Youth Outreach

The Pacific Islands DXpedition Group is about to run one of the most ambitious DXpeditions of the year — and the veterans are deliberately handing the microphone to the kids. From November 16 through December 4, 2026, VK9XY will operate from Christmas Island in a partnership with Youth on the Air, with the eight-operator on-island team composed entirely of operators under 25, led by Max Freedman, N4ML. Experienced DXpeditioners Glenn Johnson, W0GJ, and Gregg Marco, W6IZT, are along as advisors — but as W6IZT puts it, the young operators have earned the lead.

Some of the most exciting new ham satellites are barely bigger than a coffee mug. On October 1, 2026 — a few days earlier than planned — a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Transporter-18 rideshare mission carrying AMSAT-Deutschland's three ERMINAZ-2 nanosatellites into orbit. Built at the satellite laboratory in the radome of the Bochum Observatory, the trio are 1P PocketQubes: just 50 millimeters on a side and about 250 grams each, now circling in sun-synchronous orbit at roughly 500 kilometers.

The week of October 19-23, 2026 is one of the best weeks of the year to be listening on the HF bands. That is when the ARRL School Club Roundup puts students on the air — elementary through college stations calling CQ and working the world, with voice, CW, and digital modes. The twice-yearly event runs from 1300Z Monday to 2359Z Friday, in the third full school week of October, and it is the friendliest entry point young operators will ever find.

If you are studying for your first amateur radio license, the test you take today is not the test your Elmer took a few years ago. On December 18, 2025, the NCVEC Question Pool Committee released the 2026-2030 Technician Class (Element 2) question pool, and it became mandatory for every exam session starting July 1, 2026. The old 2022-series exam booklets expired on June 30, so anyone testing this year is working from the new material.

On October 16 through 18, some of the busiest operators on the amateur bands will not be seasoned DXers — they will be kids. Jamboree on the Air (JOTA), the largest annual Scouting event in the world, returns for its 2026 run, linking millions of Scouts and Guides across more than 150 countries by radio and the internet (as JOTI, the Jamboree on the Internet).