The World Radiosport Team Championship 2026, held in the United Kingdom from July 8 to 13, has highlighted two issues that are becoming increasingly important in modern radiosport: contest integrity and real-time scoring.
WRTC 2026 brought together 50 teams of two operators competing from stations designed to provide conditions that were as equal as possible. More than 260,000 QSOs were made during the event, while live scoring and real-time standings allowed the amateur radio community around the world to follow the competition as it unfolded.
The initial results placed:
- MB2M – VE3DZ / UW7LL – 7,460,840
- MB5O – DJ5MW / DM5EE – 7,369,782
- MB1I – E77DX / DJ4MX – 7,346,885
However, on July 27, 2026, the WRTC 2026 Organising Committee announced that it had identified a number of discrepancies in the logs of some competing stations which could potentially affect the final standings.
The Judging Committee was therefore asked to carry out a new comprehensive analysis of the results, with the organisers emphasizing the importance of fairness and competition integrity.
Whatever the final outcome of this process may be, the WRTC 2026 experience raises an important question for the future of radiosport:
How can technology make contests both more engaging to follow and increasingly transparent?
From Traditional Contesting to Live Contesting
For decades, amateur radio contests followed a very simple sequence.
Operators participated in the contest, submitted their logs and waited for the organisers to complete the checking process before the final results were published.
Technology is gradually changing this model.
Modern contest logging software can now exchange information with external platforms while the competition is taking place, making it possible to build live leaderboards and allow participants and spectators to follow the development of the contest in real time.
WRTC 2026 demonstrated how important this concept can become.
A major radio competition can now be followed almost like a sporting event, with continuously updated scores and standings available to the public.
For the EUDX Contest, this represents an extremely interesting direction.
EUDX Contest Live Score
The EUDX Contest team is currently developing its own platform called:
EUDX Contest Live Score
The system is being developed specifically for the EUDX Contest and integrated directly into the contest’s WordPress infrastructure.
The objective of the project is to allow participating stations to send information from their contest logging software to the EUDX server while the contest is taking place.
The server can then process the received information and update the EUDX Live Score leaderboard.
The first working version of the platform has already been developed and is currently undergoing testing.
Direct Connection from Contest Loggers
One of the main objectives of the project is to make participation as simple as possible for operators.
The current EUDX Live Score system has been designed to receive contest data from some of the most widely used contest logging programs:
- N1MM Logger+
- DXLog
- QARTest
The communication is based on the UDP data generated by the logging software.
Once the station has configured its logger with the EUDX Live Score server information, QSOs can be transmitted to the platform while they are entered in the operator’s log.
The architecture currently being tested can therefore be represented simply as:
Radio → Contest Logger → UDP → EUDX Server → Live Score
This means that the operator can continue using the contest software normally, while the EUDX platform receives the information necessary to update the online standings.
Station Registration
Before participating in the Live Score system, a station registers through the EUDX website.
The registration procedure identifies the participating station and its contest category.
The system then associates the data received from the logger with the corresponding station.
This is particularly important because the same server infrastructure must be able to receive information from many different stations simultaneously.
Each registered station is therefore identified by the platform and associated with its declared contest information.
The registration system has been designed to integrate with the categories already used by the EUDX Contest.
European, DX and Overall Standings
The current EUDX Live Score interface follows the same basic philosophy used for the official EUDX Contest results.
The live leaderboard can be viewed according to three main classifications:
European Stations
DX Stations
Overall
This makes it possible to follow the competition from different perspectives.
A European participant can immediately compare their performance with other European stations, while DX participants can follow their own ranking.
At the same time, the Overall view provides a global picture of the competition.
A Live Score That Evolves QSO by QSO
The most interesting aspect of the system is that the leaderboard is no longer something that exists only after the contest.
As participating stations make contacts and their logging software sends the information to the EUDX server, the data available to the Live Score platform can change continuously.
The contest therefore becomes something that can also be followed while it is happening.
This is particularly interesting for spectators, clubs and other radio amateurs who may want to follow the progress of individual stations during the 24 hours of the EUDX Contest.
The objective is not to replace traditional contesting.
On the contrary, the purpose is to make the competition more visible and more engaging.
Live Score and Official Results Are Two Different Things
There is, however, one fundamental distinction.
A Live Score is not an official contest result.
The information displayed during the contest is based on the data transmitted by participating stations.
The final score must instead be determined after the contest through the normal log submission and checking process.
The two phases should therefore remain clearly separated:
During the contest
Logger → EUDX Live Score → Live Leaderboard
After the contest
Cabrillo Log → Log Checking → Verified Score → Official Results
The events surrounding WRTC 2026 demonstrate precisely why this distinction is important.
Real-time scoring can make the competition much more exciting to follow, but only the subsequent verification of the logs can establish the official result.
An Internal EUDX Infrastructure
The development of EUDX Contest Live Score is also part of a broader technological strategy for the contest.
EUDX is progressively developing an internal infrastructure dedicated specifically to the management of the competition.
Rather than relying exclusively on external platforms, the objective is to develop tools designed around the particular requirements of the EUDX Contest.
The Live Score platform is one component of this process.
The system is being developed directly within the EUDX web environment and can therefore evolve together with the contest itself.
This also allows the Contest Committee to maintain control over the way categories, stations and live data are managed.
Currently Under Development
It is important to emphasize that EUDX Contest Live Score is currently under development and testing.
The present platform already represents an important technical step: different logging programs can communicate with the EUDX infrastructure and transmit QSO information that can be associated with registered stations and used for the Live Score environment.
Testing is currently focused on making the communication between the different loggers and the EUDX server as simple and reliable as possible.
Further development will continue before the system is introduced as part of the contest’s operational infrastructure.
Looking Towards EUDX Contest 2027
The development of the Live Score platform is part of the technological evolution planned for the EUDX Contest 2027.
The objective is clear:
to make the EUDX Contest easier to follow while preserving the distinction between real-time competition data and verified official results.
The experience of WRTC 2026 shows that radiosport is moving towards a new model in which the competition can increasingly be followed in real time.
EUDX Contest intends to move in the same direction.
Our vision can be summarized very simply:
ON THE AIR
Station → Logger → EUDX Live Score → Live Leaderboard
and, after the contest:
Cabrillo Log → EUDX Log Checking → Verified Results
These are two different processes, but together they can contribute to a more modern, transparent and engaging contest.
The EUDX Contest Live Score project is our next step in that direction.
The contest takes place on the air — but now the world can follow it live.