Equipment used at WRTC 2002

WRTC 2002 was held in Finland in July 2002, where 52 of world's best contesting teams competed. Just after the competition information on the station equipment was exchanged on the WRTC ML. This is a good chance to know the equipment the world's bests are using. 

Detailed table sorted by the competition rank is here.

Summary

Contest software: Most popular software is CT. Most of them still use DOS CT as three team use Windows version. Five team use TR. One uses Winlog as it has much more information on the screen and many nice functions provided by Windows.

Transceiver: Winner is FT1000MP. More than half use it. TS850 looks good for second radio, as four teams use it for second radio. Though there are many good news heard on IC756PRO, very few use it at WRTC.

PC: As there are thousands models of PC in the world, no suggestion on it.

BPF: Dunestar or ICE. That is all. Some teams provide automatic switching (band data decoding) circuit.

Antenna SW: This is remarkable that WRTC 2000 SW are commonly used in 2002. It was provided by S56A / WRTC 2000 Committee and most of the teams have kept it for next competition.

Headset: Almost of them use Heil, either Pro or light weight, or some use Pro2.

DVK: Not many teams use DVK. Most of them use MFJ DVK, some use DVS-2 by Yaesu.

Keyer: Not many declarations. Probably most of teams mostly use keying function of contest software. They may use internal keyer of the radio occasionally.  

Paddle: Not many declaration. Bencher is most popular paddle, as one claimed Vibrolpex (my favorite)

Others: Not many teams use band decoder (probably for BPF sw), but most of them use Top Ten Devices. Note that band decoder circuit can be easily assembled by yourself. Several teams prepare light bulb protector for second RX, which was introduced to old FT101 to protect RF front end from too large input.