In Part 2 of my series on my WRTC (World Radiosport Team Championship) 2026 UK experience, I talked about the preparation leading up to the actual contest portion of the event. The WRTC is an enormous undertaking, and the planning phase for one of them begins years in advance. And like any large event, not everything goes to plan!
Everyone woke up early on contest day (Saturday, July 11), ready to head out to their sites and get started with the event. The atmosphere was tense but filled with excitement. Each team gathered everything they were taking with them and started to load onto the buses before making their final checks and heading out. There was a wave of silence from headquarters. Then the organizing committee realized a miscalculation:
There weren’t enough site managers to cover all the contest sites.
Mark, M0DXR, the main organizer of WRTC 2026, pulled me aside and asked if I would be willing to be a site manager, despite the short notice. After getting a brief explanation of what exactly I would need to do, I agreed.
Then we ran into another problem: Typically, site managers go in pairs so they can take turns working and sleeping. They have to be “on call” for the duration of the contest, but there was nobody to go with me. As we quickly tried to plan out the logistics of this, we realized I’d probably have to share a tent with someone at the site managers’ HQ in the field, and the lack of other YLs at the event made the search for someone to accompany me significantly harder.
After a bit of brainstorming, we remembered that Violetta, KN2P, was also at the WRTC. We decided to ask if she would be willing to be a site manager as well. Fortunately, she agreed and we set into action. Most of the other site managers knew they would be out in the field, so they had brought everything they might need with them, including a sleeping bag or tent. Violetta and I, however, had no idea that we would end up being in the field, so we weren’t exactly prepared. Fortunately, the head of the site managers had an extra tent in his car. Violetta and I took the pillows and duvets from our hotel rooms and packed them into a box along with a few gallons of water, a roll of toilet paper, and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Before we knew it, we were in the car ready to leave.
Not even 30 minutes after I was asked to take on this role, Violetta and I were on our way to receive our assignment. Typically, the site manager’s job includes driving from site to site making sure each team and referee have everything they need (food and drinks, enough fuel for their generator, etc.). When we arrived at the site managers’ HQ, we were assigned only one site, but it was much farther away from the rest, and the conditions to get to the site were less than adequate. We had a quick lunch from the packed bags that the hotel sent with us and then headed to our site, where we would stay for the next 24 hours until the contest was over.
When we got there, we drove through about a half mile of rough stones and bushes before finally arriving at the site. We got a quick recap of our responsibilities and how to check the generator’s fuel levels properly, unloaded our things from the car, and set up our tent for the night. We decided to go for a walk since our team didn’t need anything. We found a small pond where we went for a quick swim—it was almost 95° F, so that was quite refreshing!
Afterward, we headed back up the hill and made sure the two competitors and referee didn’t need anything, checked the fuel level in the generator (there was still more than enough left!), and then had dinner. We took a quick walk around the site and found an old church to explore briefly as well. Then we headed back to the tent and got in a few hours of sleep before it was time to check the generator again. We took turns checking in with the team throughout the night. Before we knew it, the sun was rising.
Upon waking, we checked the online scoreboard and started to tear down our little campsite. The end of the contest came in no time, and we even got to watch our team compete in the final five minutes. After the contest had officially ended, we started to quickly disassemble the site to help the tear-down team as much as possible. A bus driver came to pick us all up, and we started to head back to HQ. Upon our return, I took a quick nap and then came back out with enough time to enjoy the evening with everyone before heading to bed. On our final day, most people went on day trips around the city before coming back and enjoying the closing ceremony.
While neither Violetta nor I were expecting to be site managers, it made the 2026 WRTC quite the adventure, and we both enjoyed the experience. The whole week was amazing as well, catching up with old friends and acquaintances, meeting new ones, and learning about contesting from the best in the world. I know I’m looking forward to being involved with WRTC 2030 in some way, and I hope that after having read a bit about what the WRTC experience is like in this series, you are too!
Editor’s Note: What did these contesting sites look like? Find out in this short video from WRTC 2026.
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