The World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) is an Olympic style ham radio competition held every four years. In 2014 the WRTC will be hosted in New England. It will bring 59 teams of competitors from around the world for a weekend long test of operating skill. Previous WRTCs have been held in Seattle (1990), San Francisco (1996), Slovenia (2000), Finland (2002), Brazil (2006), and Russia (2010). Check out this CNN video from the very first WRTC in Seattle.
“People still do that?” is a common reaction to a mention of ham radio. In fact, there are more licensed radio hams today than ever before – over 700,000 in the U.S. and another million around the world.
On selected weekends throughout the year, Amateur Radio operators, or “hams”, around the world compete to see who can contact the most other stations in the most states or countries. The biggest of these “radiosport” competitions draws entries from over 10,000 competitors, and includes over a million two-way contacts among 50,000 or more stations – all in one weekend. As in many sports involving a human and a machine (auto racing, skiing, fishing, shooting, etc.), the results are a combination of the human’s skill and the equipment used. The purpose of WRTC is to bring all of the operators to one place using identical equipment in order to identify the best of the best.
Hosting rights for the 2014 WRTC have been awarded to the New England WRTC2014 Organizing Committee. This organization is a newly-formed independent group, and not part of any existing organization, national society, or club.
WRTC2014, Inc. is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) public charity. Contributions to WRTC2014, Inc. are deductible for U.S. taxpayers under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.
You can learn more about the history and results of previous WRTC events at www.wrtc.info.
If you don’t understand why people do this, a classic article from Sports Illustrated June 30, 1958 tells the story of ham radio and competition in a most compelling way.
Follow the day to day preparation for WRTC2014 on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/wrtc2014