WRTC 2026 Not Permitting National Flags, Symbols

Symbols of national pride - and national identity - are not being permitted at this year's World Radiosport Team Championship. 

Spectators and participants can expect to see plenty of things at the World Radiosport Team Championship event in the UK this coming July. There will be antennas, rigs, cables, microphones and keys -- and plenty of spectators to cheer on the hams using them.

What will not be evident anywhere are any emblems, flags or other symbols of national identity.  The Organising Committee of WRTC 2026 has reaffirmed the approach that was used during the WRTC event held in 2023 in Bologna, Italy. That means that, as before, this year's teams will avoid national symbols of any kind. This is especially significant because it is consistent with the competition's qualification process, which identifies all participants by qualification area and not by their DXCC.

Like the Olympics, the WRTC is held every four years with different host countries each time. They have included Brazil, Finland, Germany, Russia, Slovenia and, in the US, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle.

SOTA 2026 Challenge Brings Back Activity to 2m/70cm SSB/CW

The annual “SOTA Challenge” has moved from the HF bands to 2 metres and 70 cm this year, and already the VHF/UHF SOTA activity from mountain tops has surged in January.

The availability of the cheap Quansheng UV-K5 family 2m/70cm HTs, which can have one of a choice of custom firmwares which can be loaded to these FM HTs, giving them SSB / CW reception and DSB / CW transmission capabilities, may be part of the reason for an upsurge in activity, making it easy to throw this small, cheap HT and a homemade antenna in the rucksack to allow operation on the 2m and 70cm bands not only on FM. Owners of ICOM’s IC-705, as well as older HF/VHF/UHF portable multimode radios like the Yaesu FT-817/857 range, are also being used.

VHF & UHF activity can be seen on the SOTA cluster occurring in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Given that SOTA started in 2002 with VHF communication from summits, this is somewhat of a full-circle back to the original bands. Several UK operators combine this VHF/UHF DX mode operation with activity nights on the bands, which have been organised for the last few years by the national society, the RSGB.

RSGB Welsh Regions 6 and 7 launch a 40m Challenge for February

RSGB Regional Representatives in North and South Wales have launched a new challenge. The 40 Metre Challenge encourages radio amateurs to make as many QSOs as possible on the 40m band between 1-28 February 2026.

The event has six categories to enter and is open to individual RSGB members living in Wales and members of RSGB Affiliated Clubs located in Wales. Certificates will be awarded to the top station in each category, as well as a 7MHz Challenge Trophy for the RSGB Affiliated Club with the most QSOs submitted by its membership. 

More information - https://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/headlines/2026/01/16/rsgb-regions-6-and-7-launch-a-new-challenge-for-february/