Amateur Radio News and Notes 4/17/2026

In the log this week* Contest Spotlight: CQMM DX Contest* MFJ Sells Cushcraft and Hy-Gain Brands to ITU* Event Spotlight: Parks on the Air Support Your Parks Weekend April 18-19, 2026* World Amateur Radio Day is April 18, 2026* 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: CQMM DX ContestThis weekend brings the 2026 edition of the CQMM DX Contest from 0900 UTC on Saturday, April 18 (5 AM Eastern Time on Saturday) until 2359 UTC Sunday (7:59 PM Eastern Time Sunday). This contest seeks to promote unity and integration of amateur radio operators around the world, support the chase for two CWJF awards in Brazil, and to promote the art of CW around the world. To that end, it is a CW only contest on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands. Although it is organized in Brazil, it is an international contest and participants are grouped by continents. Power classifications include High Power up to 1500 Watts (or local maximum power), Low Power up to 100 Watts, and QRP up to 5 Watts. Operating categories include Multi Operator-Single Transmitter All Band for HP/LP, Single Operator-Single Transmitter All Band for HP/LP/QRP, Single Operator Single Band for HP/LP, and Single Operator All Band for a station run by a YL. The rules allow for the use of DX clusters and skimmers during the contest. Contacts are considered valid when validated in both ops logs, unless the missing op is in at least 5 logs, so if you participate, it is recommended you submit a log even if just participating casually. Contacts may be made 1 QSO per band per station. When calling CQ it is recommended to to send “TEST CQMM CALL” where call is your call sign, but “CQ TEST MM” is also acceptable. For the exchange members of the CWJF will send RST + Continent + M (so for a South American station it would be “599 SAM”), non-Members will send RST and Continent (so for North American stations “599 NA”), QRP stations will send “RST + Continent + Q” (so European QRP would be “599 EUQ”), YL Stations send “RST + Continent + Y” (so a YL in Oceania would send “599 OCY”), and Multi-Op stations would send “RST + Continent + C” (so an African club would send “599 AFC”). Valid continent abbreviations are Africa (AF), South America (SA), North America (NA), Asia (AS), Europe (EU), Oceania (OC), and Antarctica (AN). QSO Points are 1 point within the same DXCC entity, 2 points on the same continent but different DXCC entity on 10/15/20 meters and 4 points on 40/80 meters, 3 Points between different continents on 10/15/20 meters and 6 points on 40/80 meters, 10 points with CWJF members and YLs regardless of location, and 3 points for Maritime Mobile /MM stations regardless of location. Multipliers include different prefixes in South America valid for all 5 bands separately, and DXCC entities valid once. Maritime mobiles don’t count as a valid multiplier. The final score is the sum of points for all bands multiplied by the sum of multipliers. Certificates will be available for all participants and plaques will be awarded for the highest score in each category regardless of continent. Logs should be submitted electronically to [email protected] in Cabrillo 3.0 format by July 30th. More information on the contest and the full rules can be found at https://www.cqmmdx.com/rules. This promises to be a fun one, so give it a try this weekend. Good luck.MFJ Sells Cushcraft and Hy-Gain Brands to ITUMFJ Enterprises announced that they have sold the Cushcraft and Hy-Gain brands to ITU corporation. Cushcraft and Hy-Gain have a long history of making antennas for the amateur radio market along with other related accessories. In May 2024 MFJ shut down on-site production at their Starkville, Mississippi facility which impacted the production of these brands products. With the acquisition of the brands by ITU the brands should return to manufacturing. ITU plans to open a production facility in Linton, Indiana that is expected to bring 20-50 jobs to to the area. All the designs, equipment, and rights for the brands were included in the sale. ITU estimates it will take about two months to move the equipment from Mississippi to Indiana. More information can be found at https://www.lintonnews.com/itu-corporation-re-purposes-linton-armory-facility-to-house-iconic-amateur-radio-manufacturing-free-article/.Event Spotlight: Parks on the Air Support Your Parks Weekend April 18-19This weekend brings Parks On The Air’s Support Your Parks Weekend. The weekend is a quarterly event which encourages operators to get out into the parks and on the air to have as much fun as possible. The excitement begins at 0000 UTC on Saturday (8 PM Eastern Time Friday Night) until 2359 UTC on Sunday (7:59 PM Eastern Time Sunday). Usually there are hundreds of operators out in the parks and lots of opportunities to get less frequently activated parks and locations in the log. There are also special awards to win for activating or hunting during the event. For more information and spotting assistance visit https://pota.app/. Good luck.World Amateur Radio Day is April 18, 2026Saturday, April 18th marks the 101st anniversary of the founding of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and to celebrate amateurs around the world are getting on the air for World Amateur Radio Day. The American Radio Relay League, an IARU member society, is encouraging amateurs to celebrate by having an amateur radio “Open House” by getting on the air and getting the word out to the community. There are likely to be several IARU member societies on the air during the day, so check on the bands and spotting networks to find stations to celebrate with on the air. More information including maps of expected open house events can be found at https://www.arrl.org/open-house and https://www.iaru.org/on-the-air/world-amateur-radio-day/. Good luck.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 Svalbard (JW5E), Marquesas Islands (TX9W), Bermuda (VP9KF), Gambia (C5C), Comoros (D60DX), Central Kiribati (T31TTT), Minami Torishima (JG8NQJ/JD1), Colombia (HK3JCL), and South Orkney Islands (LU1ZA).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 105 and the estimated sunspot number was 57 with 3 numbered sunspot regions visible from Earth. Over the last week the SFI has increased. 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 355 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 major storm levels today, at unsettled to major storm levels Saturday, and 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 today 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 CQMM DX Contest on CW we mentioned earlier, the World Wide Holyland Contest, the ES Open HF Championship, the Worked All Provinces of China DX Contest, the Dutch PACCdigi Contest, the World Time Zone Challenge, the EA-QRP CW Contest, the Feld Hell Sprint, the International Vintage Contest HF, the ARRL Rookie Roundup on SSB, Florida State Parks on the Air, Texas State Parks on the Air, Georgia State Parks on the Air, the Michigan State QSO Party, the Ontario QSO Party, the Quebec QSO Party, and the Run for the Bacon QRP 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.phpInteresting Online Radio ContentMichael KB9VBR tries out the Spooltenna Ultra - Sean W9FFF shows his DX-PERt Antenna System - Tim K5OHY shows a remote band switching relay using Bluetooth - Mike K8MRD talks about links for End Fed Half Wave antennas - Lewis M3HHY talks about why the FCC banned cellular capable scanners - Hayden VK7HH gives his 5 favorite used amateur radios - Stuart VE9CF uses a parasitic vertical array to get gain and work DX while portable - Josh KI6NAZ uses the $40 Cardputer to operate FT8 with a QMX - Kurt ON7OFF shows an implementation of Thetis SDR on the web - Walt K4OGO uses a Yaesu FT-897 on the beach - Mike K8MRD shows how he builds his “Ultimate Linked PackTenna” - Stuart VE9CF talks about mitigating noise to pull out weak signals - Hayden VK7HH builds a long range Meshcore repeater - Mike K8MRD looks at the Digitenna EFHW spool based antenna - That’s it for this week.Best 73,EdN2EC This is a public episode. 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