Thank you to the volunteers
A championship like this does not happen just because someone designs four courses and sets out some transmitters. A great many people worked before, during, and after the competitions to make the event possible. The Grasshopper Fire made that work considerably harder by forcing a last-minute move of all four competitions to Skyline Sno-Park. People adjusted plans, printed new materials, moved equipment, staffed starts and finishes, drove shuttles, monitored transmitters, retrieved controls, and generally did whatever was needed. Thank you to all of them.
Organizing team
Volunteers and competitors who stepped in
2026 USA and IARU Region 2 Radio Orienteering Championships
The 25th USA and 13th IARU Region 2 Radio Orienteering Championships were held August 12–16, 2026, in the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon. Competitors from the United States, Canada, Germany, and Estonia took part in Sprint, Foxoring, 2-meter Classic, and 80-meter Classic competitions.
Mt Hood Orienteering hosted the championships. Dale Hunt, WB6BYU, and Charles Scharlau, NZØI, served as event co-directors and course designers. Tony Pinkham, KA7AHP, prepared the competition maps, and Kathleen Kerns, K7KER, served as registrar.
That description makes the event sound more orderly than it actually was.
During the weeks before the championships, the Grasshopper Fire threatened two of the areas we had planned to use. U.S. Forest Service closures eventually made both the Billy Bob and White River venues unavailable. On August 6, less than a week before competitors were due to arrive, organizers received permission to move the remaining championship activities to Skyline Sno-Park.
That meant replacing courses that had been designed for other terrain and putting all four competitions, along with the model and equipment-check activities, on the Skyline map. It also meant that the same general terrain would be used repeatedly, and that the Classic courses, in particular, would be shorter than the target lengths normally specified in the rules.
But shorter does not necessarily mean easier.
Skyline contains a lot of deadfall. In places, competitors had to climb over log after log, and there are relatively few roads and trails. Even areas mapped as white, runnable forest could be slow. Green areas could be much worse. Those conditions help explain why relatively short straight-line courses still produced very respectable winning times.
Fortunately, the wildfire and smoke conditions improved enough for the championships to proceed on schedule. The obvious question was whether four competitions squeezed onto one relatively compact map could still provide a proper championship-level challenge. Most of the competitors seemed to think that they did. The results provide some evidence that supports that conclusion.
Ideal-order details are shown in six places throughout the article, starting in Sprint.
Sprint
The Sprint opened the championships. This is the shortest and fastest of the four competition formats, but that does not make it simple. Two groups of 80-meter transmitters operate on different frequencies, with each transmitter sending for only 12 seconds during a repeating one-minute cycle. Competitors need to run quickly, keep track of which transmitter group they are hunting, and make radio-direction-finding decisions with very little time to think about them.
Nadia Scharlau, KO4ADV, recorded the fastest time of the day at 18:33 while winning W65. Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI, won M50 in 19:59. Nicolai Mejevoi won M60 in 21:03.
Eduard Nasybulin is M40 by age, but there were no other M40 competitors. Rather than compete alone, he elected to enter the open M21 category. He won M21 ahead of Gheorghe Fala and William Allen, KG4OQO.
Several age categories used identical course configurations. That gave us a way to compare competitors who were not officially competing against one another, which becomes particularly useful when looking at results from categories with only one or two entrants.
Only three of the 22 competitors who completed their full required Sprint course followed Radio-Oracle’s calculated ideal transmitter order exactly. Nicolai Mejevoi and Robert Haddow, VE3JT, followed the M60 ideal order (4, 3, 5, Sp, 3F, 4F, 5F). Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI, followed the M50 ideal order (3, 2, 5, 1, Sp, 1F, 2F, 3F, 5F).
Foxoring
Foxoring followed on Friday. Approximate transmitter locations are shown on the map, but that only gets a competitor into the right neighborhood. The transmitters operate at very low power, so competitors still need to navigate close to each circle and then use the receiver to pinpoint the fox. Good map navigation and efficient route selection matter at least as much as the final radio search.
The M60 race produced Nicolai Mejevoi’s closest contest of the week. Mejevoi won in 1:12:20, with Evgeny Danilov, KQ4QYZ, only 1:33 behind him. No one got that close to Mejevoi again during the championships.
Gheorghe Fala won M21 by 25:45 over Sprint winner Eduard Nasybulin. Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI, collected his second M50 victory. Nadia Scharlau, KO4ADV, won W65 and was also fastest among everyone using her course configuration.
Six of the 21 competitors who completed their full Foxoring course followed the calculated ideal transmitter order exactly:
- William Wright, WB6CMD, and Alla Mezhevaya — M60/W55 ideal order (1F, 3F, 4F, 2, 3, 4, 2F)
- William Allen, KG4OQO — M21 ideal order (3, 1F, 3F, 5, 1, 4F, 2, 5F, 4, 2F)
- Nadia Scharlau, KO4ADV, Nicholas Roethe, DF1FO, and Michael Schuh, KF7QDZ — W65/M70 ideal order (3F, 4F, 1, 5, 3, 2F)
Bear bites fox
One Foxoring control was found knocked over, with a couple of suspicious holes in the transmitter bag. Nobody saw what happened, and no competitor reported encountering dangerous wildlife. “Bear attack” became the convenient shorthand, but the actual culprit remains unknown.
2-Meter Classic
Saturday’s 2-meter Classic provided perhaps the best evidence that the shortened emergency courses had not become trivial.
Classic radio orienteering uses transmitters that operate sequentially on the same frequency, normally for one minute each during a repeating five-minute cycle. Competitors need to use bearings and signal strengths to estimate where the transmitters are located, decide which ones they are required to find, and then decide in what order to hunt them.
Doing that on 2 meters introduces another complication. VHF signals can reflect from terrain and other objects. A strong bearing is not necessarily a good bearing. The competitor still has to decide which information to trust.
Nineteen competitors found every transmitter required for their respective courses. Only four of those 19 followed Radio-Oracle’s calculated ideal order exactly.
Evgeny Danilov, KQ4QYZ, and Matthew Robbins, AA9YH, followed the M60 ideal order (1, 4, 5, 3). Nadia Scharlau, KO4ADV, and Nicholas Roethe, DF1FO, followed the W65/M70 ideal order (4, 5, 2).
The M21 results deserve a little explanation.
William Allen, KG4OQO, found four of his five required foxes and finished in 1:38:15. Eduard Nasybulin also found four of the required 2-meter foxes. His SPORTident record also contained a punch from an 80-meter Fox 4 that was on the course, instead of the required 2-meter Fox 4. Only required transmitters count, so Allen and Nasybulin each had four valid foxes. Allen’s faster time put him ahead.
Gheorghe Fala reached the finish sooner than either of them, in 1:27:08, but he had found only two of his five required foxes. Thus, he placed behind both Allen and Nasybulin. This is a useful illustration of a basic ARDF scoring rule: first count the required transmitters found; only then compare elapsed time.
The M50 results provide a different sort of example. Estonian competitor Andres Viira was not eligible for USA or IARU Region 2 medals, but he was the fastest M50 competitor on the course. His time was 1:35:58, which was 21:31 faster than official champion Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI.
Afonkin’s victory was his third consecutive USA and Region 2 gold. Matthew Craig, KM8WBC, finished only 1:58 behind Afonkin in the official standings.
Nicolai Mejevoi won M60 by 28:09, with Robert Haddow, VE3JT, second among the M60 competitors.
Erin Hammer’s W35 result is also more interesting than the category size suggests. She was the only W35 entrant, but she shared a Classic course with competitors from other categories. Her time was the fastest on that course, 16:29 ahead of the next finisher.
80-Meter Classic
The championships concluded Sunday with the 80-meter Classic.
Bearings on 80 meters are generally less affected by reflections than they are on 2 meters, but the event still requires good map navigation and good strategic decisions. Knowing approximately where the foxes are is only part of the problem. The competitor also has to decide how to string them together efficiently.
Nicolai Mejevoi completed his M60 sweep with a winning time of 56:49, 17:38 ahead of the next finisher. His four winning margins were 4:07 in Sprint, 1:33 in Foxoring, 28:09 on 2 meters, and 17:38 on 80 meters. M60 was also the deepest category at the championships, with roughly ten competitors racing each day. That makes Mejevoi’s four-race performance particularly impressive.
Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI, also completed a four-race sweep in M50, winning the 80-meter Classic in 57:21. Andres Viira finished in 1:04:51, second-fastest among all M50 competitors even though he was not eligible for USA or Region 2 medals.
Gheorghe Fala won M21 in 1:05:45, 17:09 ahead of Eduard Nasybulin. Fala therefore finished the championships with two M21 wins, along with second- and third-place finishes. Nasybulin won Sprint and finished second in the other three published M21 results. Both had excellent weeks, but Fala’s two wins give him the stronger overall M21 record.
William Allen, KG4OQO, added an 80-meter bronze to his Sprint and Foxoring bronzes and his 2-meter victory.
Five of the 26 competitors who completed their full required 80-meter course followed the calculated ideal order exactly:
- Mitch Collinsworth, K2VD — M60 ideal order (3, 2, 4, 1)
- Matthew Craig, KM8WBC, and Gheorghe Fala — M50/M21 ideal order (5, 3, 2, 4, 1)
- Nadia Scharlau, KO4ADV, and Anthony Papathanasopoulos, K7ASP — W65/M19 ideal order (3, 5, 4)
For Scharlau, this was her third exact ideal-order performance of the championships.
Looking Beyond the Medal Table
Medal counts are useful, but they do not tell the whole story. Some categories were large. Others had only one or two competitors. Fortunately, several categories shared the same courses, and the SPORTident data gives us additional ways to compare performances.
Nadia Scharlau, KO4ADV, won all four W65 competitions. More importantly, she was also fastest among all competitors using her course configuration in every race. Thus, her four gold medals were not simply the result of competing in a small category.
She also matched the calculated ideal order in three competitions: Foxoring (3F, 4F, 1, 5, 3, 2F), 2-meter Classic (4, 5, 2), and 80-meter Classic (3, 5, 4). No one else did that three times.
Nicholas Roethe, DF1FO, was the only other competitor to match a calculated ideal order more than once. He also swept the Region 2 M70 championships and consistently ran near the front of the combined group using his shared courses.
Adalia Schafrath-Craig, KA4CSC, was the only W19 competitor, but her times held up well when compared with others on matching courses. She was second-fastest on the shared course in Sprint, second in both Classics, and fourth in Foxoring.
Erin Hammer was the only W35 entrant. But in both Classic races she was fastest among everyone on her shared course, by 16:29 on 2 meters and 11:33 on 80 meters.
Matthew Craig, KM8WBC, had a remarkably consistent week: four USA and Region 2 M50 silver medals, all behind Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI.
Robert Haddow, VE3JT, moved steadily up through a strong M60 field: fourth in Sprint, third in Foxoring, and second in both Classics. His Beacon-to-Finish splits are also interesting. Across the four races, those four splits totaled only 26 seconds. Only Gheorghe Fala, with a combined 19 seconds, was faster over those final legs.
Andres Viira provides another reason not to equate medals with outright course performance. He was not eligible for USA or Region 2 medals, but he was the fastest M50 competitor in the 2-meter Classic and second-fastest in M50 on 80 meters.
Some newer Radio-O competitors
The championships also gave several local orienteers and newer radio-orienteers an opportunity to participate in a major event. Anthony “Toto” Papathanasopoulos, K7ASP; Lucie Gouin, KK7URH; Melissa Nelson, WA7MEL; Michael Nelson, N7IQM; and Mike Poulsen, KK7RQD, were among the newer local participants. Poulsen brought plenty of traditional-orienteering experience, but this was his first Radio-O event.
Were the Short Courses Too Easy?
This is the question that interested me most after looking at the results.
For each category, Radio-Oracle contained a calculated ideal transmitter order. After the competition, we could compare that calculated order with the order actually used by each competitor.
Across the four races, competitors completed their full required transmitter sets on 88 recorded runs. Only 18 of those 88 runs—about 20 percent—used the exact calculated ideal order.
- Sprint: 3 exact ideal-order runs among 22 complete courses
- Foxoring: 6 among 21
- 2-meter Classic: 4 among 19
- 80-meter Classic: 5 among 26
Put another way, four out of five competitors who found every required transmitter still chose an order different from the calculated ideal.
The 2-meter Classic is a good example. Nineteen competitors completely solved their assigned courses, so the courses were certainly achievable. But only four used the calculated ideal order. That is what I would expect from a course that is solvable, but still requires real decisions.
There is an important qualification, however. “Ideal” in this analysis means the order that minimizes the modeled route length. It does not mean that the same route was necessarily fastest on the ground. Skyline is a very uneven forest. One straight line may pass through relatively open woods, while another crosses deadfall or green vegetation. Transmitter timing matters. On 2 meters, reflections matter. Thus, this analysis is useful, but it should not be mistaken for proof that every competitor who chose a different order made a mistake.
The converse is also true: following the calculated ideal order does not guarantee a win. It eliminates one possible source of inefficiency. It does not make the competitor run faster, take better bearings, avoid deadfall, or locate silent transmitters more efficiently.
Nicolai Mejevoi is a useful example. He followed the M60 ideal order in Sprint (4, 3, 5, Sp, 3F, 4F, 5F), but not in Foxoring or either Classic. He still won all four M60 races.
So what does the statistic tell us? It tells us that the courses were still making competitors think. That is important because the emergency move to Skyline gave us several reasons to worry that the championships might become too easy: short courses, a relatively small map, and repeated exposure to the same terrain.
The evidence points the other way. The courses were compact, but they continued to test radio-direction finding, navigation, route selection, and the ability to move efficiently through difficult terrain.
Behind the Championships
Some details do not fit neatly into a race-by-race recap, but they are part of the story. They are collected here rather than interrupting the main narrative.
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Wildfire response and last-minute redesign
The Grasshopper Fire closed the Billy Bob and White River venues, forcing all four competitions onto Skyline. Organizers continued monitoring fire behavior, road access, smoke, and evacuation information throughout the week. Some lodging areas around Government Camp were under “Level 1: Be Ready” evacuation status, while Skyline remained available for competition.
Remote finishes and shuttle improvisation
The Classic races used remote finishes and vehicle shuttles back toward the start and parking area. That gave the courses more variety and helped solve some venue-layout problems, but the shuttles were slower than expected. The access road had potholes and dust, and shuttle vehicles needed to yield to active competitors. On Sunday, some finished competitors chose to walk back along the road rather than wait.
Sunday injuries
Two competitors suffered significant falls during the 80-meter Classic. Alla Mezhevaya sustained a displaced wrist fracture and later underwent surgery to stabilize it. Evgeny Danilov, KQ4QYZ, suffered an arm laceration that required stitches. Both were subsequently reported to be recovering normally.
Friday pizza banquet
The Friday evening pizza banquet gave competitors and organizers a chance to stop thinking about transmitter bearings for a while and spend some time together. Kathleen Kerns, K7KER, arrived late because she was still getting medal labels printed while also waiting for brownies to finish baking. That probably says more about the volunteer workload than any formal description could.
Why the “ideal order” is only one measure
The calculated ideal orders are based on the modeled course geometry. At Skyline, a nominally shorter fox order could still be slower because actual travel depended heavily on deadfall, vegetation, availability of roads and trails, and—in the 2-meter Classic—signal reflections. The LiveLox GPS tracks provide a much richer picture of what competitors actually did on the ground.
In the End
Only days before competitors arrived, major parts of the original championship plan had become unusable. The organizers had to replace courses, move everything to Skyline, obtain new approvals, and continue monitoring fire, smoke, road access, and other details while still preparing to run a national and international championship.
The resulting event was not the event we had originally designed. The same map was used for all four competitions. Many courses, particularly the Classics, were shorter than the normal target lengths. Those were real compromises.
But all four championship races were completed, and the shortened distances did not make the event easy.
Nicolai Mejevoi swept a deep M60 field. Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI, swept M50. Nadia Scharlau, KO4ADV, combined four W65 victories with the fastest performances on her shared courses and the strongest ideal-order record of the championships. Gheorghe Fala had the strongest overall four-race record in a competitive M21 field. Other interesting performances become visible only after looking at shared courses, splits, and punch sequences.
And here is one number I keep coming back to: competitors completed 88 full assigned courses during the four races, but followed the calculated ideal transmitter order only 18 times.
The courses were shorter than planned. They were not simple.
Given the circumstances, I think the championships accomplished what mattered. They provided a fair and demanding test of radio direction finding, navigation, strategy, and execution—and they happened at all only because a lot of people were willing to adapt and help.