The sport has been most popular in Eastern Europe, Russia, and China, where it was often used in the physical education programs in schools.

Amateur radio was widely promoted in the schools of Northern and Eastern Europe as a modern scientific and technical activity.

As few individuals in Europe had personal automobiles at the time, most of this radio direction finding activity took place on foot, in parks, natural areas, or on school campuses.

The sport of orienteering, popular in its native Scandinavia, had begun to spread to more and more countries throughout Europe, including the nations of the Eastern Bloc.

Interest in this kind of on-foot radio direction finding activity using detailed topographic maps for navigation spread throughout Scandinavia, Eastern and Central Europe, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China.

The first World Championship was held in 1980 in Cetniewo, Poland, where competitors from eleven European and Asian countries participated.

Athletes from twenty-six nations attended the 2000 World Championship in Nanjing, China, the first to be held outside of Europe.

These rules have been revised and updated over the years, increasing the number of gender and age categories into which competitors are classified, as well as formalizing the start and finish line procedures.

While some variations exist, these standardized rules have since been used worldwide for ARDF competitions, and the IARU has become the principal international organization promoting the sport.

Somewhere within the competition area designated on the map, the meet organizer will have placed five low power radio transmitters.

Depending on entry classification, a competitor will attempt to locate as many as three, four, or all five of the transmitters in the woods, and then travel to the finish line in the shortest possible time.

Competitors start at staggered intervals, are individually timed, and are expected to perform all radio direction finding and navigation skills on their own.

Radio direction finding equipment for eighty meters, an HF band, is relatively easy to design and inexpensive to build.

Competitors on an eighty-meter course must use bearings to determine the locations of the transmitters and choose the fastest route through the terrain to visit them.

Regulatory prohibitions on the use of amateur radio frequencies for commercial use generally preclude the awarding of monetary prizes to competitors.

The IARU rules for international competitions recommend that courses be designed for six to ten kilometers of total travel distance through the terrain.

[18] ARDF equipment is a specialty market, and much of what is available for purchase comes from small commercial vendors or small-batch production by individuals.

Each transmitter sends a unique identification that can be easily interpreted even by those unfamiliar with the Morse code by counting the number of dits that follow a series of dashes.

Competitors need to locate the control flag at the transmitter site and use the punch device to record their visit.

Good course design will attempt to preclude, as much as possible, runners interfering with the transmitter equipment as they approach the control.

At large international or national events, jurors might be present at transmitter controls to ensure fair play.

This includes a radio receiver that can tune in the specific frequency of transmission being used for the event, an attenuator or variable gain control, and a directional antenna.

Flexible steel tape enables the antenna elements to flex and not break when encountering vegetation in the forest.

ARDF receiver equipment is designed to be lightweight and easy to operate while the competitor is in motion as well as rugged enough to withstand use in areas of thick vegetation.

Nylon pants, shirts, or suits, gaiters or padded socks for lower leg protection, and specialty shoes for cross-country running through wooded terrain are popular choices.

In addition to the radio equipment and topographic map, an ARDF competitor uses a magnetic compass for navigation.

They use lower powered transmitters on the eighty meter band which transmit in sequence for only 12 seconds with the cycle repeating every minute.

In a Fox Oring course, the radio transmitters put out very little power, and can be received over only very short distances, often no more than 100 meters.

The transmitters are physically small, and marked with a control card that is no larger than a typical postcard with a unique number identification.

Because of the low power and short distances involved, most ROCA competitors walk the entire course, and focus their attention on the radio direction finding tasks rather than navigation.