Amateur Radio News and Notes 3/20/2026

In the log this week* Contest Spotlight: Virginia QSO Party* DXpedition Spotlight: CY0S Sable Island* Voice of America Staff Reinstated by U.S. District Court* Indiana Passes HOA Bill* MVARC Nets on the Air* What’s happening with DX? * Solar Activity Update* Upcoming Contests* Interesting Online Radio Content As always, links to all referenced content can be found in the show notes, or at our Substack at mvarc.substack.com Thanks for reading Amateur Radio News and Notes. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Contest Spotlight: Virginia QSO PartyThis weekend brings the 2026 edition of the Virginia QSO Party. The fun starts on Saturday, March 21, 2026 at 1400 UTC (10 AM on Saturday Eastern Time) until Sunday, March 22 at 0400 UTC (Midnight Saturday Night Eastern Time) and then continues at 1200 UTC on Sunday (8 AM Eastern Time Sunday) until 2400 UTC Sunday (8 PM Eastern Time Sunday). The VA QSO Party is always one of the best organized and most participated in QSO parties of the year. This year there is a twist for the Bonus Stations with a series of of 6 1x1 calls with a K4 prefix that spell out “LOVERS” with their suffixes to commemorate the “Virginia Is For Lovers” slogan with 50 points being awarded per station. There is even a certificate for those who get a clean sweep of all the lovers stations. There is another bonus competition to work Virginia club stations with 20 points per bonus station. As always there are 28 plaques for the high achievers and tools including a DX Cluster and mobile tracker on the VAQP Site. The exchange is serial number and County or Independent City for VA stations and Serial Number and State/Province/or “DX” for non-VA stations. So for my 42nd contact at my QTH in Fairfax County, Virginia my exchange would be “42 FFX”. All bands except the WARC bands are permitted and use of spotting clusters is permitted. Operating categories include QRP (under 5 Watts), Low Power (150 Watts and under), and High Power (over 150 Watts). Stations can be worked once per band and mode. Modes allowed are CW, Phone, and Digital, but you need to be able to get the exchange, so FT8 isn’t practical while RTTY will work. Operating classes include Single Operator, Multi-Single, and Multi-Muli with Fixed, Mobile, Expedition, and Rover categories for Multiple and Single Band entries. Logs must be submitted by April 15. This is always a blast, and your author hopes to join in this weekend, so if you hear me give me a call. Full rules and a whole lot of information can be found at https://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2026_VQP/2026_VQP_Main.html. Good luck.DXpedition Spotlight: CY0S Sable IslandImage Courtesy https://www.dx-world.net/cy0s-sable-island-dxpedition-2026/ The highly anticipated CY0S DXpedition to Sable Island is already underway and as of 0040 UTC they had 13,422 QSOs in the log with some truly massive pileups. Sable Island is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean about 95 nautical miles southeast of Nova Scotia. It is a narrow sandbar that is about 26 miles long but only 0.75 miles wide at its widest point. It is known for wild horses. The CY0S team plans to be on the island until March 31st. The team plans to work 160 meters to 6 meters as well as EME on 23 centimeters. For FT8 they plan to run Super Fox in times of heavy pileups and Fox/Hound mode later on. Being so close to the East Coast, they have been loud and busy. More information can be found at:https://www.dx-world.net/cy0s-sable-island-dxpedition-2026/https://www.qrz.com/db/CY0Shttps://t-rexsoftware.com/cy0s/index.htm#reloaded Good luck.Voice of America Staff Reinstated by U.S. District CourtImage Courtesy https://www.voanews.com/For the last year Voice of America employees have been on paid administrative leave as the current administration sought to reduce the state run broadcaster to its “statutory minimum”. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that shutdown violated federal administrative law. His order requires full-time employees to return to work by March 23 and resume international broadcasting. More information can be found at https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/17/voice-of-america-firings-illegal-judge-finds/.Indiana Passes HOA BillEarlier this month the State of Indiana passed House Bill 1152 which stipulates “A homeowners association may not adopt or enforce a regulation, rule, or other policy that has the effect of prohibiting a person from maintaining an amateur radio antenna on a property that the person owns, rents, or leases.” This law will go into effect on July 1, 2026 and should greatly assist amateurs in enjoying their hobby from their homes. While this applies only to the State of Indiana, there is legislation currently being considered by the U.S. House and Senate (H.R. 1094 and S. 459) that would enact similar protections nationwide. As the new law in Indiana shows, protections like this are possible. The ARRL has been encouraging amateur radio operators around the country to visit https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ and fill out the form to have letters sent in support of the measure to your members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to extend protections like those enacted in Indiana nationwide. MVARC Nets on the Air* 2 Meter FM Net: Tuesdays at 7 PM [146.655/- MHz (141.3 Hz PL Tone) ] * 2 Meter Digital Net: Immediately Follows 2 Meter FM Net [146.655/- MHz C4FM] * MVARC Slow Speed CW Roundtable: Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 AM [3.565 MHz CW]* MVARC Cherry Tree Net: Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 AM [3.920 MHz LSB]What’s Happening with DXThere will be a lot of DX on the air this week. Stations on the air include Sable Island (CY0S), Saint Kitts and Nevis (V47T), Maderia Island (CQ3W), Central Kiribati (T31TTT), Antigua (V62K), Bangladesh (S21WD), Belize (V31YL, V31WX), Greenland (OX3LX), Macau (XX9W), Austral Islands (TX5EU), Vanuatu (YJ0CA), Ghana (9G5RR, 9G5CC, 9G5ZP), Sint Maarten (PJ7AA), South Orkney Islands (LU1ZA), Minami Torishima (JG8NQJ/JD1), Colombia (HK3JCL), and Solomon Islands (H44MS). A calendar of DXpeditions can be found at https://dxnews.com/calendar/ Solar Activity UpdateAs we go to press the Solar Flux Index (SFI) was 106 and the estimated sunspot number was 38 with 2 numbered sunspot regions visible from Earth. Over the last week the SFI has decreased. Solar activity has been at low levels in the last 24 hours. The geomagnetic field has been at quiet levels in the last 24 hours and the Kp index reached 1 yesterday. The solar wind peaked at 428 km/s. Solar activity is predicted to be at low levels with a slight chance of M-class flares today through Sunday. The geomagnetic field is forecast to be at unsettled to major storm levels today, at active to major storm levels on Saturday, and at unsettled to minor storm levels on Sunday. The chance of solar radiation storms at the S1 or greater level is at 1% today through Sunday. R1 to R2 radio blackouts are possible in the near term with a predicted probability of 15% today through Sunday. R3 or greater blackouts are unlikely with a 1% chance predicted today through Sunday. It remains a fantastic time for amateurs to get on the air and work the world. Good sources of real-time solar information include https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/ and https://solarham.com/. A good overview of conditions can be found at https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/. To see D-layer absorption data and associated radio blackouts, visit https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/d-region-absorption-predictions-d-rap. To see real-time Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) and Critical Frequency (foF2) information from radiosonde data, visit https://prop.kc2g.com/. Upcoming ContestsThis weekend brings the Virginia QSO Party, the PODXS 070 Club St Patrick’s Day Contest, the John Moyle Memorial Field Day, the BARTG HF RTTY Contest, the Popov Memorial Contest, the Russian DX Contest, the AGCW VHF/UHF Contest, the Feld Hell Sprint, and the UBA Spring Contest on SSB. As always the K1USN SSTs, MSTs, and CWTs will also be on the air. The full contest calendar with events and exchanges can be found at https://www.contestcalendar.com/weeklycont.php.Interesting Online Radio ContentWalt K4OGO operates beach portable with the Yaesu ATAS 25 antenna - Stuart VE9CF talks to Sebastian KI2D about Ham2k Portable Logger - Mike K8MRD tests out the LDG Z-11ProII automatic antenna tuner - Dr. Tamitha Skov WX6SWW takes a look at an Earth directed solar storm - Ian 4F1EBD shares footage of the 3Y0K DXpedition leaving Bouvet - Tim K5OHY talks about the CFT1 QRP Radio Kit - Save it for Parts does satellite radio work through the International Space Station - Lewis M3HHY looks at the MLite-880 Shortwave Radio - Tim K3LR talks to Michael W8CI about the recently announced Hamvention award winners - Josh KI6NAZ upgrades his Elecraft KX2 to allow for USB C charging - Hayden VK7HH does SOTA and POTA from Tasmania - That’s it for this week.Best 73,EdN2EC This is a public episode. 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