WRTC2014 Announces Invitation of Team Leaders
WRTC2014, Inc., host of the 2014 World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC), is proud to announce the operators that have been invited to form teams for the competition to be held in July 2014. In addition to the 51 Team Leaders who emerged from the qualifying process, the announcement includes two Wild Card selections, a Youth team, and the defending champion from WRTC2010.
The selection process was managed by Dan Street, K1TO, himself a 3 time competitor and winner of the event. “The competition for a place at WRTC2014 was very close. With qualifying points available from an unprecedented 55 events, it was terrific that a number of the Selection Area races came down to the very final qualifying event -- ARRL DX SSB 2013.”
The maximum possible qualifying score was 11,600 points. WRTC2014 Chairman Doug Grant, K1DG, noted, “It is impressive that more than 25 applicants scored over 11,000! WRTC2014 will have the highest-qualified Team Leaders ever.”
The Team Leaders come from all continents; 27 from Europe, 15 from North America, five from Asia, two from South America, and one each from Africa and Oceania. Ten of the Team Leaders in North America are first time WRTC competitors. By comparison, Europe produced a more veteran group with only eight rookies among the 27 slots.
Two wild card teams were selected from among the remaining applicants.
Street explained the selections, “Suad, DK6XZ, finished less than 6 points out of the last Team Leader spot in EU2, thus being the closest non-qualifier. Alex, LZ4AX, is well known for his consistently solid efforts from K3CR, including his first-ever USA Single-Operator All Bands victory last year in the CQ World Wide DX Contest.”
The Youth Team is a special category created by the WRTC2014 organizers to recognize contesters less than 25 years of age. Filippo, IZ1LBG, posted a terrific set of qualifying scores to claim the spot.
According to tradition, the previous WRTC champion receives an automatic invitation to defend the title. Vladimir, RW1A, winner of WRTC2010 in Moscow, has already indicated his desire to compete in New England.
WRTC is a competition among two-operator teams. Each Team Leader will select one Team Mate for the competition. Team Leaders must accept their invitation to WRTC2014 and nominate their Team Mate by October 15, 2013. If a Team Leader is unable to accept, the invitation will go to the next highest qualifying applicant from the selection area.
Once all of the Team Leader invitations are accepted, there will only be one other way to gain entrance to the WRTC2014 competition – through a Team Sponsorship. A Team Sponsor donation earns the right to select a team. Only two Team Sponsorships are currently available. Contact Doug, K1DG, or Randy, K5ZD, for details. Sponsored Teams will be announced at a later date.
There are less than 10 months remaining until WRTC2014! All questions regarding WRTC2014 team selection should be submitted by e-mail to teamleader@wrtc2014.org.
List of Team Leaders
Selection Area Team Leader Name
AF 3V/KF5EYY Achraf Chaabane
AS1 R9DX Vadim Ovsyannikov
AS2 RC9O Anatoly Polevik
AS3 5B4WN Marios Nicolaou
AS4 BA4ALC Jie Zheng
AS5 JH5GHM Katsuhiro "Don" Kondou
EU1 CT1ILT Filipe Monteiro Lopes
EU1 F8DBF Sebastien Le Gall
EU1 M0CFW Kazunori Watanabe
EU1 G0CKV Olof Lundberg
EU1 F4DXW Stephane Van Langhenhoven
EU2 LX2A Philippe Lutty
EU2 IK2NCJ Luca Aliprandi
EU2 DJ5MW Manfred Wolf
EU2 IK1HJS Carlo De Mari
EU2 DL1QQ Sandy Raeker
EU3 ES5TV Tonno Vahk
EU3 OH2UA Toni Lindén
EU3 LY9A Gediminas Lucinskas
EU3 YL1ZF Kaspars Uztics
EU4 OE3DIA Ivan Dobrocky
EU4 OM2VL Végh László
EU4 OM3BH Rastislav Hrnko
EU4 OE2VEL Wolfgang "Wolf" Klier
EU4 S50A Tine Brajnik
EU5 E77DX Emir "Braco" Memic
EU5 UU4JMG Andriy Kotovsky
EU5 4O3A Ranko Boca
EU5 UR0MC Roman Tkachenko
EU5 9A6XX Hrvoje Horvat
EU6 RL3FT Iurii Khmelenko
EU6 RX3APM Sergey Dyachenko
EU6 UA3DPX Andrey Melanin
NA1 K1LZ Krassimir Petkov
NA2 W2RE Ray Higgins
NA3 KE3X Ken Low
NA4E NN3W Richard DiDonna
NA4W AD4Z Julio Henriquez
NA5 N5DX Kevin Stockton
NA6 N6MJ Daniel Craig
NA6 K6AM John Barcroft
NA7 K7RL Mitch Mason
NA8 K8MR Jim Stahl
NA9 W9RE Michael Wetzel
NA10 KU1CW Alex Tkatch
NA11 VY2ZM Jeffrey Briggs
NA12 VE7CC Lee Sawkins
NA13 K9VV Fred Kleber
OC KH6ND Michael Gibson
SA1 PY2YU Hamilton Oliveira Martins
SA2 CX6VM Jorge Diez
WILD LZ4AX Alexander Avramov
WILD DK6XZ Suad Zukic
YOUTH IZ1LBG Filippo Vairo
CHAMP RW1A Vladimir Aksenov
About WRTC2014
The World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) is held every four years and consists of 50+ two-person teams of amateur radio operators from around the world competing in a test of operating skill. Unlike most on-the-air competitions, all stations are required to use identical antennas from the same geographic region, eliminating all variables except operating ability.
Previous WRTCs have been held in Seattle (1990), San Francisco (1996), Slovenia (2000), Finland (2002), Brazil (2006), and Russia (2010).
