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After years of preparation by Russian organizers, the 2010 World Radiosport Team Championship is finally here, as ham radio's "World Cup" of contesting will select the top pair of contesters in a unique Field Day-style competition near Moscow.
"Yes, this is going to be something," says lead organizer Igor "Harry" Booklan RA3AUU, who has been juggling an array of questions for months from those in the WRTC competition.
"I am very happy with reaction of Russian HAMs who will come to help as well. Can you imagine 160 volunteers from all over Russia....Many youngsters. Many experienced contesters," Booklan added.
Instead of operating from the shacks of hams in the Moscow area, this edition of the WRTC will be in tents in an area that has been used by Russian contesters for similar Field Day-type events, which some feel will give an edge to the operators from UA.
It was one reason why a top American operator was looking for recordings from those past RRTC events to get an idea of what to expect in the 2010 WRTC.
"I would like to hear what the bands sound like and something about interference from the other stations nearby," wrote Randy Thompson K5ZD, who will be teamed with Tom Georgens W2SC.
"I think the home teams have a significant advantage - not just because they know the propagation, but because they have been doing events with this sort of structure (RRTC) for years," said Andy Cook G4PIQ, who will be teamed with Dave G4BUO.
"I have to say that I like the look of the format this year and from the practice that Dave & I have done - it should be great fun," Cook added.
"Sure local teams have some advantage experience-wise," says Tonno Vahk ES5TV, "I hope we have too," he added, as the Estonian ham operates to the northwest of the Russian capital. Vahk will be teamed with Toivo ES2RR.
"The Russians will have some advantage as they know propagation very well, but I do not think it will determine the winners," says Ranko Boca 4O3A, who will be teaming with Sinisa 4O7NT.
Like everyone else in the WRTC, Boca has their own favorites for this event, ticking off DL6FBL, the defending champs VE3EJ and VE7ZO, K5ZD, RW1AC and others.
"I do think the Russians have a home field advantage being familiar with propagation," said Ken Widelitz K6LA, who will be teamed with Scott W4PA. "But hopefully our propagation studies, I use ACE-HF, will help to equalize that advantage."
"Historically, there are repeat winners at WRTC, so I’ll go with the 2006 WRTC champs, VE3EJ and VE7ZO. N6MJ and KL9A are not exactly dark horses either," Widelitz told radio-sport.net.
The competition will take place in a farming area near the city of Domodedovo, which is about 25 miles south of Moscow.
Here is a description of what each team will get in their "Field Day style" setups for the WRTC:
The scoreboard will be at http://www.wrtc2010.ru/online/.
Also, organizers have announced that "there will be real time video from the WRTC-2010 opening ceremony, location and call drawings, competitors’ meeting, and closing ceremony at http://www.wrtc2010.ru/video.
"Last time nearly 1,000 logs had been received by WRTC log-checkers within a few hours of the end of the contest and this made scoring of WRTC competitor logs so much more accurate," said Roger Western G3SXW on the UK-Contest reflector.
Western, himself a competitor in the 2000 WRTC, is one of five members of the WRTC 2010 Judging Committee, which will have to quickly go through the WRTC logs and determine a winner.
As for the champions of this event, every single pair of winners has been either from the US or Canada, with the defending champs from 2006 in Brazil being VE3EJ and VE7ZO.
* 2006 Brazil - VE3EJ & VE7ZO
* 2002 Finland - N5TJ & K1TO
* 2000 Slovenia- N5TJ & K1TO
* 1996 USA (San Francisco) - N5TJ & K1TO
* 1990 USA (Seattle) - K1AR & K1DG
But eyebrows were raised by a recent posting from a top Russian contester, that seemed to advocate breaking the rules to insure that more contacts go to Russian WRTC teams.
In a Russian language post entitled "WRTC 2010 Russians must win!", Willy Umanets UA9BA talks about how the history of the WRTC would seem to put Russian competitors in a strong position to do well.
But then, he publicly urges Russian hams to do a bit extra for their own teams.
"Listen carefully to the voices of WRTC teams," the translated post says. And if you hear a station talking in English with Russian accent please make a QSO with that team giving them 59 and the number of your ITU zone."
"After making a QSO go and spot them on the clusters. If you have no access to the cluster make a phone call to a friend who has access to a cluster and ask him to place a spot for Russian teams."
"Write down the calls of Russian teams and try to make as many as possible QSOs on all bands with these teams. Then spot them as many times as you can," UA9BA writes.
Then there is one last bit of advice.
"Finally after the end of the contest please send your log to WRTC organizers. Your log will be needed to defend the interests of our teams against the Americans."
"So let's support “our guys” in such a way which others can not even dream about. Let’s help out teams to win. You can also write the calls of our guys when do the spotting – do not be shy."
