Windham, NH
September 24, 2013
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 | László “Laci” Végh |
| 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 |
See http://www.wrtc2014.org/qualifying/team-selection/ for an explanation of the selection areas and the qualification process.
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). More information is available at www.wrtc2014.org or contact WRTC Chairman Doug Grant, K1DG, via e-mail at k1dg@wrtc2014.org.