| This is the year-end issue covering the interval of December 18, 2025, to January 7, 2026 — one week longer than the usual cadence.
The ARRL Solar Update of December 5 noted that the Weekly Commentary on the Sun, the Magnetosphere, and the Earth’s Ionosphere December 05 – December 11, 2025 by F.K. Janda, OK1HH, states: “The significant increase in solar activity since the beginning of December has finally confirmed the original assumption that the current 25th eleven-year solar cycle will have two peaks. The first occurred last October, while we have been eagerly awaiting the second one this year (especially in the fall). The increase in activity at the end of this summer started promisingly, but it was only the first of several. It was not until the large solar flare on November 11, 2025, which was the largest since October 3, 2024, that we knew the secondary maximum was near.… During December, we are likely to experience another increase in solar activity in the last third of the month, preceded by several days of increased geomagnetic activity.”
“FCC Allocates 60-Meter World-Wide Amateur Band Approved at WRC-15; Continues Amateur Use of Four Additional 60-Meter Channels, and Updates 420 MHz Coordination Information” — See the ARRL Letter for December 11, 2025. An FCC Report and Order 25-60A1 was issued December 9, 2025, referencing changes to the Amateur Service in the 60 meter and 440 MHz bands. Note that any changes don’t take effect until 30 days after being published in the Federal Register. Potential 60-meter changes include a new segment for QRP that lowers ERP limits. Current segments remain unchanged. Watch the ARRL website for more information.
Contest University 2026 is now open for registration! CTU will be held on Thursday, May 14, 2026, at the Hope Hotel in Dayton, Ohio. “This is the daybefore Hamvention opens in Xenia, Ohio. CTU 2025 Dayton was amazing, and we expect 2026 CTU to be even better!” according to Tim Duffy, K3LR, Contest University Chairman. Presentations from past CTU events are available at the Contest University website. Scholarships are available to cover the CTU registration fees for students 25 years old and younger through a generous grant from the Northern California DX Club (NCDXF). See the website for all of the details.
CBS as a service! A web version of the well-known Cabrillo statistics program (CBS) by K5KA and N6TV is now available at the following link: https://logtools.contesting.com/cbs.php. Contesters have been using this application for years on their own computers, and now it can be used with just a web browser. For supported contests, one can obtain QSO rates, multiplier and country stats, unique counts, dupes, band changes, and more.
According to Bruce Horn, WA7BNM: “The web version offers a few additional features:
- Easy access to the public log repositories for CQ and ARRL sponsored contests
- Automatic sorting of the Cabrillo log in chronological order (not a common problem, but sometimes occurs)
- Immediate output to a web page, with the option to download a text file
Thanks to Bob, N6TV, for allowing use of his program and acting as an expert reviewer.”
Mark, WC3W, is the new president of CWOps starting January 1, 2026! He’s also the person behind the DX Marathon Award. He writes: “The DX Marathon is one of amateur radio’s most accessible, exciting, and year-round operating challenges. The program rewards operators for working as many DX entities and CQ Zones as possible during the calendar year—no complex rules, QSL or LOTW verifications, and no need to submit logs after every QSO. Submissions can be made online anytime by simply uploading an ADIF file to entry.dxmarathon.com. No registration is required and any Q that you may have worked in a contest is good. Because every valid contact counts, the DX Marathon encourages regular on-air activity, better station optimization, and exploration of new modes, bands, and propagation paths. It is equally friendly to newcomers and seasoned DXers, with multiple competitive classes—High Power, Low Power, QRP, CW-only, Digital-only, and more. Option of single mode, single band can be selected. You can decide right now to enter for 2025 – Just upload your ADIF file. Make more contacts, upload more contacts. Final submittals for 2025 must be submitted on or before January 5, 2026.”
The Southern VHF Society will have the 2026 SVHFS Conference April 16 – 19, 2026, in Macon, Georgia. The event kicks off on Thursday evening with a social event at a local venue. Friday is a day full of technical talks, including a luncheon and speaker. The fun continues into the evening with a flea market and hospitality suite. Saturday, presentations continue until the early afternoon, when the focus moves to the antenna range and rover displays. Saturday night is the culmination of scheduled activities with a banquet, banquet speaker, awards, and door prize giveaways. The conference announcement contains additional information. Papers and presentations are solicited for this event across a wide range of technical and operational topics, including contesting, roving, and DXpeditions.
If you like contests with interesting and challenging exchanges, the RAEM Contest may be for you! Your exchange is a serial number and your latitude-hemisphere, and longitude-hemisphere. A typical exchange would be 001 55n37o, because instead of “e” for east, you’re going to use “o” for the German word for east, “Ost.” There are single operator, multioperator, and per-band single operator entry categories, and even SINGLE-OP-MECHANIC-LOW for those using straight keys, sideswipers, or “bugs.” QSOs earn points. Additional points are earned for a QSO by working stations that differ in latitude and longitude, with bonus points for working polar stations, and the stations signing the RAEM callsign. This contest was started in 1972.
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