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I am pleased to announce that the Frankford Radio Club (FRC) has made a *second*  donation of $1,000 to the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF). In a unanimous decision by the FRC’s Board of Directors, this contribution supports WWROF’s mission to advance the state-of-the-art for contest operating around the world. Further, it will enable WWROF to continue to offer provision/support for some of contesting’s most highly valued assets (e.g., awards, log checking infrastructure, standards, etc.).

On behalf of the entire WWROF leadership team, I want to personally thank each member of the Frankford Radio Club for their leadership and support to the contest community!

73, John, K1AR

Chairman, WWROF

The WWROF has provided a $4,500 grant for the acquisition of a new server for use by the CQ family of contests.  The server is the critical infrastructure for hosting the CQ contest web sites, the log receiving robot, and the log checking software.

According to CQ WW Contest Director Randy Thompson, K5ZD, “The old server was no longer able to handle the growing number of CQ WW logs. We needed more capability to continue making log checking improvements and help the team of volunteer log checkers work more efficiently. This new server should handle our needs until the next sunspot peak.”

Thanks to Dave Pascoe KM3T for providing the work needed to install the new server and reinstall the necesary software.

Funds for the grant were made possible by donations from amateur radio contesters around the world. The recent funding of CQ Contest certificates and the server have lowered the pool of funds available. If you enjoy the CQ Contests, please make a contribution.

I am pleased to announce that the Frankford Radio Club has made a $1,000 donation to the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation. In a unanimous decision by the FRC’s Board  of Directors, this contribution supports WWROF’s mission to advance the state-of-the-art for contest operating around the world. Further, it will enable WWROF to continue to offer provision/support for some of contesting’s most highly valued assets (e.g., awards, log checking infrastructure, standards, etc.).

On behalf of the entire WWROF leadership team, I want to personally thank each member of the Frankford Radio Club for their leadership and support to the contest community!

73, John, K1AR
Chairman, WWROF

I’m pleased to announce some fantastic news for contesters everywhere. In another example of WWROF’s continued mission to provide support and oversight for some of contesting’s most valued assets, the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation is pleased to announce that it is has assumed ownership and control of the widely adopted Cabrillo Log Specification created by Trey Garlough, N5KO. (read more…)

A relatively new area of innovation in contesting has been the excellent Web-based seminar offerings (Webinars) that were the brainchild of Ken Claerbout, K4ZW, and the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC). Beginning in 2009, PVRC launched what has become a popular series of informational presentations featuring a variety of experts describing facets of contesting in real time to a live audience made up of contesting enthusiasts.

(read more…)

To All Contesters Around the World:

The World Wide Radio Operators Foundation has been very busy behind the scenes over the past few months supporting a number of important projects on behalf of our fellow competitors.  In summary, WWROF:

• Funded 2010 & 2011 certificate expenses for entire family of CQ contests ensuring that all recipients have now received their well-deserved awards.
• Provided partial funding of CQ certificate mailing costs.
• Implemented log checking services for IARU HF Championship HQ stations and set the stage for supporting a variety of contests in the future.
• Procured software defined radio (SDR) equipment to assist the CQWW Contest Committee with on-air recordings for log checking, providing ground-breaking adjudication services.
• Upgraded hardware on CQWW log checking systems.
• Developed and promoted a Contest Code of Ethics (CCOE). The CCOE was subsequently adopted by the CQWW committee and has obtained broad support within CQ’s entire family of contests including the CQ WW DX, CQ WPX, CQ RTTY, and CQ 160 and beyond (see www.cqww.com).
• Funded a centralized PO Box to facilitate timely collection of paper logs for CQ contests.
• Implemented broader international organizational support by electing S50A and VE3EJ as new WWROF Directors.
• Added further depth to leadership team with the appointment of K5ZD as our newest WWROF Director.

As we look forward to 2012 and beyond, WWROF has a strong desire to make an even larger contribution to contesting. The computing infrastructure needs of the contest community continue to grow. We also look forward to supporting further improvements to contest log checking such as the development of improved tools for log submissions and encouragement programs for newcomers. Our team will be making improvements to the WWROF Web site, with the goal being to make it a more useful resource for contesters everywhere.

As always, we welcome your input. Don’t hesitate to share what’s on your mind. As the winter contest season is winding down, now is the time to implement great WWROF projects for the fall and next year!

See you in the next contest!

73,

John Dorr, K1AR

Chairman, World Radio Operators Foundation

Today I turn over the Chair of the WWROF to John Dorr, K1AR. I will remain involved with WWROF as a Director,
but my responsibility as President of WRTC2014, Inc. will be my primary focus for the next few years.

Looking back over the past year, I think we accomplished a lot of what we set out to do. The founders thought there was a need for an organization like this, focused on the operating skills of amateur radio using on-air competitions to test those skills. We pursued a few relatively small programs, and met the goals. We have expanded our international scope with the addition of two new Directors, and have been recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization.

(read more…)

The IARU HF Championship is now over, and with it, the 2010 WRTC. By all accounts the WRTC was a huge success, with the first-ever really “level playing field”. Congratulations to all the organizers, support staff, and of course the competitors…especially the top teams. Just being there was a huge accomplishment – placing in the top ranks demonstrated some real operating skills.

In related news, the 2009 IARU Championship controversy regarding the HQ station competition created a problem for the 2010 competition. The ARRL chose not to score the HQ stations in the 2010 competition as a result of the conflicts in 2009. This created a problem for the organizers of the HQ stations…if nobody was going to score the logs, why bother with the operation?

None of the relevant IARU member societies could be used, since many had HQ operations of their own, and a conflict of interest might arise or at least be perceived.

It seemed to us at the WWROF that we could help, and we offered to cross-check the logs, since the IARU logs are submitted to servers operated by our Advisory Committee, and some of those members also provide the log-checking software. With the permission of the ARRL, we approached the IARU Region 1 Contest Manager, 9A5K, and offered our services as a completely neutral, third-party resource. The offer was accepted.

WWROF will do the log acceptance and receipt acknowledgment, then perform the cross-checking against the complete data base of received logs, error calculations, etc., and present the data to the IARU Region 1 Committee, which will then declare the winner.

We are pleased that the IARU Region 1 Committee chose to use our services. It is exactly the kind of thing that this organization can do that no other can.

Lots more projects in the works. Stay tuned.