World Wide Radio Operators Foundation

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.

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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.

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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.

I have just returned from a trip that included a visit to the HAM RADIO convention at Friedrichshafen, Germany.

This is the “Dayton of Europe”, and it was my first time there. It is held in a wonderful facility…the flea market is indoors in a few of the exhibition halls, the entire facility is air-conditioned and spotless. The town itself is beautiful, on the shore of Lake Constance (known in German as the Bodensee). You can see the Swiss Alps across the lake…very picturesque.

I had a chance to meet a lot of European (and other) contesters there, and talked a lot about the WWROF and its goals. We have not done much promotion of the organization there, and need to improve.

The first Friedrichshafen Contest University program was held during the convention, co-sponsored by the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club, the Bavarian Contest Club, and the Rhein-Ruhr DX Association. I was privileged to be one of the speakers. Over 100 people attended, and even though English is a second language for nearly all of the students, they seemed to understand my presentation, laughing at the right times, and asking good questions.

The North American Sprint contest is one of the most challenging events in amateur radio. A short four hours in length, it includes a unique “QSY rule”, that requires a station to move at least 1 kHz after making one QSO in response to having called CQ. The log-checking is quite stringent, and with an exchange that contains a serial number, name, and location, accuracy is critical. Many of the top CW operators consider this their favorite event. Top scorers have surpassed 400 QSOs in four hours. Error-free logs are acknowledged as “Golden Logs”, and some operators have exceeded 350 QSOs without a single copying error.

Curiously, no plaques are offered for this event. Plaques and certificates were awarded in the past, but that practice vanished at least ten years ago.

A few years ago, Ken Adams, K5KA, quietly began awarding medals to the top scorer in the CW Sprint. Some of the winners consider these medals their most-prized radio contest award.

In 2009, K5KA became a Silent Key. Larry “Tree” Tyree, N6TR, who does the log checking for the Sprint, approached the WWROF to see if there was interest in funding the medal program so that it can continue. The WWROF Board has approved this funding request, and the CW Sprint medal program will continue.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails in the past couple of weeks from people asking this question. And now I can answer it!

The Board has established several levels of supporter: Bronze ($1 – 49); Silver ($50+); Gold ($250+): and Platinum ($1000+). Supporters, both individual and club/corporate, will be listed on the WWROF Web site.

We now have supporters from all over the world, including Zones 3, 4, 5, 7, 13, 14, and 32. We are of course hoping for WAZ-Supporters. DXCC would also be nice!

Take a look at the “How to Get Involved” page for details on, well, how to get involved!

Aside from our thanks, your support will entitle you to some “members-only” content as we post it. We have some specific items planned, and are open to suggestions. What would you like to see available that is not currently in the contest results articles and writeups?