World Radiosport Team Championship 2014 (WRTC-2014) organizers have announced the operators (listed below) who have been invited to form teams for the competition to be held in New England during 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 WRTC-2010. WRTC is a competition among two-operator teams. Team leaders must accept their invitations and nominate teammates by October 15. If a team leader is unable to accept, the invitation will go to the next-highest qualifying applicant from the selection area.

Managing the selection process was Dan Street, K1TO, a three-time competitor and winner of the event. “The competition for a place at WRTC-2014 was very close,” Street said. “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 — the ARRL DX SSB 2013.”

The maximum possible qualifying score was 11,600 points. “It is impressive that more than 25 applicants scored over 11,000!” WRTC-2014 Chair Doug Grant, K1DG, said. “WRTC-2014 will have the highest-qualified team leaders ever.”

World Radiosport Team Championship events are held every four years. The competition consists of approximately 50 two-person teams of Amateur Radio operators from around the world, going head to head in a test of operating skill. All stations operate from the same geographic region with equivalent antennas and 100 W output, eliminating all variables except operating ability. Previous WRTCs have taken place in Seattle (1990), San Francisco (1996), Slovenia (2000), Finland (2002), Brazil (2006), and Russia (2010).

The WRTC-2014 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, while Europe produced a more veteran group, with only eight rookies filling the 27 slots.

Two wild card teams were selected from among the remaining applicants, Street said in explaining the selections. “Suad, DK6XZ, finished less than six points out of the last team leader spot in EU2, thus being the closest non-qualifier,” he said. “Alex, LZ4AX, is well known for his consistently solid efforts from K3CR, including his first-ever USA Single-Operator All Band victory last year in the CQ World Wide DX Contest.” The youth team is a special category created by WRTC-2014 organizers to recognize contesters younger than 25. “Filippo, IZ1LBG, posted a terrific set of qualifying scores to claim the spot,” Street said.

By tradition, the prior WRTC champion is automatically invited to defend the title. Vladimir, RW1A, winner of WRTC-2010 in Moscow, had already indicated his desire to compete in New England.

Once all team leader invitations have been accepted, only one other way will remain to gain entrance to the competition — through a team sponsorship. A team sponsor donation earns the right to select a team, and only two team sponsorships are available. Contact Doug Grant, K1DG, or Randy Thompson, K5ZD, for details. Sponsored teams will be announced later. Less than 10 months remain until WRTC-2014. All questions regarding WRTC-2014 team selection should be submitted by e-mail.

Team Leaders

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    MØCFW      Kazunori Watanabe

EU1    GØCKV       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 Végh

EU4    OM3BH      Rastislav Hrnko

EU4    OE2VEL     Wolfgang "Wolf" Klier

EU4    S5ØA         Tine Brajnik

EU5    E77DX        Emir "Braco" Memic

EU5    UU4JMG     Andriy Kotovsky

EU5    4O3A           Ranko Boca

EU5    URØMC      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

NA1Ø   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