Registration is now open for the next USA ARDF Championships, June 5 - 7, 2009. Radio-orienteers of all skill levels will gather for two days of intense competition, first on two meters and then on 80 meters. The events are open to all persons, with or without a ham license. This year's USA Championships are being combined with the championships of International Amateur Radio Union Region 2 (North and South America). Visitors from any country are welcome.
Organizing and hosting the 2009 championships is Vadim Afonkin KB1RLI, one of USA's most accomplished radio-orienteers. As a youth, he learned ARDF and won awards for it in his native Russia. After coming to America, he first participated in USA's national championships in 2003, where he won silver and bronze medals in the five-fox M21 category. He has competed in M21 at every USA championships since then and has had the best five-fox time of all stateside participants every time. Last year, he finished in fifth place worldwide in the M40 category on 80 meters at the ARDF World Championships in Korea.
Site of the contests will be the Blue Hills Reservation, a 7000-acre open space that is about ten miles south of downtown Boston. Effective immediately, the Reservation area is off limits for anyone who will be competing in the 2009 USA ARDF Championships. To avoid any unfair advantage, potential competitors may not go to this site until competition time.
To encourage first-timers and foreign visitors, the competition fee will be waived for persons who have never participated in the USA ARDF Championships and for persons coming from outside North America. Those persons will have the option of purchasing event T-shirts. The competition fee for all others will be $50 per person, including T-shirt.
The championships Web site, with registration form, is
www.bostonardf.org.
More information about ARDF in the USA is at
www.homingin.com.
Joe Moell K0OV
USA ARDF Coordinator