USA Radio Orienteering Championship Concludes

Over 50 radio orienteers from 13 states across the USA as well as Canada, Australia, Uganda, and China ran through parks and forests surrounding Chelsea, Dexter, Pinckney, and Brighton, Michigan last week competing in the 23rd USA Radio Orienteering Championship October 5th through the 13th, 2024. The championship was jointly hosted and organized by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Southern Michigan Orienteering Club (SMOC), and the Chelsea Amateur Radio Club.

Radio Orienteering, also known as Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF), is a multi-skill sport that involves running and navigating using only a map and compass (orienteering) while using a hand-held radio receiver and antenna to locate multiple transmitters hidden in a forest. The sport has direct application to important activities such as search and rescue, wildlife tracking, airborne and seaborne navigation, defense & security, and communications.

Competition involved hilly terrain, intricate navigation challenges, signal reflections, and elite-level orienteering racing, but beginners were also welcomed with coaching, practices, and a training camp to get started in the sport. Races included the Sprint at Hudson Mills MetroPark, the Foxoring race in the Winnewana forests of Waterloo State Recreation Area, the 2m Classic at Eddy Discover Center forests, and the 80m Classic at the Bishop Lake forests of Brighton State Recreation Area.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) also sanctioned the championship to dually-function as the IARU’s Region 2 (Americas) Championship. A search and rescue team exhibition contest was also held to highlight the important civic and humanitarian applications of radio transmitter hunting. Civil Air Patrol (CAP) volunteers from Livingston Squadron and Jackson Squadron, as well as a team from California competed in a practice distress beacon hunt. CAP’s Jackson Squadron team won the contest by being the first team to locate the small beacon hidden in Waterloo Rec Area’s forest.

Medals were awarded to the top three finishers in each class of competition including junior, elite, and masters age classes. For the Elite men’s class, Gheorghe Fala of Backwoods Orienteering Klub (BOK) in North Carolina won the Sprint and Foxoring races, while Eduard Nasybulin from Massachusetts won both Classic races. For the Women’s W35 class Erin Hammer and Sandra Quinn Giovannini also from BOK split Sprint and Fox-O golds, while Lori Huberman from New York won gold in both Classics. William Wright (callsign WB6CMD) from Bay Area Orienteering Club (BAOC) in California swept all four races for gold medals in the M60 class and Nadia Scharlau (KO4ADV) from BOK won gold in three of the four race formats finishing just behind gold medal finisher Natalia Leoni in the Sprint. Several beginners and first-time racers accomplished notable results, including first-timer Roland Woodward (KQ4QYZ) from Wisconsin finishing ahead of some veteran M60 competitors for bronze medals in the Sprint and Foxoring races. Results will be considered for Team USA selection to compete in the World ARDF Championship next year (tentatively in Lithuania). In addition to the races competitors enjoyed several social gatherings, a cultural outing to the Henry Ford Museum & Ford F150 Rouge Factory, and a presentation on the radio & astronomical topics from Dr. James Cutler of University of Michigan’s Department of Aerospace Engineering. Several of the competitors were also delighted to witness the impressive northern lights spectacle on the 11th.