The 15th World Championships for Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF), or Radio-O, were held this week in Opatija, Croatia. Instead of a single open competition as at WOC, the ARDF World Championships has eleven age classes: M19, M21, M40, M50, M60, M70; F19, F21, F40, F50, and F60. Each nation may send up to three competitors in each class. Fourteen competitors from the United States were chosen based on the results from the
2010 US ARDF Championships.
Team USA has some excellent
results in a competition that is typically dominated by Eastern European countries. Some particularly noteworthy individual results:
Name | class | band | Place | Time | % back of winner |
George Neal | M50 | 80m | 3/51 | 54:57 | 3% back - 97 seconds behind 1st |
Lori Huberman | F21 | 2m | 4/33 | 132:13 | 31% back - 4:38 behind 3rd. |
George Neal | M50 | 2m | 8/51 | 62:54 | 29% back |
Vadim Afonkin | M40 | 80m | 12/57 | 50:38 | 29% back |
Vadim and George have been competing for several years - George Neal finished third in the 80m competition at the
2008 World Championships, and Vadim has numerous top ten placings at World and European competitions. Lori started radio orienteering in the spring of 2009, and did exceptionally well on what was an exceedingly difficult 2m course. She was one of only six F21s to successfully locate all the transmitters.
In addition to George's 80m bronze medal, Karla Leach and Ruth Bromer finished won the silver medal in the F60 team competition. The team competition is the sum of the fastest two competitors' individual times for each country.
An ARDF race is essentially a score-O; five transmitters are hidden in the woods, and competitors must locate them using only a compass, an orienteering map with no control information on it, and a receiver. Each class must locate a different subset of the controls; for instance, M21 must find all five transmitters and the beacon at the finish, whereas F50 must find transmitters 2, 3, and 4.
There are two different races at the ARDF Champs that differ based on the wavelength of the transmitters. The 2m wavelength is more challenging because that wavelength is much more susceptible to reflections off of terrain, vegetation, man-made objects, rock features, and mail-clad squirrels. The 80m wavelength is a more straightforward competition, but still presents the challenge of locating the controls and selecting the optimal order.