[CQ-Contest] Real Time Contest Logging

[Edward Sawyer]

As I understand it, its not actually real time logging since it only has one side of the QSO.  Its really "real time broadcasting/streaming" of the contestants.  But its not doing any logging.  The logging is still be done on the contestant computers and the other side of the QSO computer which is no where in this system as described.

That's how it seems to me at least.

Ed  N1UR

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2025 11:14:17 -0400
From: K3ZJ David Siddall <davek3zj at gmail.com>
To: CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Cc: w1rm at comcast.net
Subject: [CQ-Contest] WRTC2026 Realtime Contest Logging & Streaming
	(was: Contest Software for Chromebook)
Message-ID:
	<CABMNUBBYAWdoMwoJxYhSXHNFCQui3i9qhr5Bjd64tNmwYt+Q=g at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Pete and all,

Earlier this morning the WRTC 2026 Organizing Committee released information on the real time log scoring system that they are developing
with WRL for the July, 2026 competition in England.   While real time log
information was streamed to the cloud from each station at WRTC 2023, the WRTC 2026 committee is emphasizing that it will use it more for public-facing accurate play by play analytics and scoring. The system was tested live in this past July's IARU and is being further refined.

The employed technology has come a long way since WRTC 2002, when the Finnish organizers under OH2BH's leadership distributed Nokia cell phones to each referee to call in their team's score periodically. Then in 2014 the New England organizers, under KM3T's leadership, designed and built an automated score reporting system that included detailed information from each team that was updated every five minutes and directly fed a public-facing website designed by WA1Z, reducing the Nokia cell phones to a backup role.  This was also used at WRTC 2018 at the German event.

In 2023 the Italian organizers took it further, and in association with IW1FRU's HamAward platform (see: https://hamaward.cloud) streamed the QSO data live to the cloud and used it in real time to spot irregularities (such as "cheerleader" situations) and to activate spotting when stations were on SSB (to provide contestants an equivalent to the automatic CW spotting that exists through the RBN).

The public announcement from WRTC 2026 is at:
https://www.wrtc2026.org/2025/08/27/world-radio-league-and-wrtc-successfully-test-new-real-time-contesting-software/

73, Dave K3ZJ