[UK-CONTEST] WRTC by G0MTN

[Lee Volante]

Hello all,

I was fortunate enough to spend the last week or so in Finland attending the
2002 WRTC, which was without doubt the best experience I've had in my 16
years of interest in amateur radio.  There will be many more official
writeups and presentations in due course, and I don't wish to steal their
thunder, so instead here are a few personal comments and anecdotes.

A brief summary:    After an informative and amusing introduction to WRTC
and Finland, we travelled by coach from our base at Espoo (adjcent city to
Helsinki) to the summer camp of Himos near Jamsa for a few days.   Whilst
there the opening ceremony took place, as well as DX presentations, meetings
for the competitors and referees, and much socialising until the small
hours.  There was also the option of sauna's of course !   We returned
briefly to Espoo on Friday before the teams and referees met their hosts and
were taken to the similarly equipped contest sites before the contest
itself.  After the contest and post-contest celebrations and swapping of
stories, a variety of tours and trips were taken before the final awards
dinner and the revelaing of the final results.

I was referee to the ZS-team of Chris ZS6EZ and Bernie ZS4TX, and were
hosted at the summer cottage of Mikka OH2BAD and his wife Raili.   Between
them they have a lot of contesting and DXpedition experience -Mikka and
Chris have worked all DXCC entities, and Bernie needs only one.   Whilst the
guys were setting up the station I was given a few CQs / QSTs / books to
read.  The contest results columns were fun as I checked off all the people
I'd met already that week.   I have Mikka's book at home, and Chris was on
the cover of another on the bookshelf.  I was in good company indeed !

My role was to liaise between the team and the host if required, make sure
the team were happy and could concentrate 100% on the contest, and to ensure
absolute fairness make sure no contest rules were accidentally broken.  The
referees were also entrusted with the OJ callsign that was only revealed to
the teams 10 minutes before the start.    A technological first was real
time reporting of claimed scores by GSM SMS by each referee, which was then
posted directly to a web page.

Some amusing WRTC moments that stick in my mind......

Seeing many boxes of FT1000MP's going around the airport baggage reclaim
carousel - very surreal !

Getting very starstruck - everywhere you turned there was someone you knew
of.  Before even getting to the WRTC hotel, I spotted John ON4UN a few rows
back on the plane, shared the WRTC bus with Ward N0AX (previous WRTC
organiser) and when at the hotel got in the lift with Dave K1ZZ.  As well as
the more famous calls, it was first time I'd been able to meet some friends
from around Europe and the US for the first time.

It was interesting to hear from the real 'big guns' about how they've
developed their stations over the years,  the travel plans and friendly
competition for this years big contests (and why we'd like a bigger planet
for all the multi-multi's), the continued problem of antenna planning
problems (I've realised a true common problem we have all around the world),
and the organisers and entrants in the previous WRTCs who have seen their
ideas grow.   There's very much a "can-do" attitude which must be why all of
these guys are at the top of the game.

Talking till 2 am at the Himos summer camp where it never really got dark.
What would happen on 80m if anything during the contest with this much light
??

Walking through the hotel just before the teams departed - many people had
left the doors open and you could peer in to rooms and see complete stations
being tested.   There was great camaradarie and shouts of 'good luck' as the
teams departed.

Nervously watching Chris free climb 40 feet up Mikka's main tower to move
the WRTC windom.

When the pileups got really big, I started to pick out completely different
callsigns to the run operator.  (n.b. I must remember to find extra
operators for 'diverse reception' in multi-op contests in future !)   Also
running at 38 wpm was starting to move me out of my comfort zone :-)

The conditions were much better than predicted which led to high rates and
good scores.   However, the Finn's were keen to point out that this was
unusual in case anyone though they always had it this 'easy.'    Similarly,
the excellent run of hot sunny weather (peaking at 30C) we enjoyed was a
little exceptional.

The socialising all week took it's toll - some referees spotted their teams
having microsleeps in between QSOs (and some op's not even noticing - they
just carried on with their pileups when they re-awoke.)

Being able to listen to UK stations on 20 and 15 as part of the pileup.  I
had to bite my tongue and not say "oh, it's Clive / Nigel / Fraser / John /
Don etc."

Answering a knock on the door at the contest station just before the end to
find a news camerateam.  The team were interviews and this was broadcast on
the national 6pm news.  (There were also at least 3 national newspaper
articles and some radio interviews.)     Another knock on the door was from
some hikers who had got lost in the forest.  "Where are we?" they asked.
"We don't know !" came the reply !

Being able to listen to a conversation that was focussed on full size 80m
yagi performance :-)

Standing out a mile in a Finnish supermarket with Chris and Bernie.

On a post WRTC trip, walking the streets of old Tallinn with T93Y, TG9AJR,
N3BB etc. and deciding whether the ES girls were prettier than the OH girls.

Getting lost at midnight on the Finnish motorways with KQ2M and N3BB before
Bob saved us from driving to Russia.

Tales of a big crowd around the projected web screen in the hotel lobby each
hour as the hourly claimed scores were reported in.  After the event we
realised that each team's friends and families were also watching the
contest very closely over the course of the weekend !    This was an
excellent way to make contesting more accessible for spectators or
non-entrants.   Now how about borrowing the idea for field days ?

As for the results, Jeff N5TJ and Dan K1TO became three time WRTC winners
which is an outstanding achievement.  These guys win by being utterly
professional, very calm and organised whilst operating.  With the level of
competition it was very difficult to get into the top half, let alone the
top ten.   Andy and Fred did a good job for us as Team UK - note their QSO
and mult scores are very near to the top teams.   All of the scores were
incredibly close, and the adjudicating team had a very hard job.

There were many high points to the week - and it will be a problem for those
now writing up the event for magazines and newsletters to fit everything in
to a few thousand words.

Many of the identical WRTC towers and antennas have been purchased by the
host stations, some of which had not been on HF before, or had intermediate
100w access licences.  There should be a few new callsigns in this year's
SAC contests in September !

The Finnish organisation team (and not forgetting the others from around the
world) have put in a tremendous amount of work to finalise all of the
logistical and financial aspects of the event, and as WRTC 2002 goes into
history they have the right to be very proud of how smoothly the event ran.

The future looks bright for the event, and I can't recommend it highly
enough.   As competitor, referee, or a casual visitor - WRTC is a real
highlight for the sport of radio contesting.   I made new friends and learnt
a lot of new things which I will start putting into practice come the IOTA
contest :-)    Let's get a larger UK contingent at the next WRTC.

The Contest Club Finland has also confirmed it's regular winter time meeting
next year in Helsinki which will be another good show I'm sure - although I
won't be wearing shorts and a T-shirt then.   For WRTC the UK visitors found
many different flights for 120 - 140 UKP which shouldn't make a trip
prohibitive for anyone.

73,

Lee G0MTN