contesting Ukraine War Contest Impact
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has impacted world competition in nearly every sporting event, and radiosport is no exception. At this point, I count 10 contests that have been outright cancelled by their sponsors as a result of the invasion. The first two cancellations, the UBA DX contest in the last weekend of February and the Open Ukraine RTTY contest, were cancelled because all Ukrainian amateur radio activities had been discontinued by their government at the very start of the invasion. The Polish sponsors of the SP DX contest in April cited the responsibilities of Polish citizens as they were taking in 2 million Ukrainian refugees from the war. Similarly close in proximity to the conflict, the Estonian Radio Amateur Union cancelled the ES Open HF contest in April. The Ukrainian-sponsored Digifest usually held in June was necessarily canceled for this year, as was the Ukrainian DX Classic RTTY contest that same month.
The Slovenia Contest Club, sponsor of the EU HF Championship each August, has cancelled the contest for this year. “We do not see the point in competing for the title of European Champion without the presence of our Ukrainian friends and without contest activity from all other EU countries,” they write in their announcement.
This fall’s Scandinavian Activity Contests have also been cancelled. They write that the SAC contest committee, “consists of four
