24 Hours of Mixed Mode Fun As IARU HF Returns; HQ Category Still Active Despite ARRL Decision

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted July 2, 2010

After months of controversy about the judging of the 2009 IARU HF Championships, the time for argument is over, and the time for switching on the radio and contesting is here on the second weekend in July, 2010.

As for the verbal battle between AO8HQ and DA0HQ, which resulted in the ARRL announcing that it would no longer judge the HQ category, a group of European contesters from national societies have agreed to do that work instead, urging HQ entrants to again be active this year.

"I think the ARRL, and specifically NN1N and the Awards Committee, did the right thing," said Ron Notarius W3WN. "At worst, they could have handled it a little better."

Despite the controversy, a number of HQ stations will be on again this year, no matter who is going to judge the final results.

"Like every year, TMØHQ will be active for the 2010 IARU HF World Championship," says the web page of the French Headquarters station.

TM0HQ will be on the air "in both CW and SSB from all 12 stations comprising a team numbering 52 operators located in 14 different French departments."

Meanwhile, the Polish team SN0HQ will be dedicating their effort this year to one of their team members who died soon after the 2009 IARU.

"IARU HF World Championship 2010 is dedicated to our late colleague Roman SP6EKS," reads the SN0HQ web page.

Back on the air as well will be the German team DA0HQ, which has a time countdown on their web page, as they get ready for another full scale contest effort.

If you are looking for a favorite in the Single Operator categories, it might be whatever category Jose Nunes CT1BOH decides to enter.

The veteran champ will be at his contest station CR3E on Madeira Island handing out points in a contest that has become a highlight of his summer.

"IARU is my second favorite contest after the CQWW," Nunes said last month. He holds the SOAB CW record in the IARU as CT3EN.

Contests Within The IARU Contest

Don't forget that also of great interest during the 24 hours of IARU is the World Radiosport Team Championships, the "World Cup" of ham radio contesting that is being run this year in Russia at the same time as the IARU.

Listen closely for these special R3 callsigns from Russia. All of the WRTC competitors will only be using 100 watts.

There will be no public announcement before the contest as to which callsigns have been issued to what teams. You can see a rundown of the WRTC teams on the right sidebar of this story.

R31A R31D R31N R31U R31X

R32C R32F R32K R32O R32R R32W R32Z

R33A R33G R33L R33M R33Q R33U

R34C R34D R34O R34P R34W R34X R34Y R34Z

R36C R36F R36K R36O R36W R36Y R36Z

R37A R37G R37L R37M R37P R37Q R37U

R38F R38K R38N R38O R38W R38X

R39A R39D R39M R39R

The large number of high profile contesters who will be in Russia - either as competitors, or as judges and referees - could certainly have an impact on this year's IARU Single Op categories.

So while you are chasing those R3 calls, don't forget that you could well have a chance to run yourself up high in the standings as well, with some of the contest big shots out of the way.

IARU Logs Going Public In The Future?

Amid the dispute over the DA0HQ & AO8HQ teams from the 2009 contest, the ARRL quietly let it be known that it was considering the public release of logs from the IARU contest.

While other contests have talked about releasing logs, only CQ WW DX SSB & CW have followed through and made logs available on the internet.

The new rule for the IARU reads, "By submitting a log to the IARU HF Championships, the submitter agrees that the log may be made public, at the discretion of the Contest Sponsor."

That same kind of language is not present in the rules for ARRL DX.

If you do make contacts with the R3 WRTC stations, WRTC organizers are asking you to submit your logs to the WRTC judges as quickly as possible, so that they can be used to determine the winner of the 2010 WRTC.

The deadline for those IARU logs is 1800z on Sunday July 11, six hours after the contest ends. You can go to the WRTC home page of wrtc2010.ru to get more details.

"Last time nearly 1,000 logs had been received by WRTC log-checkers within a few hours of the end of the contest and this made scoring of WRTC competitor logs so much more accurate," said Roger Western G3SXW on the UK-Contest reflector.

Western, himself a competitor in the 2000 WRTC, is one of five members of the WRTC 2010 Judging Committee, which will have to quickly go through the WRTC logs and determine a winner.