The WRTC-2018 Organizing Committee has announced the team selection criteria for the next World Radiosport Team Championship. Ulf Ehrlich, DL5AXX, spearheaded the development of the selection rules for the international competition, which Germany is hosting. A World Radiosport Team Championship features approximately 50 two-person Amateur Radio teams competing in a test of operating skill. The event takes place during July, concurrent with the IARU HF Championship. For WRTC-2018, a total of 49 team leaders will be selected through qualifying events between February 2015 and November 2016. The first qualifying event will be the 2015 ARRL International DX Contest (CW).

“As a special highlight, we want to give three youth teams the chance to fight the battle together with the big ones,” the WRTC-2018 organizers said in announcing the selection criteria. The organizers said that based on feedback received from previous competitors, they opted for fewer qualifying events and a shorter qualification period. There are 32 qualifying events — 30 for Germany, 28 for the rest of Europe, and 26 for the rest of the world. A total of the 12 best event scores will be used for qualifying.

WRTC-2018 organizers have added the Worked All Germany and IARU Region 1 Field Day as new qualifying events, and have reduced Single-Operator categories to SO HP and SO LP.

In addition, the weighting factors of multioperator categories have been reduced, allowing up to four multioperator event scores. “We decided to go this way because we are not looking for the best 10-person multi-single or 25-person multi-multi team, but for the best two-person team,” organizers explained. “Of course there is no special ‘WRTC class’ in the big contests, and the team leader qualifies first, so the logical step is to emphasize the Single-Op categories.” Team leaders select their teammates for the competition.

The defending champions — WRTC-2014 winners Daniel Craig, N6MJ, and Chris Hurlbut, KL9A — automatically will receive a spot on the WRTC-2018 roster of competitors without having to re-qualify. The WRTC-2018 Organizing Committee also has reserved some wildcard slots to invite exceptional qualifiers who did not otherwise earn a place through the normal qualifying process.

A group representing the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC), the Bavarian Contest Club (BCC), and the Rhein Ruhr DX Association (RRDXA) is organizing WRTC-2018. The WRTC Sanctioning Committee announced the selection of Germany in early October. — Thanks to The Daily DX