Planning continues…
Planning continues for the next USA and International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 ARDF Championships. Radio-orienteers of all skill levels will gather in Boston, Massachusetts on the first weekend of June 2009 for two days of intense competition, first on two meters and then on 80 meters. The events are open to any fan of on-foot hidden transmitter hunting, with or without a ham license. Besides IARU Region 2, which encompasses North and South America, visiting competitors are welcome from any continent.
Site of the contests will be the Blue Hills Reservation, a 7000-acre open space about ten miles south of downtown Boston. To keep participant costs to a minimum, these ARDF championships will be combined with a local meet of the New England Orienteering Club and use NEOC’s excellent maps of the site. The concurrent ARDF and classic orienteering competitions will have separate electronic scoring systems. Distinctive flags will mark the hidden transmitters to avoid confusion with the regular orienteering controls.
Effective immediately, the Blue Hills 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.
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. As a member of ARDF Team USA, he has been to the 2004, 2006 and 2008 World Championships. This year, he finished in fifth place worldwide in the M40 category on 80 meters.
To encourage first-timers and foreign visitors, the competition fee will be waived for persons who have never participated in the USA ARDF Championships(yes no fees for first-timers and for foreigners) , 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.
Now accepting pre-registrations and inquiries by e-mail to vadim.afonkin [at] comcast.net
What happened to the old site that had info about the schedule, etc? I finally found the registration form link, but the other site was far easier to navigate.
All information related to 2009 US Championship located here: http://www.bostonardf.org/?cat=4