The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs until July 19, so there’s still plenty of time to get your fill of the planet’s most popular sport and enjoy some fun on the air while you’re watching your favorite team.
Soccer, or football, stands as the giant of global sports, with a fanbase close to four billion. Its worldwide reach is as jaw-dropping as a Pele bicycle kick. The current World Cup being held in cities around the United States is projected to reach an audience of over 5 billion viewers.
Second place on the sports-popularity list goes to cricket (2.5 billion enthusiasts), and then basketball. America’s pastime, baseball, settles for eighth position—350 million fans below table tennis— and American football just cracks the list at number 10.
Be Part of the WRTC Excitement!
For amateur radio contesting fans, the World Cup coincides with the 2026 World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) being held for the first time in the UK, July 8-13. This will mark the 10th edition of the WRTC, which will feature 50 of the world’s top two-person teams competing from equal stations dotting Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire counties in East Anglia.
The actual 24-hour competition runs from 12:00 UTC on Saturday, July 11 to 11:59 UTC on Sunday, July 12 during the IARU HF World Championship.
You can be part of the excitement by following the WRTC leaderboard in real-time (powered by the World Radio League) and getting on the air and making QSOs with competing stations. Downloadable certificates will be awarded to operators for making contacts with the 50 teams. With QSOs possible across 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters in both SSB and CW, that’s a possible 500 QSOs with WRTC competitors. When you contact one of the special WRTC stations, you can see it on the World Radio League platform. Plus, you can check which of the 50 WRTC stations you still need to contact.
Click here for full details on the WRTC 2026 Awards Program and the different certificates available.
World Cup Operating Event
You can combine your love of soccer and amateur radio by making QSOs with 16 special event stations that will be on the air until July 19 in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. U.S. special event stations are located in cities hosting World Cup matches: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Find complete details about each station’s operating schedules here.
Looking Back at the First FIFA World Cup
Scott, N3RA, DX Engineering sales manager, made CW and SSB contacts with CX2AQ and CX9AU, both located in Montevideo—Uruguay’s capital and largest city. The CX9AU card features the historic Estadio Centenario, a stadium that was built in 1929-30 to host the first FIFA World Cup, which took place July 13-30, 1930.
Uruguay had won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in soccer in 1924 and 1928, making the country a logical choice to host the first World Cup. The inaugural 13-team event was won by the Uruguayan team, which defeated Argentina 4-2. Uruguay won its second World Cup 20 years later, upsetting the host Brazilian squad 2-1 before a massive crowd of around 200,000.
Visit DXEngineering.com for everything you need to upgrade your station to make sure you’re ready for the WRTC and when special event stations and entities like Uruguay are on the air.
You’ll find transceivers, antennas, amplifiers, CW keys and paddles, headsets and speakers, reference books like “Ham Radio DX: A Complete Guide,” and much more.
Editor’s Note: Every month, DX Engineering features QSL cards from our team members’ personal collections. To highlight upcoming DXpeditions, we’ll be displaying a few of our favorite cards along with details about what it took to make these contacts. We’re excited to share some of the special cards pulled from the thousands we’ve received over the years. We look forward to seeing your cards as well!
The post It’s All in the Cards—FIFA World Cup & WRTC Edition appeared first on OnAllBands.
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