WRTC Qualifying Cranks Up For September; North America Starts Triple Double Feature

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted August 31, 2008

Contesters in North America not only can spar this coming weekend in the NA Sprint CW Contest, but they can also start a two weekend qualifying push for the 2010 World Radiosport Team Championships.

There are two NA Sprint contests in the next two weekends, with the CW version first, followed by Sprint SSB.

That four hour phone contest will also be run during the Worked All Europe SSB test next weekend, which is a WRTC qualifying event for the entire world.

The Sprint contests are worth 600 points maximum for the WRTC. Last year, Dan Craig N6MJ was the September CW Sprint winner, edging out Randy Thompson K5ZD by 15,928 to 15,686.

Steve London N2IC and Scott Robbins W4PA were third and fourth, as those four ops claimed the top scores in the four US WRTC qualifying regions.

"I'm not sure this is my favorite contest," Robbins wrote on his contest blog last year, "but I sure do get my adrenaline going."

Robbins will be on this year from the QTH of W4NZ, a day before he hits the road for the Tennessee QSO Party.

"W4NZ will be getting ready for another all-out mobile run for the Tennessee QSO Party the day after the Sprint and has allowed me the use of his gear that night," said Robbins.

As for the two Canadian regions in the September 2007 CW Sprint, VA3NR and VA7ST grabbed the 600 WRTC points a year ago. In fact, Bud Mortenson VA7ST was the only entrant from the NA #6 qualifing section, once again showing how important it is to turn on the radio.

Remember one difference about the WRTC rules and the NA Sprint contests: Even though there are four Sprints per year, you are only allowed to submit (at most) your best two scores - one CW and one SSB - per year.

It's really the final stretch of WRTC 2010 qualifying, as after these next two weekends, most of the world will only have three contests remaining to get WRTC points - the CQ WW DX contests for 2008 and the 2009 Russian DX Contest.

US and Canadian hams have two extra contests thrown in, as the November Sweepstakes contests count for WRTC qualifying. That will mean four qualifying tests in five weeks later this year.