The World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) is being staged in the UK for the first time, with East Anglia hosting the world’s leading amateur radio contest this week.
Around 50 teams from across the globe will compete between 8 and 13 July at sites across Norfolk and Suffolk, aiming to be crowned world champions after a 24-hour contest involving thousands of radio contacts using Morse code and voice communications.
As part of the event, pupils from the amateur radio club at Sandringham School in Hertfordshire visited the championship headquarters at Wyboston Lakes, where they were introduced to competitive amateur radio and had the opportunity to make live contacts using the special event callsign GB26WRTC.
The students, from Year 7 through to sixth form, successfully made a radio contact with an operator in Cyprus.
Alan Gray, executive headteacher at Sandringham School, said: “Events like WRTC are a brilliant opportunity for students to see amateur radio in a new setting, outside of the school club. The hobby offers many different features, and competition is just one of them – it may even inspire them to take part in contests themselves.”
The event has been organised by the WRTC 2026 committee, which has spent the past three years preparing to bring the championship to the UK. Hundreds of volunteers are supporting the competition across 50 contest sites around Thetford, Brandon, Euston and Ixworth Thorpe.
Mark Haynes, chairman of the WRTC 2026 organising committee, said: “For the first time in history, the premier amateur radio sporting event of WRTC will be hosted in the UK. We are proud to be running this exciting international competition, where we look forward to witnessing a truly nail-biting battle of the world’s elite radio contesters.”
The Radio Society of Great Britain, which is headquartered in Bedford, is an official partner of the event.
