More than just DX News

WRTC 2014 Team Leaders

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 Végh László

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

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).