Soccer has the World Cup. Baseball has the World Series. Ham Radio has the WRTC—the quadrennial World Radiosport Team Championship.
While you won’t see it on ESPN, Hams in the know understand that the speed at which these elite operators rack up QSOs over 24 hours of constant on-air activity is more than worthy of a mention or two on Sports Center. At WRTC 2018 in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, top finishers Gedas Lucinskas, LY9A, and Mindis Jukna, LY4L of Lithuania led much of the way in route to logging 5,139 contacts, concentrating their efforts on CW. Do the math—that is crazy fast!
Every four years since the first WRTC (1990 in Seattle), the event has featured the world’s best amateur operators going head to head in a grueling SSB and CW competition that tests operating skills, stamina, and strategic planning. Tim Duffy, K3LR, DX Engineering Chief Operating Officer and member of the CQ Contest Hall of Fame, and longtime contester and German native Alexandra “Sandy” Raeker, DL1QQ, comprised one of the 63 two-member teams (from 30 countries) who competed in Germany. In addition to his appearance in the 2018 WRTC, K3LR has represented the U.S. in four World Radiosport Championships (San Francisco 1996, Finland 2002, Brazil 2006 and Russia 2010). It was DL1QQ’s second WRTC. She and teammate DL8DYL finished 21st out of 59 teams in Boston in 2014.
WRTC 2022 will be held in Italy. Read all about it here.
Want to operate like a WRTC champ? Check out these WRTC combos (transceiver, amplifier, headphones and more) at DXEngineering.com.
