Youth team experiences unforgettable radio adventure at WRTC 2022 in Bologna!

We were very excited when we stepped out of the packed car into the scorching heat of Italy. As we were one of the four youth teams allowed to participate in the WRTC 2022 in Bologna, we were a bit nervous despite the months of preparation.

Of course, after the long car ride, we were already looking forward to the Italian cuisine we had been promised, and at dinner we met new faces and finally got to know the people behind many familiar callsigns. We spent the days until the contest mainly testing the station equipment in the hotel room and exchanging experiences with other participants and organisers.

After all the weeks of preparation, the 24 hours of the contest went by super fast. The assembly of the station went smoothly, thanks to the many practice competitions. We decided to use a Flex-6700 and a Flex-6400M. We were kindly provided with the latter by WiMo, thank you very much!

We were very lucky with the location, a small holiday home with a garden where the antennas were set up. Of course we used the night before the contest to be able to make a few more connections with our own callsigns. That alone was so much fun that it was hard for us to rest one last time before the contest and get some sleep despite the nervousness.

In the first few minutes we realised that this contest was different from any other we had contested before. Despite the 100 watts of output power and the relatively small antennas, we had rates and pileups that we could not even have dreamed of. Even the normally rather exhausting night hours before sunrise flew by.

When we put down our headphones after the competition with a beaming smile, the log showed about three and a half thousand connections. We were absolutely satisfied with this performance!

Towards the end of the closing ceremony, the next destination was announced: the WRTC 2026 in Cambridgeshire, England.

Once again, many thanks to WiMo for providing us with the radio and also a special thank you to Harald DL2SAX who let us use his station for practice and accompanied us to Bologna.