[CQ-Contest] WRTC2018 Stations to use old DDR call sign block

[Brennan Price]

  So says regulator BNetzA via ARRL. Should be a boon for modern-era prefix hunters.

WRTC 2018 will Use Y2A – Y9Z Call Signs 
07/12/2018[UPDATED 2018-07-12 @ 1415 UTC] German telecommunications regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) has announced that the 63 World Radiosport Team Championship 2018 (WRTC 2018) teams on the air this weekend for the international competition will use "club station" call signs from the Y2A – Y9A block on a one-time basis. It is not yet known if these call signs will be in the 1 x 1 format or some other. Available call signs for participating teams are to be announced during the WRTC 2018 opening ceremonies at around 1700 UTC on July 12. Just before the competition starts on Saturday at 1200 UTC, teams will chose one call sign out of the available block in a lottery.Y2 – Y9 call sign prefixes were inherited from the former East Germany regulatory regime and have not been used for nearly 30 years — since the reunification of East and West Germany. The regulator said radio amateurs in the participating teams may use the assigned club station call sign “if they hold a valid foreign Amateur Radio license according to CEPT recommendation T/R 61-01, an Amateur Radio license valid on a short-term basis in Germany, or a valid German Amateur Radio license.”This morning, WRTC 2018 participants and referees met for a briefing by organizers, during which competition organizers explained and clarified all rules and answered questions. “Competitors and referees asked for a lot of detail,” a WRTC 2018 announcement said. “especially as regards correct log keeping and rating of QSOs, such as what to do when the [other station] sends the wrong zone. The guidelines given at the meeting are a building block for fair competition, which must indeed be reflected during contest operation and not only through subsequent regulatory discussions.”A detailed briefing also was held for site referees, during which the function of the power-checking meter was described and the configuration of the score-collection computer explained.