Radiosport fans are gearing up for the summer's biggest competition: The IARU HF World Championships. Calling the 24 hour long contest "an HF operator's delight," ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X, explained that the contest will allow amateurs plenty of opportunity to work DX from all around the globe on CW and SSB, as well as make QSOs with many IARU Member-Society club stations and officials.

"The IARU HF Championship is one of Radiosport's distinctive events," said Kutzko. "It's the only major contest that uses International Telecommunication Union (ITU) zones as part of the exchange, and it's the only contest that gives special multiplier status for IARU Member-Society stations and their officials."

Kutzko said amateurs can get in on the fun in a variety of ways: "You may choose to enter as a single operator using SSB only, CW only or a mixture of both modes. Single operator stations can choose from three power levels: High Power (greater than 150 W), Low Power (between 5-150 W) or QRP (5 W or less). You can also get some friends together at one station and participate as a Multioperator station with a single transceiver."

One of the fun things to do is see how many of the IARU special stations you can work during the event. "While most stations give their ITU zone as part of the contest exchange, IARU Member-Society stations give the abbreviation for their IARU Member-Society's name: W1AW will be giving 'ARRL' as part of their exchange," Kutzko said. In addition, IARU officials can give one of four unique exchanges: AC if they are on the IARU Administrative Council, or R1, R2 or R3 for the ITU Region that official serves. For example, since Tim Ellam, VE6SH, is IARU President, he would give "AC" as part of his exchange.

According to Kutzko, numerous IARU Member-Society stations will be on the air this year, including Germany's Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DA0HQ), France's REF-Union (TM0HQ), the Kuwait Amateur Radio Society (9K9HQ), the Nigerian Amateur Radio Society (5N0OCH and others), the Japan Amateur Radio League (8N1HQ, 8N2HQ, 8N3HQ, 8N4HQ and 8N8HQ), the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (HS0AC), the Namibian Amateur Radio League (V51NAM), the Radio Amateurs of Lebanon (OD5RAL), as well as dozens of other Member-Society stations from around the world. "It is always special to see so many nations represented on the air by their national organization," Kutzko said. "It reinforces the global nature of Amateur Radio and the common bonds that all amateurs have."

The IARU HF World Championship begins at 1200 UTC Saturday, July 11 and goes until 1200 UTC Sunday, July 12. Complete rules may be found here. Logs may be submitted via e-mail; paper logs should be mailed to IARU International Secretariat, Box 310905, Newington, CT 06111-0905 USA. All logs must be e-mailed or postmarked no later than 1200 UTC August 11, 2009.