TenX DX News September 1, 2025
Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Welcome to the Fall DX season of the 10-10 News and today is September 1st as I finish writing this article. Someone asked me to define DX: A distant amateur radio station in a foreign country or ARRL defined country, that is properly licensed to operate and make radio contacts.
The present Solar Cycle 25 has produced a lot of solar flares this past quarter and the solar flux is becoming less intense as the sun in now six years into Cycle 25.
There is propagation on the lower frequencies but almost none on Ten with minor blackouts. The highest recorded flux was 343 in Feb 2023 and in May this year, the biggest X2.7 flare caused blackouts in Europe and Asia. I have operated in the last five cycles and this cycle in my opinion is the second strongest!
There are DX reports below that you can see if you worked a DX member the past three months in your log and watch for a future DX trip and maybe work a new country in your log.
The most important on the air event this summer was the 10-10 Summer QSO Party the first weekend in August. This party is usually the biggest 10-10 event of the year and your best chance to have put a new 10-10 members and DX in your log, which should be one’s goal. In past years some QSO parties have had bad solar events which caused poor propagation. The sun continues to generate solar flares that do cause radio blackouts depending on the intensity.
The ARRL website hack last year has been back to normal. The DXCC award function was fixed and the LoTW data was all ok. The fix of all DXCC awards took longer but now all awards are back to normal. DXCC processing this past month was taking about a week to complete.
The 10 Meter contest in December has always been the most popular ARRL contest on Ten and I logged a few DX friends last year. The best time for logging DX or 10-10 contacts during the past year was the winter season for the USA to talk into Europe, South America and Pacific. In the February Winter SSB QSO Party, the band was noisy due to a solar flare and caused poor propagation.
If you are serious about working 10-10 DX, you should have a goal of finding members on Ten and logging them. Each week I read a lot of DX and look for 10-10 members going places, so I can write about them here. At my station, I have not found a new 10-10 country in about seven years so I hope to catch a new country soon. Watch for DX on the dates given below and work a new one or talk with an old friends on the air to pass the time.
I read a DX report in late August that Bruce AC4G #49089 from Tennessee, that he talked on Ten via long path by pointing his antenna southeast to log Asia stations on Ten.
Long path on Ten is rare and I have had QSO’s with this propagation when I had a beam antenna at my old qth in Texas. This happens only when the DX path is skipping in the opposite direction so its called long path skip. It’s like working the elite DX QSO and you will probably never hear it with a dipole or vertical.
Countries Awards: There were no Countries Award applications submitted this past quarter.
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General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:
4U United Nations NY. The UN station 4U1UN #55555, in New York City, was active on Ten this past quarter on CW and FT8. The UN is the closest DX country for USA hams to work. The UN beacon is on 28200 MHZ along with other beacons every ten seconds, and on the air 24/7 all the time.
4U Geneva. The UN station in Switzerland 4U1ITU #11111, now has a new club callsign 4U0ITU to commemorate the ITU Union 160th anniversary until year end. The special call was used on SSB and digital FT8 this past quarter. Remember, the 10-10 number is only assigned to 4U1ITU and not to the new callsign 4U0ITU! So ask them for the old call! LoTW.
A4 Oman. Roman R5AA was using the A47RS club station #42043 in June while waiting for a new home to be finished. Roman should be giving the club info when he is visiting and operating from the club station!
5A Libya. Abubaker 5A1A #69222. A pirate using his new call 5A1AL on FT8 from north Germany and not Libya on May 25th and June 25th. This will not count for ARRL DXCC nor for any 10-10 credit!
C9 Mozambique. Vic UA3QLC #52770 and friends, were on two islands in July. I do not find Vic using a C9 callsign and he is the only 10-10 member in this group.
CE0Y Easter Island. George CE0YHF #39382 has a job on the island. Bad weather broke his first antennas so he wanted to replace it with a vertical for his 10-watt radio. I did not see any QSO’s since April 2025 for him on FT8.
EA6 Balearic Islands. Rene EA6/DL2JRM #69623 was on Balearic Island until May 18th using CW. He is scheduled to go to a lot of other DX places thru the next few months.
ET Ethiopia. Ken K4ZW #18573 did not go back to ET this past quarter. The club call ET3AA is not a 10-10 member. So you must find Ken when he visits at the club to get his number and log it for Ethiopia 10-10 DX. The last report for Ken operating in the USA was on RTTY in February.
FP St. Pierre & Miquelon Isl. Eric KV1J #31247 was active as FP/KV1J from Miquelon on Ten using FT8/4 from June 25th to July 13th.
HR Honduras. Alex K6VHF #77458 was on Roatan Isl in July using call HR9/K6VHF. His 100 watt radio went to a big vertical on all bands and digi modes. LoTW. Alex, is planning to return to Roatan Island from September 1-4. He may use call HR9/K6VHF remotely between September 3 and the end of November. Remotely means the antenna determines the QTH for the contact which probably will be Honduras.
J6 St. Lucia. Several ops were at club J62K this past quarter and Bill K9HZ #2618 was hoping to operate from the club with some youth operators. LoTW.
K USA. Howard K1VSJ #35318 was on Nantucket Island or Martha’s Vineyard from July 9th to September 1st.
KH0 Mariana Isl. Tom KC0W #67688 used his new call KH0W on CW last April. No reports of him being on Ten this past summer from the Mariana’s.
P4 Aruba. John W2GD #14109 was on CW from home in August. The last use of the P4 station was in July 10-12th. John was at P44W in Aruba in May using CW for the WPX contest since he is a good CW op. LoTW.
VP6 Pitcairn Island. Miralda VP6MW #50434, was only active on FT8 28074 on August 11-13th and no SSB.
VP9 Bermuda. Eric K9GY #22330, was on Bermuda on August 10th using CW on Ten using call VP9/K8GY.
ZL7 Chatham Islands. Holger ZL3IO #22401, was last on Chatham in May on Ten CW. He only operated low power as ZL7IO in the WPX CW contest. His daughter Xenia ZL4YL #77857, did help so they used her call as ZL7YL. Chatham is located about 500 miles from his home in New Zealand. There is not a 10-10 member living on Chatham Island. So considered ZL7IO a rare DX contact for 10-10 and DXCC when he is on the island! _______________________________________________
Future DX & New 10-10 Activity:
3Y Bouvet Island. A big DXpedition will land in February 2026 on Bouvet using call 3Y0K. No 10-10 member is on the DX team at this time. Good luck.
9U Rep of Burundi. A DXpedition to Burundi using call 9U1RU, will take place from October 29th to November 19th 2025. The only 10-10 ops are Vic UA3QLC #52770 and Hal W8HC #12502 who both are experienced operators. They are planing to have 7 stations active on all bands. The last 10-10 op from Burundi was Iris W6QL / 9U5QL #21226 in December 1991 and she is now SK.
CY0 Sable Isl. A DXpedition scheduled for March 2026 will take place by ops that were on Sable in 2024. Members were: Mike K9NW #29804, Larry W0PR #31559 and Dan W4DKS #5395. Website: www.CY0S.com .
HB0 Liechtenstein. Rene DL2JRM #69623 and a friend will be in the CQ WW DX SSB contest Oct 25-26, 2025.
OZ Denmark. Rene DL2JRM #69623 will be in Denmark from September 12-30th as OG7Z for contests.
PJ2 Curacao Isl. Thaire W2APF #50022 will use call PJ2/W2APF from January 10th to March 31, 2026. He was on Curacao from January 10th to April 9th this year on Ten CW. Thaire’s QRZ page has pictures of two dozen DX sites he has operated from over the years. LoTW.
VP0 South Georgia Island. A DXpedition to this rare island will take place in March 2027. South Georgia is owned by Norway. The list of operators that will man the stations is still not available on the website as yet.
Miscellaneous Items & Notes:
Ten-Ten Website: http://www.Ten-Ten.org .
WM7D Solar: https://www.wm7d.net/hamradio/solar/ .
Propagation forecast: http://www.solen.info/solar/ , www.SolarHam.net and http://ARRL.org/Propagation .
More propagation: http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/ .
DX Calendar: http://www.dxwatch.com/ .
DX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4dJcK-WVRw.Https://Secure.Clublog.org/mostwanted.phphttp://ebarc.org/pdf/dx-entity-history.pdf .
Ham Lookup various ways:
https://Haminfo.tetranz.com/map .
Ham LoTW users: http://www.hb9bza.net/lotw-users-list .
FT8 Fox/Hound Video:
https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=GcbtTKSRkus .
DX Propagation: I expect the solar flux to range from 100-225 this Fall DX season. The September 22st Fall Equinox will be in three weeks. There was a M class flare on Aug 30th and an X2.7 class flare in May 2025. Days are getting shorter for us in the Northern Hemisphere. Cycle 25 eleven-year cycle, started six years ago in November 2019. Sunspots are always counted by looking at the Sun each day but the solar flux is measured by radio at 2.8 GHZ several times a day.
The monthly max solar flux was: Jan 2025 234, Feb 220, March 204, April 182, May 159, June 161, July 156, Aug 217. Average 171.
The monthly min solar flux was: Jan 2025 156, Feb 153, March 140, April 148, May 115, June 117, July 115, Aug 114. Average 132.
On September 1st, the solar flux was 215, the A index 20 and K index 6. Previous solar peaks happened in 2014, 2001, 1989 & 1979. The USAF forecast for Sept 1st to Oct 15th has a range of 120-220 (100 point range), with average flux 127, which is down 105 points from the last quarter. A declining flux graph does indicate the solar flux and the peak have past in 2024. At this time, NOAA has not declared a peak solar flux date.
My Prediction: The next four months, I think the best propagation on Ten could be on: Sept 1-2nd & 27-30th, Oct 23-26th, Nov 18-20th and Dec 14-18th which is the weekend of the most popular ARRL Ten Meter contest. For USA, expect a 20-33% chance of DX to South America, Europe, Asia or the Pacific. Use the beacons on 28.175-28.300 MHZ to first see if the band is open. If the band is closed for SSB, try calling CQ with your FT8 software on 28074 for a QSO.
Two new DX members joined 10-10 this summer: Aleksander S51JQ #78436 from Slovenia and Frank VK5KV #78437 from Australia. The last USA member to join 10-10 was Ryan Fuller KF0RFZ #78438 in late August.
Thanks to the Daily DX by Bernie W3UR #25731 and the ARRL DX Bulletins. This 10-10 DX News edition is my number 135th of DXing reports for the past 33+ years.
DX news to: Mike Davidson, 26274 Whispering Pines Ave, Denham Springs LA 70726 USA Email: N5MT@aol.com.
Copyright © 2025 by N5MT
DX IS! 73 Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
