It began as a private hunting ground for Bulgarian kings. Now it’s a modern ski resort in the Rila Mountains, complete with fine hotels and one of the world’s greatest biathlon courses. That’s Borovets, located about 25 miles southeast of Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria.
During the first week of September, Borovets was the site of the 20th World Championships of Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF), hosted by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs (BFRA).
These championships were a long time coming. World Championships are normally held in even-numbered years in Europe or Asia. National amateur radio societies make proposals to the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) ARDF Working Groups in hopes of hosting. A proposal by The Amateur Radio Union of Serbia (SRS) to host in 2020 was accepted back in 2017. The pandemic forced SRS to cancel and reschedule for 2021, but that also became a no-go. It was thought that Covid-19 case counts would be significantly lower and travel restrictions would be lifted in time for another try in 2022, but many Asian countries were still under severe limitations. Korea was the only nation in IARU Region 3 that submitted a Letter of Intent to participate.
Two Dozen Selected
This spring, the ARRL ARDF Team Selection Subcommittee optimistically announced that
