World Radiosport Team Championship

The World Radiosport Team Championship is an amateur radio contest. WRTC is an invitation-only event in which the world's elite contesters compete against one another using amateur radio stations that are in one geographic area of the world and are equipped with similar antennas and operating restrictions. Each WRTC event is organized by a standing committee of internationally recognized contesters and a host organization in the locality where the competition will be held. WRTC is the closest thing to a world championships in the sport of contesting.

The first World Radiosport Team Championship event was held in July, 1990 in Seattle, Washington, United States and was timed to coincide with the Goodwill Games being held that summer in the same city. Teams of two competitors each operated in a unique, one-time contest, created specifically to coincide with WRTC. All of the stations used by the WRTC teams were located at existing amateur radio stations in the Seattle area, but not all of the stations were in equally advantageous locations, and some had more desirable call signs than others. Twenty-two teams of two operators each represented Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yugoslavia. For some competitors, it was their first trip to a nation outside of the Eastern Bloc. In addition to the two team members, a referee was present at each station to monitor compliance with the WRTC rules. First place went to the team of John Dorr, K1AR and Doug Grant, K1DG of the United States, second place to the team of Mike Wetzel, W9RE and Chip Margelli, K7JA of the United States, and third place went to Jeff Steinman, KRØY and Bob Shohet, KQ2M of the United States.

The next WRTC event was held in the San Francisco, California, USA area in July, 1996, and was organized by the Northern California Contest Club. The format continued to be teams of two competitors each, operating at stations with similar antenna and power restrictions, participating in the IARU HF World Championship, a world-wide operating event that includes both phone and CW operation. A major innovation at WRTC 1996 was the assignment of special-event call signs to each of the competitive stations. The call signs were assigned randomly to each team, and helped prevent other stations in the IARU HF World Championship contest from recognizing their friends. The special call signs also ensured that all stations had call signs that took approximately the same amount of time to speak phonetically or to send in Morse code. Fifty-two teams of two operators each represented twenty-four countries and all six inhabited continents. First place went to the team of Jeff Steinman, KRØY and Dan Street, K1TO of the United States, second place to the team of John Laney III, K4BAI and Bill Fisher, KM9P of the United States, and third place went to the team of Dave Hachadorian, K6LL and Steve London, N2IC of the United States.

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