Amateur Radio News and Notes 2/28/2025

Feb 28, 2025

In the log this week

MVARC Monthly Meeting and Breakfast Recap
Save the Date: Vienna Winterfest Hamfest Next Sunday, March 9, 2025
ARRL International DX Contest (SSB) This Weekend
MVARC Nets on the Air
What's happening with DX?
Solar Activity Update
Upcoming Contests
Interesting Online Radio Content

MVARC Monthly Meeting and Breakfast Recap

Image Courtesy Corey KN4YZY

Last weekend we had another great turn-out for our monthly breakfast with plenty of conversation and a delicious breakfast too. After breakfast many of us made our way over to the Mount Vernon Government Center for our monthly meeting. We had a fascinating talk from Gordon Miller NQ4K, the president of the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club, about the Virginia QSO Party which is scheduled for March 15-16 this year. We were treated to a deep dive into how the contest has grown into one of the most successful QSO parties in the US and how we can participate in the fun. Expect more updates on the VAQP in future editions of Amateur Radio News and Notes. We hope you'll join us for next month's breakfast and monthly meeting.

Save the Date: Vienna Winterfest Hamfest Next Sunday, March 9, 2025

Next Sunday, March 9, 2025 the Vienna Wireless Society is hosting the 49th Winterfest hamfest at Oakton High School, 2900 Sutton Road, Vienna, VA 22181. This is one of the biggest hamfests that is close to us here in Northern Virginia and is always a fun time. The club has rented a table inside, so we'll be there selling gear and letting folks know about the club. Tickets are $12 (plus service fee) in advance and $15 at the door, so getting them online is a way to save a few bucks. Tailgating is $20 and includes an admission ticket. They also have a raffle where they're giving away a Yaesu FTDX10 and an Icom ID-5100A-D. If you're able to make it plan on stopping by and saying hello. This is one of a small handful of hamfests in the area still operating, so giving your support helps to ensure it will be there for years to come. Also, it is a great way see old friends and make new ones. More information can be found at https://viennawireless.net/wp/winterfest/. We hope to see you there!

ARRL International DX Contest (SSB) This Weekend

This weekend brings one of the biggest DX contests on the air, the ARRL International DX Contest on SSB. As you'll see in the DX report, stations are going to be looking to work US and Canadian stations exclusively from all over the world. There is so much DX that it may even be possible to get DXCC (100 countries) in a weekend. If your rig has a microphone, this is the time to get on the air. The contest starts 0000 UTC on Saturday (that's 7PM ET Friday night) and continues through 2359 UTC Sunday (6:59PM ET Sunday). To participate, the DX stations can only work US and Canadian stations, this means this is a contest where they DX is chasing you!

The exchange for the contest on the US/Canada side of things to send a signal report and state/province. DX stations send signal report and power as a number or abbreviation. Bands are 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters and power classifications are QRP (5 Watts and below), LP (Above 5 W to 100W), and HP (up to 1500 Watts). You can work stations once per band and each QSO is worth 3 points. For US/Canada multipliers are each DXCC entity once per band and for DX it is each State of Province (including DC) once per band. Total score = QSO Points x Multipliers. Logs need to be submitted by 3/9/2025. Full rules and details can be found at https://www.arrl.org/arrl-dx. 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 DX

There will be a lot of DX on the air in the next week. As is customary during the big international DX contests, operators fan out across the globe to bring more remote locales on the air. This weekend will be no different. Stations operating will include Bermuda (VP9/N1SV, VP9I), Curacao (PJ2/N1ZZ), Greenland (OX3LX), Samoa (5W0UO), Guadeloupe (FG4KH, TO3Z, FG/F6HMQ, FG/F6GWV), Tanzania (FH3DX), Christmas Island (VK9XU), Saint Martin (FS/VA3QSL), Martinique (TO4A), Mali (TZ1CE), Solomon Islands (H44MS), Sri Lanka (4S7KKG), Benin (TY5C), Guinea Bissau (J52EC), Senegal (6W7/ON4AVT), Cayman Islands (ZF1A), Aruba (P49Y), Dominica (J75A), Kiritimati Island (T32AZ), Malawi (7Q2T), Montserrat Island (VP2MMN), Antigua (V26MN), Comoro Islands (D68Z), Marcus Island Minami Tori Shima Islands (JG8NQJ/JD1), and Antarctica (FT4YM, 8J1RL).

A calendar of DXpeditions can be found at https://dxnews.com/calendar/

Solar Activity Update

As we go to press the Solar Flux Index (SFI) was 170 and the estimated sunspot number was 129. Over the last week the SFI has remained about the same. Conditions have been excellent for HF propagation and are predicted to remain good. The sun has been somewhat active in the last week with some coronal mass ejections and a couple brief R1 radio blackouts on the 25th and an X-class flare on the 23rd that brought a brief R3 radio blackout. There are only a slight chance for S1 or greater solar radiation storms today (5%) and even less tomorrow (1%) according NOAA forecasts. In terms of radio blackouts the chance of an R1-R2 blackout is at 65% and the chance for R3 or greater radio blackouts is at 25%. Solar wind has been enhanced due to the presence of coronal holes. Conditions have been favorable overall and the 10 meter band has been open everyday with lots of DX on the bands. It remains a fantastic time for amateurs of all license classes 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 Contests

This weekend brings the ARRL International DX Contest on SSB as mentioned earlier and this is likely to dominate the SSB portions of the non-WARC bands. Also on the air will be the Wake-Up! QRP Sprint, the UBA Spring Contest on CW, the NSARA Contest, the SARL Hamnet 40m Simulated Emergency Contest, andthe WAB 3.5 MHz Phone 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 Content

Ara N6ARA shows how he designed his Tiny Gawant antenna and uses it to activate SOTA -