Wayyyy back in the beginning of this year, I started hearing some scuttlebutt about some type of FIFA WC HAM radio event that was being explored. Somehow, someone suggested that I should be contacted to be a ‘City Host’. There are 16 different cities hosting games, with 11 in CONUS, 2 in Canada, and 3 in Mexico. Each host city needed a coordinator to arrange things, recruit stations, do social media, advertise, promote, make QSL cards and the system by which they would be available, etc.
Mr. Ron Franklin, AA5HK, reached out to me several months ago and asked if I would be willing to be the Host City Lead for Houston.. I was hesitant at first, not really being a DX/Contester anymore (more involved in the AUXCOMM side of ham radio nowadays), not quite sure if I had the chops for such a big responsibility.
Being the Martyr that I am, I took the plunge! What followed were months of Zoom’s, Email chains, Groups.io messages, phone calls, etc. We were granted the SES license of W5C/H (Since Texas is the only state that has TWO venues, Dallas got W5C/D). I pulled together a crack team of OP’s from District 14 that I knew and trusted to get the job done.
Recruiting HAMS to work the games was a bit difficult, as the American Red Cross, at the last minute, decided to ask all the local ARES and Ham Ops for help. Since ARES has an MOU with the RC, it had to be a priority.
Along came June 11th, the first game in Houston. We brought our Emergency COMMS vehicle to the Harris County Fire Marshalls Office and set up Beams, Verticals and Long Wires. We spent most of the day getting the digital online logging system and other operators help in getting THEIR systems up and running.
Since that day, our group has pretty much operated 24/7, in one band/mode or another, and will continue to do so until the FIFA final on July 19th, when ALL the host cities will be working. We use a plethora of back-channel communications to coordinate and schedule our operators to avoid redundancy. We chat constantly about spotting, band conditions, and reach out to the group to help out whenever we can.
As I write this, the games have ended, with Spain beating Argentina 1-0 for the Champpionship!
Anyway, the final (subject to change as some logs are not in quite yet) tally is:
| 4A1CMX, Mexico City | 5306 | 3989 |
| 4A1GDL, Guadalajara | 3305 | 2595 |
| 4A1MTY, Monterrey | 1773 | 1434 |
| K0C, Kansas City | 13231 | 8332 |
| K4C, Miami | 10971 | 7676 |
| VB7F, Vancouver | 21799 | 12005 |
| VC3F, Toronto | 5550 | 3374 |
| W1C, Boston | 9121 | 6624 |
| W2C, New York/New Jersey | 3870 | 3173 |
| W4C, Atlanta | 2646 | 2089 |
| W5C/D, Dallas | 14026 | 8295 |
| W5C/H, Houston | 13448 | 8062 |
| W6C, Los Angeles | 6832 | 5174 |
| W6S, San Francisco | 2287 | 1800 |
| W7C, Seattle | 6946 | 4996 |
| WC5WC, Bonus Station | 4043 | 3288 |
| WM3PEN, Philadelphia | 14263 | 9456 |
For the W5C/H station alone, here are our stats:
| Total QSOs | Total Countries | Countries |
| 13448 | 112 | 3B8, 3D2, 4L, 4X, 5W, 7Q, 8P, 9A, 9H, 9J, 9Y, A7, AP, BV, BY, C2, CE, CE0Y, CM, CT, CT3, CU, CX, D2, DL, DU, E5/n, EA, EA8, EI, EL, ER, ES, EU, F, FK, FM, G, GI, GJ, GM, GU, GW, HA, HB, HC, HI, HK, HL, HP, HR, HZ, I, IS, IT9, J3, J6, J8, JA, K, KH6, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU, LX, LY, LZ, OA, OD, OE, OH, OK, OM, ON, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PY, S5, SM, SP, SV, SV5, SV9, T2, TA, TA1, TF, TG, TI, TY, UA, UA9, UK, UNK, UR, V3, VE, VK, XE, YB, YL, YO, YS, YU, YV, Z3, ZL, ZP, ZS |
| Operator | Total QSOs |
| WP4VW | 750 |
| WA5AUX | 4663 |
| WB5HJV | 5825 |
| N5XJB | 417 |
| AA5AF | 600 |
| KT3X | 125 |
| N5RVT | 246 |
| WA5LEE | 41 |
| N5WCT | 423 |
| NZ5T | 162 |
| K5PE | 56 |
| WE5J | 16 |
| KK5DO | 64 |
| KG5LJZ | 39 |
| KU5B | 18 |
| KD5ZZU | 3 |
We held an All-Host-City SSB Voice net on Sunday, July 19th, after the game ended, to honor and bid farewell to N3ACK, John Talipsky, our Atlanta Host City Coordinator.
Unfortunately, he became a SK unexpectedly during an early ATL activation. He will be missed, as we all had been working with him for months getting this event coordinated.
As the Houston City Lead, I thank all the operators from STX who helped us out!
