The JARL NEWS
Vol. 14, No. 3; October 2001

The All Japan ARDF Championships 2001
Held in Niigata


On Sunday, October 14, 2001, the All Japan ARDF Championships 2001 was held in Niigata-Prefecture under the auspices of JARL. Competitors from many parts of Japan and concerned people numbered more than 150!! The site of the competition was Kurokawa Village, Kita-Kanbara-District, a rural landscape area.

Registration commenced at 07:40 at which time all participants, after receiving their starting numbers, check cards, etc. proceeded to the site of the opening ceremony. The ceremony, which was held from 8:10 a.m., was followed by speeches of welcome and encouragement by Mr. Kazuo Niwa, JA1AYO, Vice President of JARL and others. Then the chief jury gave a detailed explanation of the competition.

The competition was divided into under mentioned 5 different classes. ( )=Number of participants of this Competition.
  1. YL Class: Female, no age restriction. (19)
  2. JN Class: Male, younger than the age of 19. (36)
  3. OM Class: Male, the age of 19 and older but younger than 40. (17)
  4. OT Class: Male, the age of 40 and older but younger than 55. (54)
  5. VT Class: Male, the age of 55 and older. (17)
Maps were handed out to each competitor just before the start. The actual competition commenced at 09:25 a.m. with the first group making a start for the goal. They were followed by 18 groups at intervals of 5 minutes until the last group made a start at 11:25.

They ran freely in forest and field areas, surrounded with greenery, aiming at transmitters. It was so nice and warm Autumn Sunday that competitors enjoyed ARDF fully!!

With shirts stuck to their bodies with sweat, from running high and low in the hills and fields, all competitors appeared eager and most anxious to hear the announcement of the rankings.

Another thing to be mentioned is the special station, 8J0RDF which was set up in commemoration of this Championships. It was operated by many hams to introduce the Championships on the air.

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