A brief summary:    After an informative and amusing introduction to WRTC and Finland, we travelled by coach from our base at Espoo (adjcent city to Helsinki) to the summer camp of Himos near Jamsa for a few days.   Whilst there the opening ceremony took place, as well as DX presentations, meetings for the competitors and referees, and much socialising until the small hours.  There was also the option of sauna's of course !   We returned briefly to Espoo on Friday before the teams and referees met their hosts and were taken to the similarly equipped contest sites before the contest itself.  After the contest and post-contest celebrations and swapping of stories, a variety of tours and trips were taken before the final awards dinner and the revelaing of the final results.

Each of the 52 host stations had identical WRTC 12m towers, and had idential 6 element triband beams (2 el's on each of 10, 15 and 20m) and a Windom dipole. 

The Finnish organisation team (and not forgetting the others from around the world) have put in a tremendous amount of work to finalise all of the logistical and financial aspects of the event, and as WRTC 2002 goes into history they have the right to be very proud of how smoothly the event ran.

The future looks bright for the event, and I can't recommend it highly enough.   As competitor, referee, or a casual visitor - WRTC is a real highlight for the sport of radio contesting. 
 

My role was to liaise between the team and the host if required, make sure the team were happy and could concentrate 100% on the contest, and to ensure absolute fairness make sure no contest rules were accidentally broken.  The referees were also entrusted with the OJ callsign that was only revealed to the teams 10 minutes before the start. 

A technological first was real time reporting of claimed scores by GSM SMS by each referee, which was then posted directly to a web page.  Back at the WRTC hotel lobby, a projector displayed the scores, and each hour as they were reported in a crowd developed to see how the top places were changing.   After the event we realised that each team's friends and families were also watching the contest very closely over the course of the weekend !    This was an excellent way to make contesting more accessible for spectators or non-entrants. 

When the pileups got really big, I started to pick out completely different callsigns to the run operator.  (n.b. I must remember to find extra operators for 'diverse reception' in multi-op contests in future !)   Also running at 38 wpm was starting to move me out of my comfort zone :-)

As for the results, Jeff N5TJ and Dan K1TO became three time WRTC winners which is an outstanding achievement.  These guys win by being utterly professional, very calm and organised whilst operating.  With the level of competition it was very difficult to get into the top half, let alone the top ten.   Andy G4PIQ and Fred G4BWP did a good job as Team UK, and I couldn't fault Chris and Bernie's operating either, although they were disappointed with their placing.  It just goes to show that the level of competition was really tight, and many of the top scores were incredibly close. 
 

Seeing many boxes of FT1000MP's going around the airport baggage reclaim carousel - very surreal ! 

Getting very starstruck - everywhere you turned there was someone you knew of.  Before even getting to the WRTC hotel, I spotted John ON4UN a few rows back on the plane, shared the WRTC bus with Ward N0AX and when at the hotel got in the lift with Dave K1ZZ.  As well as the more famous calls, it was first time I'd been able to meet some friends from around Europe and the US for the first time.

It was interesting to hear from the real 'big guns' about how they've developed their stations over the years,  the travel plans and friendly competition for this years big contests (and why we'd like a bigger planet for all the multi-multi's), the continued problem of antenna planning problems (I've realised a true common problem we have all around the world), and the organisers and entrants in the previous WRTCs who have seen their ideas grow.   There's very much a "can-do" attitude which must be why all of these guys are at the top of the game.

Talking till 2 am at the Himos summer camp where it never really got dark. 

What would happen on 80m if anything during the contest with this much light ??

Walking through the hotel just before the teams departed - many people had left the doors open and you could peer in to rooms and see complete stations being tested.   There was great camaradarie and shouts of 'good luck' as the teams departed.

Nervously watching Chris free climb 40 feet up Mikka's main tower to move the WRTC windom.

The conditions were much better than predicted which led to high rates and good scores.   However, the Finn's were keen to point out that this was unusual in case anyone though they always had it this 'easy.'    Similarly, the excellent run of hot sunny weather (peaking at 30C) we enjoyed was a little exceptional.

The socialising all week took it's toll - some referees spotted their teams having microsleeps in between QSOs (and some op's not even noticing - they just carried on with their pileups when they re-awoke.) 

Being able to listen to UK stations on 20 and 15 as part of the pileup.  I had to bite my tongue and not say "oh, it's Clive / Nigel / Fraser / John / Don etc."

Answering a knock on the door at the contest station just before the end to find a news camerateam.  The team were interviews and this was broadcast on the national 6pm news.  (There were also at least 3 national newspaper articles and some radio interviews.)     Another knock on the door was from some hikers who had got lost in the forest.  "Where are we?" they asked. "We don't know !" came the reply !

Being able to listen to a conversation that was focussed on full size 80m yagi performance :-)

Standing out a mile in a Finnish supermarket with Chris and Bernie.

On a post WRTC trip, walking the streets of old Tallinn with T93Y, TG9AJR, N3BB etc. and deciding whether the ES girls were prettier than the OH girls.

Getting lost at midnight on the Finnish motorways with KQ2M and N3BB before Bob saved us from driving to Russia.