WRTC-2014 has announced the various awards that will be available to stations working the WRTC teams during the competition this July. The WRTC-2014 Chase” will run concurrently with the IARU HF Championship, which gets underway on July 12 at 1200 UTC. The 59 competing stations will sport distinctive call signs — not yet announced — that will be easy to recognize.

Activity Award

"The WRTC teams will be using 100 W to simple antennas,” Andy Blank, N2NT, director of the WRTC-2014 Competition Committee said in stressing the importance of off-site participants as part of the competition. “High activity will make the competition more exciting and help identify the more-skilled operating teams. In what other sport can you stay home and still be on the field of play?"

WRTC-2014 is encouraging “everyone” to work the competing teams on as many bands and modes as possible. All contacts with WRTC-2014 stations will be confirmed by QSL card via the bureau for DX stations or direct to US stations. All contacts will also be confirmed through ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW). As an added incentive, each contact with a WRTC team counts 5 points for the ARRL Centennial QSO Party.

Any station appearing in all 59 WRTC team logs will be able to download a certificate from the WRTC-2014 website after the contest. No additional application is necessary.

"Assistant Judge" Award

Scores are expected to be very close among the top teams, so log checking will be a key factor in certifying the order of finish for all teams. The WRTC-2014 Judging Committee needs as many logs as quickly as possible to assist with log-checking. Stations submitting logs within 6 hours of the end of the contest will be designated "Assistant Judge of WRTC-2014." All logs received will be entered into a drawing for one of 25 WRTC-2014 Assistant Judge hats.

Bronze Awards

Every station that submits a log containing confirmed contacts with the WRTC teams on 30 or more band/modes will be eligible for the Bronze level award. These logs will be entered into a drawing to win one of 10 WRTC-2014 bronze medals or one of 50 WRTC-2014 mouse pads.

Silver Awards

A Silver medal will be awarded to the first five stations from each continent and W1 that confirm contacts with all 59 teams, regardless of mode. Any other stations that work all 59 teams will be entered into a drawing to win one of 25 WRTC-2014 caps.

Gold Awards

Gold medals recognize the highest level of achievement — contacting the WRTC teams on the most band/modes. With 59 teams, five bands, and two modes, there are 590 possible band/modes available. Gold medals will be awarded to the top five band/mode leaders in each continent and W1. In the event of a tie, the order will be determined by earliest completion time.

Eligibility

To earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold award, participants must submit their contest logs within 6 hours of the end of the contest (ie, by 1800 UTC on July 13). Logs in Cabrillo format meeting the requirements of the IARU HF Championship must be submitted by e-mail and acknowledged by the robot. Entrants are encouraged to submit logs immediately following the contest.

Larry Tyree, N6TR, is managing the WRTC-2014 log-checking process. "We have less than 24 hours to process and cross-check the logs in order to announce the winners at the award ceremony on Monday evening,” he said. “Receiving as many logs as possible shortly after the end of the contest will help improve the quality of the log checking."

Complete rules for the WRTC-2014 activity award program are available on the WRTC-2014 website.

To help determine the best times to work the WRTC teams, Stu Phillips, K6TU, has made his propagation prediction service available for WRTC-2014. Enter your call sign, grid square, and type of antenna system, and the service will provide a table of expected band openings from your location to the WRTC-2014 area.

Submit questions about WRTC-2014 and the awards program via e-mail.