Evolution of WRTC Stations
Posted: Jun 29, 2006 11:11 PDT

I was just thinking about the station setups for the 5 WRTCs. They have come a long way.

1990, Seattle

Two radios were provided on-site (765 run rig, 735 spot rig). Antennas were a tribander and 80/40 dipole. We were also given 100 feet of wire for the (receive-only) spot radio antenna. Almost nobody used computer logging - the on-site referee typed the log in almost-real-time. Spotted stations were communicated to the run op on scraps of paper. All 10 hours of the contest were recorded on audio cassette tapes (remember them?). The ops were responsible for popping in a new tape every hour. I still have them. Setup took about 10 minutes.

1996, San Francisco

Every team brought their own radios. My team had a TS940 and IC781. Each station had some kind of gain antenna for 20-10 (we had a 2-el quad), and
a 40M inverted vee. No 80M. Every team brought one computer. Radio B was receive-only. Spotted stations were communicated to the run op on scraps of paper. The entire contest was recorded on the audio track of VHS videotapes. The referee changed the tape every 6 hours. Setup took about an hour.

2000, Slovenia

Every team brought their own radios. We had a 781 and IC706. Radio B was receive-only. Antennas were tribander, and 80/40 Windom. Every team brought one computer. Spotted stations were communicated to the run op on scraps of paper. The spot op had to guess what was needed. Nothing was recorded. The spot op was not allowed to control, key, or even touch the run radio. Setup and debug took about 3 hours; we had a transformer failure, a keyer failure, and the Windom had infinite SWR (the coax on the tower end was not plugged into the balun).

2002, Finland

Every team brought their own radios. We had two FT1000MPs. Radio B was receive-only. Antennas were tribander, and 80/40 Windom. Every team
brought two computers, which were networked to allow better real-time multiplier spotting. The spot op was not allowed to control, key, or even
touch the run radio. No recording. Setup and debug took about 3 hours, including discovering that transmitting 100W of 80M RF into the Windom sent the 12V wall-wart power supply for the keyer and relays into a wideband oscillation wiping out all the bands and disabling the keyer and relays. Fortunately, our host station had a 12V supply to lend us.

2006, Brazil

Every team is bringing their own radios. Andy and I (and a few other USA teams) will have IC756Pro3s, courtesy of Icom America. Each team will also have an amplifier (courtesy of Acom). Radio B is receive-only, but Operator B and Computer B can control, key, and operate Radio A. This requires a lot more thought and planning, with lots of filtering, RF, control, and audio switching, not to mention more advanced operating strategy planning. Some stations will be recorded - this will be the referee's responsibility. Setting it up at Andy's house took something like 5 hours, but that included removing a lot of stuff from Andy's home station and searching for adaptors for various cables. I think it will go faster in Brazil.

This year's stations are much more technically demanding, with a lot of potential points of failure, and limited time to set up and debug (we will arrive at our stations Friday afternoon sometime between 3 PM and 7 PM, depending on distance from the hotel, and the contest starts at 9 AM Saturday). I hope that everyone does OK getting set up, with minimal RFI, networking, and other problems that could get in the way of the operating part.

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