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Contact Sport: A Story of Champions, Airwaves, and a One-Day Race around the World Kindle Edition
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Joining them in their quest is author J. K. George, an experienced radio operator himself, who guides you through the exciting world of amateur radio competition and the intriguing characters of the 2014 World Radiosport Team Championship. The competitors hail from across the planet—from youthful challengers to veterans with decades of radiosporting experience. You will meet fascinating personalities not only among the teams themselves but also among their “widows”—spouses left behind for the allure of the airwaves.
They battle computer malfunctions, getting lost, and staying at the top of their game for 24 hours in a hot, stuffy tent. The final scores bring surprises, disappointments, even a recount, and decades-long friendships will be stressed in the fight for the crown of amateur radio—the ultimate “contact” sport.
- Publication dateFebruary 2, 2016
- LanguageEnglish
- File size11176 KB
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Product details
- ASIN : B01B3FKDWA
- Publisher : Greenleaf Book Group Press (February 2, 2016)
- Publication date : February 2, 2016
- Language : English
- File size : 11176 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 279 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,151,641 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #197 in Extreme Sports (Kindle Store)
- #355 in Radio & Wireless Engineering
- #608 in Radio Operation
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Jim George grew up in the tri-state area (KY,VA,and WV) of the southern Appalachians. At Virginia Tech, and later in graduate school at Arizona State, he studied Electrical Engineering, and spent nearly forty years in the semiconductor industry, rising to a corporate officer in several companies including Motorola, with worldwide responsibility for a number of areas including Memory ICs, Digital Processors, and Embedded Solutions for Printers. His final responsibilities included world-wide Strategy and Sales for the wireless market. He also served as primary executive customer liaison for semiconductors for HP's printer business and for Motorola's cell phone business, culminating with the extremely successful Razr phone in 2002.
He and his wife, Diana, his high school sweetheart and a retired social worker, have lived in the Hill Country just outside Austin, TX, since 1984. He is a lifelong enthusiast for amateur radio, with the call sign, N3BB, preferring high speed Morse code to a microphone. George is an active jogger and casual race participant in Austin's active running scene. He and Diana began hiking the Appalachian Trail in Georgia in the early 2000's, but their aspirations to continue hiking stopped with Diana's stroke in late 2011.
Jim is a life-long Virginia Tech sports fan, and has served the university in numerous capacities, including as Chairman of the Advisory Boards for both the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, as well as the College of Engineering. He is a member of the Academy of Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech. In addition, he was a founding member of the Advisory Board for KUT FM, the public broadcasting radio station of UT Austin.
He is an avid reader--reading 40 books a years on average--enjoying both fiction as well as non-fiction, and is a member of a men's book club in Austin.
The Georges have three grown children and five grandchildren.
Reunion was his debut novel. His second book, a non-fiction book, "Contact Sport, A Story of Champions, Airwaves, and a One-Day Race Around the World," was released nationally to wide distribution February 1, 2016.

J. K. "Jim" George (N3BB) has been an avid amateur radio enthusiast, with special love for Morse code and radiosporting, since his teenage years—over fifty years ago. He started his hobby listening to short-wave broadcasts and long-distance AM radio stations. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he was president of the VT Amateur Radio Club and was inducted into the Virginia Tech Academy of Engineering after serving as Chair of the Advisory Boards for both Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as the College of Engineering. He is an avid Virginia Tech sports fan. He completed his graduate school at Arizona State University, specializing in semiconductor materials physics.
George’s professional career was primarily at Motorola, where he worked in the semiconductor business for nearly forty years and served as corporate vice president for nearly fifteen years. Following his retirement, George was a founding member and served for several years on the advisory board for KUT-FM, the public radio station of the University of Texas at Austin. George enjoys reading and writing and has been a member of a small men’s book club in Austin for over a decade. He and his wife live in the Hill Country west of Austin, and have three grown children and five grandchildren.
His first book was Reunion, a novel about a difficult relationship between a father and son, as well as life-long friendships within a unique high-school peer group.
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Jim George got his first license as a teenager, and with his Electrical Engineering degree enjoyed a long career with a major electronics company. A skilled contester, Jim had competed in earlier runnings of the event. He knew many of the competitors, the referees, and the organizers (all volunteers) who made the event happen. His perspective, his decision to make this a human story, and his ability to tell it make "Contact Sport" a great read. His story of growing up in a small town in the mountains of SE West Virginia parallels mine in another West Virginia town 100 miles away. We both used our EE degrees for a happy and successful techie career, and we're both active contesters. This is Jim's second book; his first is fiction about a guy much like himself growing up in that same small town. I liked it a lot, because its story was of a guy who loved music, loved ham radio, and was dealing in a very positive way with the social upheaval of school integration.
As a ham and active contester, I know many of the US hams that George writes about, and have contacted nearly all of them over the years. I found Jim's observations quite perceptive for those I knew fairly well, and I gained good insights into those I didn't know or knew only casually. My wife of 25 years is not into ham radio, but I'm giving this book to her to read. I think she'll enjoy it.
The human side of the story was personally quite interesting. I knew some of the competitors from previous meetings but I learned something about each of them from the book. I gained an appreciation for the backgrounds of many of them and was impressed at how many combine a successful professional life with intense hobby competition!
The story also reveals a bit about Mr. George's character. His honesty and transparency are refreshing as he relates challenges operating his latest Motorola smart phone as a retired graduate engineer from Motorola. It helps us mere mortals recognize we are not the only ones who don't understand what all of the menu items and options are with our smart phones! I especially enjoyed the tense hour in the book when he and the team he provided transportation for were lost at night in Massachusetts. It could have been any of us.
All in all, this book is a fabulous read - for the radio hobbyist as well as anyone who would like to read a journey that weaves science, technology, human frailty and suspense in one good story.
The book ends with a decision, like many in life, when one group failed to get the benefit of the doubt regarding the veracity of their contact log and lost the competition - as in life, this book highlights the reality of having no "instant replay" with regard to the impact on many of our decisions and experiences.
All in all, this was an extremely enjoyable book that I think would appeal to any competitive individual, or person who dreams about such things. It's also a picturesque window into a wonderful world of radio-sport that most people probably don't even know exists.
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The second aspect I liked was the intent to write the book so it would (hopefully) be accessible to the general reader. I hope the book will allow many people to develop an understanding of this niche "e-sport" (the oldest e-sport!), and perhaps help to bring it further into the mainstream. Whilst I could see the efforts made to explain some of the technical aspects of the competition in a lay-persons style, I'll leave it up to other reviewers not already involved with amateur radio contesting to determine how successful this has been.
Overall - a very enjoyable read recording the adventures of amateur radio contest operators from around the globe who convened in the forests and fields of New England for the 2014 world championship event. The hobby of amateur radio, and amateur radio contesting, should have more books like this.
Dem Autor, selbst lizenzierter Funkamateur, gelingt es, die Atmosphäre eines solchen Wettbewerbs perfekt und spannend einzufangen, ohne dass er dazu irgendwelchen Funk-Jargon verwendet. Natürlich werden die Leser dieses Buches, so wie ich, selbst Funkamateure sein, aber das Buch ist absolut auch für "Laien" lesbar!
So lately, (within the past 2 yrs) I've been reading a lot of stuff online about all the WRTC's including videos, pictures, etc. I saw a couple comments on the CQ-CONTEST reflector that this was a good book, so I took a chance as I recognized the authors callsign (N3BB) and knew he had been also at previous WRTC's and had participated as a driver and a volunteer for this one.
I found it hard to put down. This book made the event come alive and was written in a way to appeal to the hard core contester, the casual contester or even a brand new ham (or non ham). Jim really explains things well so practically anyone reading can relate quite well to everything that happened.
I already knew the outcome of WRTC 2014, having watched videos, and surfed dozens of websites, however there were details in this book that came to light (ESPECIALLY at the end) that I had no idea about.
It was well worth the $10 and if you like competitions (sports, even), camping, drama, and radio, you'll LOVE this book.
I hope Jim writes one for WRTC 2018 in Germany. Someone buy him a plane ticket ;-D
Mike VE9AA






