TenX DX News March 1, 2026
Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Welcome to the Spring DX season of the 10-10 News and today is March 1st as this article goes to the 10-10 Editor. A Solar event for the first time in Cycle 25 just occurred on February 24, 2026 when new sunspots did not occur on the Sun for three days, marking the end of the Sun’s spotless phase! This may be another indicator that Cycle 25 has peaked, in 2023. The most important radio event this DX season will be DX across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and down into South America. The most recent contest was the Winter QSO Party contest back on the first weekend of February 7-8th. I found/talked to a few new 10-10 members and said hello to old friends over the past 47 years that I have been able to log. I remember several years when I lived in Houston, I operated with an amp to a big four element beam and logged many countries on Ten.
If your are a new 10-10 member chasing DX and need help with being a successful DX’er, you must be familiar with the American Radio Relay League and their website that deals with operating help and DXCC. 10-10 follows all the same rules for the DX Countries award as what you must do for DXCC credit plus swapping your 10-10 information. So you might want to visit the website www.ARRL.org after you finish reading this article! The ARRL does email a weekly DX news that you can sign up. Remember, many DX’ers are not always 10-10 members!
This Solar Cycle 25 has produced some solar flares that have given our planet big aurora this past year. There have been several recorded storms on the Sun which produced bad propagation and radio black-outs on the Earth, so good luck with the coming DX season! Today’s solar flux is 147, A index 10, K index 1 with average propagation on Ten.
Propagation on the lower frequencies has been better than on Ten recently. The highest solar flux this cycle was back in February 2023 at 343. I have operated as a ham operator in five cycles and this Cycle 25, I would rank in my opinion, as the second strongest of the last five!
You can try to compare this DX reports below with your log to see if you found a DX member during the past three months. Watch for future DX announcements and work a new country or a new 10-10 member in your log. Remember, your 10-10 is assigned to you for life, so if you get a DX license, you can give out your 10-10 number if you operate Ten Meters in a DX country.
The most important 10-10 club event this winter was the Winter QSO Party in February. This is usually the biggest 10-10 event of the year and it was your best chance to have put a new 10-10 member in your log, which is always one of my QSO Party goals. In some past years a few QSO parties have had poor propagation when the Sun generated flares and radio blackouts on the HF bands.
As the 10-10 Countries Award manager, I monitor the ARRL website for DXCC for DX information. I follow all DXCC rules as required to take care of the 10-10 Countries Awards. By design, 10-10 follows all the ARRL DXCC rules plus you must swap your 10-10 info for a contact to be valid for all our awards. The ARRL DXCC award function has been working smoothly and the LoTW function is saving you money by replacing the required QSL swap.
A software hack last year at the ARRL on their computer system, was fixed with no data loss. The DXCC processing this past quarter was taking about ten working days to complete.
All 10-10 paid members get 10-10 awards free.
The best time for logging a DX contacts during the spring season is now if you talk into South America, Europe, or the Pacific. http://hamgallery.com/W1JR/There are many 10 Meter contest this spring so you will have many weekends to log DX on Ten. If you are serious in working DX, you should have a goal of finding members on Ten and logging them. I read a lot of DX email and look for members going out of town, so I can write about them. My last new 10-10 country was logged about nine years ago, so I hope to find a new 10-10 country soon. Watch for DX on the dates given below and work/log a new member. Or talk with an old friend that you might find on the air to pass the time and keep the ten meter band active.
Countries Awards: There have been no Countries Award applications submitted to me this past quarter.
General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:
4U United Nations NY. The UN club station 4U1UN #55555, in New York City, was active in Feb on CW only three days on Ten. I use a website called DXSummit to watch for callsign activity like the UN club. Little activity the past quarter from 4U1UN plus the daily beacon on 28200 MHZ. By DXCC rules, the UN in New York City is the closest DX country for USA hams to QSO. The UN beacon is one of 18 beacons on five frequencies on the air 24/7 and depend on propagation, you may not hear all beacons because of skip!
4U Geneva. The UN club station in Switzerland 4U1ITU #11111, used a new club callsign 4U0ITU until year end 2025. 4U1ITU does not have a 10-10 number, sorry! LoTW.
3Y Bouvet Island. This rare island has just started operating with callsign 3Y0K at the end of February. I am listing the event here but there are no 10-10 members in the group of ops. The website is: https://3y0k.com/ .
A4 Oman. The Royal Omani ARS club station A47RS #42043 was heard several times the past quarter on Ten. Guest ops may not know about 10-10 info so a 10-10 swap may not happen.
CE0Y Easter Island. Jorge CE0YHF #39382 may be QRT. Last year, he broke his antennas and replaced it with a vertical. I saw no QSO’s for him on SSB or FT8.
ET Ethiopia. Ken K4ZW #18573 is at ET3AA until March 2nd at the club station. The club ET3AA is not a 10-10 member so you must find Ken when he is there on Ten! If its another operator it good for DXCC. You can always ask the op if they are a 10-10 member to get a 10-10 number for a QSO.
J6 St. Lucia. Bill K9HZ #2618 likes all CW contests in the winter at the J68HZ station but not the past two months. It is hard to get a 10-10 swap during any contest so hopefully you will find Bill when not in a contest for a 10-10 QSO. LoTW.
KP5 Desecheo Island. A rare DXpedition KP5/NP4VI began on January 12, 2026 until sometime in March, has made more than 100,000 QSO which is a record for a solar-only operation! A lot of Remote Radio equipment was used on KP5 with a large group of remote ham ops in Porto Rico. I found five 10-10 members that were listed as Remote ops. Since many ops are off island, you will have to find out who was the op and maybe get a 10-10 member on Ten? LoTW.
P4 Aruba. John W2GD #14109 was active as P40W and P44W in February mostly on CW on Ten and other bands.
PJ2 Curacao Isl. Thaire W2APF #50022 used PJ2/W2APF from January 10th to March 31, 2026. He was on Curacao from January to April 9th in 2025 on CW. His QRZ page has pictures of sites he operated from. LoTW.
T8 Palau. Al K7AR/T88AR #2736 was in a CW contest in late November as T8 and returned home to be on CW in Feb.
VP2M Montserrat. A group of operators were using call VP2MMA which is not a member, in Jan/February. Look for Juan AC6ZM #65893, Randall WK9M #57317, and Catherine W4CMG #77738.
VP6 Pitcairn Island. Miralda VP6MW #50434, was last active on Ten with FT8 in early December 2025 and no Ten meters in 2026 as yet.
ZL7 Chatham Islands. Holger ZL3IO #22401, is now back home in New Zealand. His last CW operations on Chatham as ZL7IO ended on December 3rd , 2025. There is no 10-10 member living on Chatham. Anyone operating ZL7 would be considered a rare DX contact for DXCC.
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Future DX & New Activity:
CY0 Sable Isl. A DXpedition is set for March 19-31, 2026. The preparations for Sable have started as they are expecting strong winds up to 50 mph on the island, so securing the antennas will be a major project to protect the setups. Sable is allowed to be used just a few times a year for ham radio. The only 10-10 members are: Ralph K0IR #2609 and Michael K9NW #29804. Web: www.CY0S.com.
J5 Guinea Bissau. A DXpedition began in February going until March 15th using callsign J51A ops are German. None of the ops are 10-10 members. There island is off the west coast of Africa near the Equator. LoTW.
TX Austral Island. A DXpedition to the Austral Islands is set for March 13-25th callsign TX5EU. There are no 10-10 members listed on the website.
VP0 South Georgia Island. A rare DXpedition to South Georgia will take place in March 2027 using callsign VP0SG with about twelve operators. As of today, the only 10-10 member listed is Steve W0ZB #37921.
Biggest Hamfest May 15-17th in Dayton, Xenia, Ohio.
Big Germany Hamfest June 26-28th in Friedrichshafen.
Little Louisiana Hamfest August 7-8th in Shreveport LA.
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 .
K9LA Cycle 25 Expectations 2026:
DX Propagation: I expect the solar flux to could range from 100-150 this Spring and Summer DX season.
The March 20th Equinox (equal night/day) will be in three weeks so days will be equal for us in the N. Hemisphere on the 20th. The last X-flare was on Feb 4th at X4.21 and the next day an M-flare M2.4 occurred, and the last Geo storm was Feb 22nd. The high flux this Cycle 25 was on Feb 17, 2023. Last year on Nov 11, 2025 we had a X5.1 flare, the sixth strongest solar flare of Cycle 25! Cycle 25 started seven years ago in Nov 2019. Sun spots are counted by looking at the Sun daily 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 317 Sept 202, Oct 184, Nov 180, Dec 220, and in Jan 2026 194, Feb 178. Average 199.
The monthly min solar flux was: Jan 2025 156, Feb 153, March 140, April 148, May 115, June 117, July 115, Aug 114, Sept 114, Oct 118, Nov 115, Dec 116, and in Jan 2026 111, Feb 108. Average 125.
On March 1st, the solar flux was 147, the A index 10 and K index 1. Previous solar cycle peaks happened in 2014, 2001, 1989 & 1979. A current solar flux graph indicates cycle 25 may have peaked in August 2024. At this time, NOAA has not declared a peak solar flux date. The NASA solar flux forecast for the next 45 days has a range of 110-130, with Avg 121.5, which is down a lot from the last quarter. The USAF forecast is scheduled to be replaced by a NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center new product on March 1st. The new website path is: Services.SWPC.NOAA.gov . Select: Parent Directory then select: 45-day-ap-forecast.txt.
My Prediction: In the next three months, I think the best propagation on Ten could be on: March 5-9th, April 2-4th , May 1-4th and 29-31st.. For USA, expect a 20-45% chance of DX to Europe, South America, Asia or the Pacific. First turn on your radio to the beacons on 28.175-28.300 MHZ to see if the band is open. If the band is closed for SSB or CW, try CQing on FT8 on 28074 for a QSO. Good luck.
One DX members joined 10-10 in February:
Ian McGovern VK4QRZ #78462 from Australia.
The last US member was Jesse Mans KE0OSV #78461.
Thanks to the Daily DX by Bernie W3UR #25731 and the ARRL DX Bulletins. This 10-10 DX News edition is my number 137th of DXing reports for the past 34 years. Any DX news to: Mike Davidson, 26274 Whispering Pines Ave, Denham Springs LA 70726 USA Email: N5MT@aol.com.
DX IS! 73 Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Copyright © 2025 by N5MT
