What is the WRTC?
The WRTC (World Radiosport Team Championship) is best referred to as “The Olympics of Ham Radio.” The event takes place every four years in varying locations, and the objective is to create a level playing field for the top contesters to compete against each other to determine who is the best in the world.
The qualification period for the WRTC begins a few years before the event takes place. To qualify, hopeful competitors must take part in numerous predefined contests. By participating in these contests, they accrue points which are used to determine who attends the WRTC event as a competitor.
Once the selections of team leaders are made based on points, they select a team member to compete with them—every team competing at the WRTC is a pair. During the actual contest, the two-person teams are assigned referees who come with them to their sites and listen to their operating for the entire contest, much like a referee would watch and monitor the contestants at a sporting event. Since the objective of the WRTC is to put the top contesters on a level playing field, the contestants are provided with the exact same basic antenna setup. They must bring their own radios and other equipment, like laptops and keys.
My Road to WRTC 2026 UK
While the WRTC is a bucket list item for many contesters, it’s not very well known outside of the contesting sphere. I first learned about the WRTC in the summer of 2023 from a presentation at the YOTA camp in Ottawa. I was immediately fascinated. Before learning about the WRTC, I wasn’t involved in contesting at all. I participated in the ARRL School Club Roundups with my school’s club members and had done a few QSO parties but had never done a serious contest. It inspired me to give contesting a try. I participated in my first contest just a few weeks after learning about the WRTC– the IOTA contest that I did on the YDXA (Dave Kalter Youth DX Adventure) at K3LR. I had so much fun with this contest that I considered trying to qualify for WRTC 2026 as a competitor, but I decided that between balancing school and not having very much contesting experience under my belt, it would be best to wait.
I was still interested in the WRTC and contesting, so I started to participate in more contests and tried to learn as much about contesting as I could. I started to get to know the other hams who make up the contesting sphere in amateur radio and realized that even if I wouldn’t attend as a competitor, I would go to WRTC 2026 in England (July 8-13) to meet many of my contesting friends and see how the event was run.
As WRTC 2026 approached, I started to make plans about how I could attend. I eventually decided I wanted to volunteer to help with the event, so I joined the pre-event public relations team. I had a lot of fun bouncing ideas about how we could publicize it and improve the 2026 edition. I also decided that I wanted to help out at the event’s headquarters to get an even better idea of how the event was run and what went on behind the scenes.
I got in touch with organizing committee members to see if volunteering would be possible, and luckily it was. I excitedly agreed to help out with the event and made plans to travel there. I booked the Eurostar from Paris to London, but it ended up getting canceled a few days before I was planning to travel, so I quickly booked a flight so that I could still make it on time.
I arrived at the venue, checked into my room, and had dinner with a few acquaintances that I hadn’t seen in a while because I had been in Germany for my exchange year. After we had caught up a bit, the volunteer team got to work sorting the welcome bags for each attendee. A few hours—and a few hundred bags later—we finished up and headed to bed to get some sleep for the next day. After this first day there, it felt almost surreal for me to finally be at a WRTC. I went to bed eagerly awaiting the rest of the week.
Stay tuned to OnAllBands for details of KE8LQR’s weeklong experience at WRTC 2026 UK in Part 2 of her series. Also read her WRTC article on “How It Feels to Be a Young Ham in a Roomful of Experts.”
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Editor’s Note: It takes an incredible volunteer effort to make the “Olympics of Ham Radio” happen. Watch volunteers build contest sites in this video from WRTC 2026 UK.
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