Topic: WRTC2014 A Great Success! Organizer Awarded NEAR-Fest Lifetime Passes.

[W1RC]

The World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC2014) was held in July 2014 right here in NEAR-Fest's home turf - Southern NH and Eastern Massachusetts. 59 teams consisting of 108 competitors from 32 countries operated identical Field Day style stations for the 24 hour IARU contest that ran July 12th to 13th to determine the world champions of contesting.  Top station operators were Dan Craig, N6MJ and Chris Hurlburt, KL9A of the USA took home the Gold Medals.

More information on the WRTC may be found HERE

There is also a very good article on WRTC HERE.

The WRTC has been likened to the "World Cup" or the "Olympics" of amateur radio contesting and is held every four years at a different location.  Previous WRTCs have been held in Seattle, San Francisco, Slovenia, Finland, Brazil and Russia.  Location for 2018 has not been determined.

Here's a story that appeared in THE BOSTON GLOBE on July 17th: 

A full archive of all the the media coverage may be found here.

As an WRTC2014 Organizational Sponsor I represented NEAR-Fest and attended for all five days.  I volunteered my services and was most fortunate to be asked to guide an official event photographer, Bob Wilson, N6TV to many of the station sites. This allowed me to witness the event from a perspective that few others enjoyed.  Bob was kind enough to share his photo archive site with us.

it was very apparent that this highly complex international event was extremely well organized and managed.  It took four years of hard work by the ten organizers and a very large number of volunteers to pull it off so successfully.  In recognition of their outstanding achievement NEAR-Fest is pleased to confer the highest honor we can bestow, the LIFETIME PASS, on the ten organizers of this monumental event which has certainly enhanced Amateur Radio here in New England which is one of the criteria for this award.  They are:

Doug Grant, K1DG, Windham NH, President, general management.
Randy Thompson, K5ZD, Uxbridge MA, VP, marketing, PR, media relations.
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, Suffield CT, Secretary, site selection, testing, training.
Richard Green, WC1M, Hanover NH, Treasurer, finances.
Mark Pride, K1RX, Kensington, NH, antenna systems design, "Beam Teams"
Dan Street, K1TO, Myakka City FL, team and referee selection.
Larry "Tree" Tyree, N6TR, Boring OR, log checking, final scoring.
Andy Blank, N2NT, Dayton NJ, competition, rules, judging.
John Dorr, K1AR, Windham NH, hospitality, transportation.
Dave Pascoe, KM3T, Amherst NH, IT, live scoreboard, communications.

On September 13th, 2014 the Directors hosted a volunteers appreciation luncheon at the doubletree Hotel in Westborough MA, site headquarters for the WRTC2014.  Seven of the aforementioned candidates for the NEAR-Fest Lifetime Pass award were present and inducted as well as being presented with their Lifetime Pass at the luncheon by Mister Mike, W1RC and Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF.

Photos

NEAR-Fest, in conjunction with DX Engineering, donated an ICOM IC-7100 transceiver as a door prize.

The winner was Malcolm Crawford, K1MC, of Lexington MA.

It was my personal pleasure and honor to attend and participate in this event where I met many of the competitors, referees, judges, management team and volunteers who pulled it off so magnificently.  The wonderful weather we enjoyed that wonderful week was an added bonus.  It doesn't get any better!

73,

MrMike, W1RC
Benevolent Dictator,
New England Amateur Radio Festival (NEAR-Fest)
www.near-fest.com