RSGB 2024 Convention: World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) 2026

Andy Cook, G4PIQ
World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) 2026 brings the Olympics of amateur radio to the UK in July 2026. The event will bring around 50 teams of two to compete on a level playing field in the same geographic region using identical antennas, output power and other operating conditions. Prospective team members are currently competing fiercely to qualify
for the competition. The team draw their operating site, their referee and call sign and then they all go off and operate the 24-hour International Amateur Radio Union 2026 Contest.
There will be live scoreboards available, which will add to the excitement of this competition for the many visitors expected, as well as for the wider community watching offline. Making that playing field as level as possible is an important and interesting technical challenge. This presentation looks in more detail at what makes up a station, what has been done in the past to ensure even-handedness, and how the team is planning to learn from all that accumulated knowledge to make the UK event a great success.

About Andy:
Andy Cook, G4PIQ obtained his licence at the age of 16, having spent a number of years as an SWL prior to this. He spent his first 10 months working DX and contesting on HF with simple equipment, before he became exposed to the delights of VHF DX. VHF DXing and contesting is a long-standing passion, and over time Andy has built up to a station capable of CW EME and competitive at a European level for 2m contests. He has
taken part in VHF expeditions to Iceland and the Faroes, HF contest expeditions to West Africa, and some HF and VHF operating as part of a team providing communications to the overland Camel Trophy event from 1992 to 2000 in many unusual locations on four continents. Andy has always been excited by any form of contesting, and in 1990 started working with
Bob, G4BAH (sadly now Silent Key) and a wider team to build what became the M6T contest station. He became a WRTC team leader in 2002 and 2010 and continues to operate in as many contests as time allows. He is also Director of Sites and Stations for WRTC2026. In addition, Andy is a long-standing member of the RSGB’s Contest Committees, and has been chair of the VHF Contest Committee for over 10 years in two stints.