USA in the 2008 World ARDF Championship

Two weeks ago, US-based Amateur Radio Newsline put out a reminder to all nations to send their Letters of Intent to participate in the upcoming Amateur Radio Direction Finding World Championships.

If you're wondering what hams in the United States are doing about this event, then wonder no more. Amateur Radio Newsline's Joe Moell K0OV, is here with the answers.

Members of Team USA are now in training for the 14th World Championships of Amateur Radio Direction Finding, or ARDF, which take place near Seoul Korea in the first week of September. This will be the sixth time that USA has fielded a team for the World Championships, which take place in even-numbered years and draw over 300 radio-orienteers from about 30 countries.

At the last World Championships in Bulgaria, Nadia Scharlau of Cary, North Carolina was the first North American to win a World Championships medal, and she's hoping to repeat it this year.

ARDF is an all-on-foot transmitter hunting sport that usually takes place in large forests, with orienteering maps and compasses, but not GPS, to help the competitors find their way to the locations where their direction finding gear tells them the transmitters should be. A successful competitor may travel 7 or 8 kilometers to track down all of the required radio foxes.

He or she must do it on two consecutive days, one on two-meter AM and the other on 80-meter CW.

Team USA 2008 has been selected from the medal winners at our last two national championships. The 2007 event was at South Lake Tahoe, California last September and this year's was at Bastrop, Texas in May. Two weekend training camps for team members will take place during July and August on Mt. Pinos in southern California.

Unfortunately, not everyone who was selected will be able to travel to Korea, so a few openings remain on our team roster. If you or someone you know is skilled at radio-orienteering and would like the opportunity to compete against and learn from the best in the world, please contact me right away.

Also, I'm looking for individuals or clubs to host upcoming USA national ARDF championships. If you your club has put on a major hamfest or ARRL convention, you probably have the skills and resources to put on an ARDF championships.

You'll need a well-mapped forested site for the competitions and your local orienteering club will probably be able to help you with that.

For more information about championship ARDF, Team USA, and the training camps, as well as contact information for the team, visit www.homingin.com.

Joe Moell, K0OV
Amateur Radio Newsline
(in sunny southern California, where we can practice ARDF all year long)

The 2008 World ARDF Championship takes place September 2nd through the 7th in South Korea. The United States has been represented at the Amateur Radio Direction Finding World Championships since way back in 1988

Source: K0OV, ARNewsline™