DX

The 21st annual ARRL Online Auction opens today, Friday, October 16, and runs through October 22 with more than 200 items up for bid. This year's list includes gear featured in QST product reviews, vintage books, pre-owned equipment, and signed original sketches by Salty Walt Hudson, K4OGO, along with four mystery boxes from the ARRL Lab team. Featured equipment includes an Icom solid-state amplifier, an Alinco 2-meter FM transceiver, and an Elecraft QRP transceiver package. Proceeds benefit ARRL education programs that help license new hams and support continuing technical education.

Good morning from N5XBI on Thursday, October 15. The bands should be calmer today after an unsettled start to the week. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said in its October 14 discussion that solar activity stayed low, with departing Region 4549 producing C-class flares as large as C4.2 and C6.9, growing Region 4551 producing only low-level C-class activity, and newly numbered Region 4558 unremarkable. No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections were observed. SWPC expects low activity through October 16 with only a slight chance of an M-class flare, mainly from Region 4551.

In 1978, members of the Montreal Amateur Radio Club began sending ASCII data over VHF frequencies with homebuilt equipment, after Canadian authorities authorized the experiments. It was a bold idea for its time: instead of speaking into a microphone, a ham would let a computer chop a message into small bursts, send each burst with an address and error checking, and let the station at the other end reassemble it. When the United States Federal Communications Commission authorized ASCII transmissions for American amateurs in 1980, the experiment was ready to spread.

Good morning from the shack on Wednesday, October 14. If the bands sound a little restless today, the Space Weather Prediction Center has an explanation. In its October 13 forecast discussion, SWPC reported low solar activity, with Region 4549 producing a largest flare of only C1.2 early that morning and no new Earth-directed coronal mass ejections observed. Solar activity is expected to stay low through October 15, though forecasters put the chance of M-class flares at 35 percent.

Tuesday opens with a geomagnetic storm watch in effect. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center expects mostly active conditions on October 13 and 14, with isolated G1 minor storming likely today as a coronal hole high-speed stream moves into a geoeffective position. A separate SWPC watch lists G1 as the highest level predicted for October 13, with no storm watch in effect for October 14, so HF operators should expect changeable high-latitude propagation and a chance of aurora at northern latitudes tonight.

The weekend of October 17 and 18 is shaping up as one of the busiest on-air weekends of the fall, with a major digital contest, a 160-meter classic, and a fresh DXpedition to a rare Atlantic entity all landing on the same two days. Here is what to line up in your shack this week.

The Sun gave radio operators a breather this weekend. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center cancelled its G2 geomagnetic storm watch on October 11 — conditions no longer warranted it. This morning's 27-day outlook has the 10.7 cm solar flux at 120, the planetary A-index at 16, and the predicted Kp at 4. Sunday's observed flux was 122.

On the evening of November 27, 1923, two American amateurs in Connecticut and a French amateur in Nice did something the experts said was impossible — and they did it with equipment most hams would now consider primitive. Fred Schnell, 1MO, and John Reinartz, 1XAM, worked Léon Deloy, 8AB, for several hours on a wavelength of about 110 meters. It was the first two-way transatlantic amateur communication, and it changed everything.

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.

West Africa is coming to a pileup near you. From November 11 to 23, 2026, the Belgian Rockall DX Group will activate Guinea as 3X4U, operating from the shores of Lac de Koba on all HF bands from 160 through 10 meters — with possible 6-meter activity — on CW, SSB, and FT8/FT4. Guinea remains a sought-after DXCC entity for operators worldwide, especially on the low bands and in mode-specific award chases, and this expedition is built to serve them all.