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The NA Sprint - well known for its quirky rule that does not allow you to sit on a frequency and call endless CQ's - will be the four hour battleground for up to 800 WRTC qualifying points for North American contesters.
What makes this choice of contests for the WRTC qualifying process all the more interesting, is that in some areas, the NA Sprint contests often draw far fewer entries than something like the North American QSO Party.
Overall in 2010, the NAQP CW drew over 500 logs - while the NA Sprint CW had just 180.
For example in the February 2010 NA Sprint CW contest, there were only six entries from all of Canada - five in Ontario and one in British Columbia.
That could mean some VE's could find a soft spot, and easily take home a chunk of WRTC points for 2014.
One of those six VE's did exactly that back in the CW Sprint in September of 2007, when Bud Mortenson VA7ST was the only Canadian from his qualifying area to submit a log - and so he took home the maximum WRTC points as well.
The same is true for some call areas in the United States, as only eight contestants submitted logs from W3 in February of 2010, when Bud Trench AA3B took home the top spot in that region.
One area where there is no lack of NA Sprint CW entries is from W6 in California, as last year's winner Trey Garlough N5KO edged out WRTC veteran Dan Craig N6MJ.
N5KO and N6MJ finished second and third in claimed scores for this year's NAQP CW, another 800 point WRTC qualifying contest (KL9A is the overall leader.)
But it's important to remember that for WRTC qualifying - the important part is not who leads the overall contest - but who leads in the individual call areas of the United States.
For those who haven't tried the Sprint contests before, it's not your regular contest at all, as the rules don't let you stay on one frequency and call CQ.
Instead, you can answer someone's CQ and then you inherit the frequency, for one contact - and then the station that answers you gets the chance to call CQ, while you move to another frequency.
That "dance" frustrates some, but draws a lot of operators back to the fray each February and September.
The North American Sprint CW Contest is just one of a battery of contests in coming months that will continue the battle for slots in the 2014 WRTC:
February has two qualifing contests:
March is jammed with WRTC qualifying events:
The North American Sprint CW Contest starts at 0000z February 6 and ends at 0400z. For more information, go to the NCJ web site.
There are 55 events overall - but not for everyone in each geographic area.
US and Canadian hams have 49 events; North America 43, 38 for the Pacific ARRL Section, 32 for the rest of Oceania, 30 for Europe and 28 for all other qualifying regions.
For those wondering about the weighting of WRTC points, that list is very important, because it determines how scores are "normalized" and who gains the most points from each contest:
