OJ4N : The Belgian WRTC2002 team

In July 2002 the fourth World Radiosport Team Championship was held in Espoo, Finland.

Organizers of this awesome event, were the Contest Club Finland (CCF) and the Finnish Amateur Radio League (SRAL).
A full account of who, where, and what can be found on the WRTC2002 Website : www.wrtc.info/wrtc2002.org/site/
Thanks guys for an impeccable organization and great memories for life !

Some 52 international Ham Radio contest teams, each comprising of two persons, tested their contest operating skills in a 24 hour radiowave battle.
After the smoke settled down, the Belgian team ON4WW/ON6TT ended 25th, in the middle of the pack.
Seen our hectic work schedule during the Afghanistan operation prior to the contest, we were quite pleased with this result.

Already WRTC2006 is underway, to be held in Florianopolis - Brazil, July 2006 . Detailed information on this future event can be found at www.wrtc2006.com/
Mostly, WRTC is about comradery and friendship... it is great to meet all these people face to face !
Dunno what to do for a holiday in July 2006 ? Try to visit WRTC2006 in Brazil, you won't be disappointed !

Click on the photographs to see the full size pictures.

WRTC2002 logo + ON4UN ON4UN organized the compilation of hundreds, even thousands of photos of the event, what a job ! Shown here is the WRTC2002 logo, and the photo providers
Radio equipment at airport

Peter ON6TT and myself handling our equipment and luggage at Zaventem airport

Extra sleep in airplane A relative short flight, we still try to catch up on some lost sleep of the last months in the Afghanistan operation
Transport to hotel The Fins got their act together. Organization was perfect, and here we have our pickup ride from Helsinki airport to the hotel
WRTC check-in WRTC2002 check-in, very professionally run
ZS6EZ+ZS4TX+ON4WW Catching up with some old friends, Chris ZS6EZ and Bernie ZS4TX, both whom I've worked on topband. We can even speak in African-Dutch language, although we prefer English. Their English sounds a bit strange though, same as their Dutch ;-
9V1YC+ON6TT Peter enjoys giving interviews, he's actually a pro in it ! James, 9V1YC has a wonderful customer in him
JY9NX+ON4WW Here's Koji JM1CAX/JY9NX handing over his card for our topband qso !. At that point in time, I had no idea I would meet him and his family at their house in Jordan. I was able to use his radio, and made a couple of thousands of QSOs from his station, as JY8WW in 2003
DJ6QT-DL6FBL-PY5EG Walter DJ6QT smelling the fresh and healthy Finnish air, Ben DL6FBL contemplating whether he should also have a go at it, and Oms PY5EG having a laugh at it
DJ6QT-RA3AUU DJ6QT and Harry RA3AUU. It seems to me the conversion from wodka to beer, did not affect Harry's contesting capabilities too much
ON6TT at breakfast ON6TT at breakfast. Finally a different meal under the belt, after all the club sandwiches and rice with chicken, chicken with rice, rice with rice, rice without chicken we got in Pakistan and Afghanistan
Summer camp cabin One of the pre-contest activities, was attending the Finnish ham Summer Camp. Here is our cabin, close to the lake. Somehow we missed the sauna event...
ON4WW-ON4UN-ON6TT ON4WW-ON4UN-ON6TT
OH2BH Martti Laine, OH2BH. What an organizer, thanks Martti !
ON4WW-ON6TT-W0GJ-OH2BU-OH0XX ON4WW-ON6TT-Glenn W0GJ-Jari OH2BU-Olli OH0XX
9V1YC-ON6TT Yes Peter, that is a camera !
ON4WW-ON6TT-K1EA We finally met Ken Wolf, K1EA, and promptly took his latest CT version out of his hands. Thanks Ken, for all your efforts over the years, to make our lives easier !
OH0XX-?-SM0JHF Olli OH0XX gave me several new ones on topband ! The middle person, I know this guy, but what is his callsign ? Let me know if you know. And Henryk, SM0JHF is a world traveller. I met him again in 2003 in The Gambia, where he was accomodating the C5Z effort
ON6TT-ON4WW Pileup contesting, always a challenging event. Luckily this was not calculated in the final score...
team AUSTRIA + team BELGIUM Team AUSTRIA and team BELGIUM
S50A Tine big smile In the middle, Tine S50A, organizer of WRTC2000 in Slovenia. What a personality !
ON6TT-DL2CC-N6RT-? Standing Jay WX0B and Jeff WC4E. Seated Peter ON6TT, Frank DL2CC and Jimmy N3BB
location draw Here I'm drawing the envelop that holds the location of our contest station. I think our contest location was number 13, but am not sure
K3NA-ON4WW Here's our sympathetic referee, Eric K3NA. His analytical mind is dazzling !
OH2KI-ON6TT-K3NA-ON4WW Jorma Saloranta OH2KI, our host, ON6TT-K3NA-ON4WW
ON4UN-OH2BH John ON4UN and Martti OH2BH, two icons of ham radio gathered in Martti's shack
OH2KI+xyl Our host Jorma OH2KI and his lovely xyl, who had to deal with those two crazy Belgians during the contest. Thanks !
Belgian contest action Team OJ4N - ON6TT and ON4WW in action
ON4WW-K3NA-ON6TT contest action ON4WW-K3NA-ON6TT in the sauna of OH2KI
Belgian contest action Concentration...
contest is over ! The contest is over !
back to hotel Transport back to the hotel, lots and lots of stories to swap between the competitors, referees, hosts. Our mutual friend Bob K4UEE had also arrived as a visitor, great to meet him and his xyl Mary in Finland !
RA3AUU-ON4WW-ON6TT After-contest discussion with Harry RA3AUU, who would take 2nd place ! Again !
boat to restaurant A boat ride to the restaurant venue, where after the hard work of the organizing committee, correcting and judging the logs, the final results were given
N5TJ-K1TO winners ! And yes, Jeff N5TJ and Dan K1TO did it again !! What a team, and what humble guys. Hats off !
RV1AW/RA3AUU-N5TJ/K1TO-DL2CC/DL6FBL N5TJ-K1TO gold, RV1AW-RA3AUU silver, DL2CC-DL6FBL bronze
back in the airport Going home !
listening to contest in plane Eric K3NA logged the whole contest on computer. On the plane, we listened to parts of it

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