRTC-competitors) to “long distance challenge” is
> available. Just make your choice!
> 
> 
> 
> *Support needed*
> 
> Well, financing the event is no longer a headache to us. Spreading the
> news has been accomplished as well. The only thing left – apart from
> keeping your fingers crossed for the flawless conduct of the event – is to
> create huge pileups for our competitors. They just love the pileups!
> Kindly help them by motivating as many fellow hams as possible from all
> over the world to call our competitors.
> 
> 
> 
> *Closing remarks*
> 
> I take the opportunity to thank you very much for your contribution to
> finance the WRTC 2018 and to make WRTC 2018 known to your compatriots. The
> board and my colleagues of the organizing committee are looking forward to
> meeting you and our guests next week and if you can’t make it, don’t
> forget to have a look at our life scoreboard at sb@wrtc2018.de. I
> guarantee thrill and excitement!
> 
> 
> 
> vy 73 de Rudy, DJ3WE
> 
> 
>  (edited by K3ZJ)
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