Amateur Radio News and Notes 3/27/2026

In the log this week* Contest Spotlight: CQ World Wide WPX Contest* DXpedition Update: CY0S Sable Island* DXpedition Update: S21WD Bangladesh* Amateur Radio News and Notes on Spring Break Next Week* 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: CQ World Wide WPX ContestThis weekend continues the fun of contest season with the CQ World Wide WPX Contest on SSB (CW comes at the end of May). WPX is one of the most popular contests of the year and an easy way to work a ton of DX very quickly. The objective of this contest is to make as many contacts with as many different prefixes as possible during the 48 hours of the contest. The fun starts on 0000 UTC on Saturday, March 28 (that’s 8 PM Eastern Time Friday Night) until 2359 UTC on Sunday (that’s 7:59 PM Eastern Time on Sunday Night). The bands of operation are the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands. The exchange is RST plus a progressive serial number starting with 001. So for my 42nd contact, the exchange would be “59 42”. The score is the total number of QSO points multiplied by the number of distinct prefixes worked. For the purposes of the contest a prefix is the letter and number combination forming the first part of the call. So for me (N2EC) my prefix would be N2. As you can imagine, there are a lot of prefixes out there, so these multipliers can escalate quickly, and the contest encourages a lot of rare prefixes and special event stations on the air. QSO points between stations on the same continent but different countries are worth 1 point on the high bands (10, 15, and 20 meters) and 2 points on the low bands (40, 80, and 160 meters). North American stations only get 2 points on the high bands and 4 points on the low bands. Contacts between stations on different continents are 3 points on the high bands and 6 points on the low bands. Entry categories include Single Operator All Band or Single Band at QRP (5 Watts or less), Low Power (100 Watts or Less), and High Power (up to 1500 Watts). There are also overlay categories for Single Operators for Tribander or Single Element antennas, a Rookie category for ops licenesed less than 3 years, Classic Operator where ops only run 24 of the 48 hours and use no spotting assistance, and Youth with ops 25 years of age and younger. For Multi-Operator categories (all band only) there are Single Transmitter or Multi-One at High and Low Power, Two Transmitter or Multi-Two, and Multi-Transmitter or Multi-Unlimited with a maximum of 6 transmitters, one per band, at any one time. There is also a Multi-Transmitter Distributed or Multi-Distributed which allows up to 6 signals from different locations so long as they are in the same DXCC Entity and CQ Zone. Logs must be submitted within 48 hours of the end of the contest. The full details and rules can be found at https://cqwpx.com/rules/. Good luck.DXpedition Updates: CY0S Sable Island Image Courtesy https://www.dx-world.net/cy0s-sable-island-dxpedition-2026/ As we went to press the CY0S DXpedition in Sable Island had over 76,000 QSOs in the log on their ClubLog Livestream. They have been all over the bands and loud to the East Coast. This week Tim K3LR of DX Engineering interviewed the team from Sable Island and got an idea of how their operation has been going and what the setup looks like. They’ll be on Sable Island until March 31st, so if you haven’t gotten them in the logs, now is the time.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.DXpedition Update: S21WD BangladeshImage Courtesy https://next-generation-dx.com/s2/Another active DXpedition is S21WD in Bangladesh who had logged over 38,000 QSOs as we went to press in the log on their ClubLog Livestream. This DXpedition is being led by a group of young amateurs and has been very successful so far. They plan to be on the air until April 1st, so look for them on the bands. More information can be found on their site at https://next-generation-dx.com/s2/. Good luck!Amateur Radio News and Notes on Spring Break Next WeekAmateur Radio News and Notes will be taking the week off next week for Spring Break, so there won’t be an edition next week. We plan to be back in action on April 10 for the next episode. In the meantime, we wish you and yours a great start to Spring and good DX.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 in the next two weeks. Stations on the air include Sable Island (CY0S), Bangladesh (S21WD), Montserrat (VP2M), Saint Kitts and Nevis (V47T), Madeira Island (CQ3W), Martinique (TO7O, FM/EA1BP), Bermuda (VP9/AA1AC), Central Kiribati (T31TTT), Antigua (V62K), Greenland (OX3LX), Cook Islands (E51ANQ), Macau (XX9W), Vanuatu (YJ0CA), Ghana (9G5RR, 9G5CC, 9G5ZP), Sint Maarten (PJ7AA), South Orkney Islands (LU1ZA), Austral Islands (TX5EU), 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 152 and the estimated sunspot number was 103 with 7 numbered sunspot regions visible from Earth. Over the last week the SFI has increased. Solar activity has been at moderate levels in the last 24 hours. The geomagnetic field has been at quiet to unsettled levels in the last 24 hours and the Kp index reached 3 yesterday. The solar wind peaked at 543 km/s. Solar activity is predicted to be at low levels with a chance of M-class flares today through Sunday. The geomagnetic field is forecast to be at quiet to unsettled levels today and Sunday and at quiet levels on Saturday. 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 30% today through Sunday. R3 or greater blackouts are unlikely with a 5% 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 CQ World Wide WPX Contest on SSB, the Sasquatch Stomp, the Bill Windle QSO Party, and the Africa All Mode International DX Contest. Next weekend brings the Louisiana QSO Party, the Mississippi QSO Party, the YBDXPI SSB Contest, the PODXS 070 New Member Jamboree, the EA RTTY Contest, and the SP DX Contest. 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 ContentMort G4BSK shows how to test QRP Labs QMX Power PCBs - Stuart VE9CF tells you why you should do CQ WPX this weekend - Craig KM6LYW makes a radio data go box - Mike K8MRD shows us the impressive mobile setup of David N0LUV - Kevan 2E0WMG takes us along for a paddle in his kayak as the tides rise - Walt K4OGO gives his top 5 Vertical Antennas and announces his new book - Tim K3LR talks to the CY0S team from Sable Island - Stuart VE9CF talks to Tim K3LR about radio contesting - Thomas K4SWL shows us the new handheld Pebble HF rig - Stuart VE9CF shows how to customize the output of PoLo for your activations - Walt K4OGO deploys an NVIS antenna on the beach - Ben VE6SFX shows his slot antenna design for 2 meters and 70 centimeters - Hayden VK7HH talks about using WSPR for antenna testing - James KE8PZN does some satellite work while portable - Mike K8MRD talks about 3D prints for Amateur Radio - Pia DL7PIA talks about her mother Petra DL5PIA’s award winning run for the YL WWA 2026 - That’s it for this week.Best 73,EdN2EC This is a public episode. 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