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

Sun Jul 8 09:19:07 EDT 2018

Thanks, Bruce!

On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 9:16 AM, Bruce Horn <bhorn at hornucopia.com> wrote:

>
> http://sb.wrtc2018.de/ seems to be it.
>
> 73 de Bruce, WA7BNM   (bhorn at hornucopia.com)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Randy Thompson K5ZD" <k5zd at charter.net>
> To: "David Siddall" <hhamwv at gmail.com>, "cq-contest" <
> cq-contest at 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 at contesting.com> On Behalf Of David
> > Siddall
> > Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2018 8:20 AM
> > To: cq-contest <cq-contest at 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 at 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 at 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 at 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 at wrtc2018.de*
> –
> > and good sightseeing opportunities.
> >
> >
> >
> > Of course, the *hotels are heavily booked* but *Ralf, DK1DSA,
> > dk1dsa at 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 at wrtc2018.de. I
> > guarantee thrill and excitement!
> >
> >
> >
> > vy 73 de Rudy, DJ3WE
> >
> >
> >  (edited by K3ZJ)
> > _______________________________________________
> > CQ-Contest mailing list
> > CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>