In the log this week
* Special Event Spotlight: The 12 Days of Christmas
* Contest Spotlight: ARRL Rookie Roundup CW
* Free Extra Class Course Online Starting January 15, 2026
* MVARC Nets on the Air
* What’s happening with DX?
* Solar Activity Update
* Upcoming Contests
* Interesting Online Radio Content
As always, links to all referenced content can be found in the show notes, or at our Substack at mvarc.substack.com
Special Event Spotlight: The 12 Days of Christmas
The 7th annual 12 Days of Christmas Special Event station is currently underway from December 14th through the 25th. There will be 12 1x1 calls to represent the lines from the classic 12 days of Christmas song including 12 Drummers Drumming (W2D), 11 Pipers Piping (K2P), 10 Lords a-Leaping (K2L), 9 Ladies Dancing (W2L), 8 Maids a Milking (W2M), 7 Swans a Swimming (W2S), 6 Geese a-Laying (W2G), 5 Golden Rings (W2R), 4 Calling Birds (W2C), 3 French Hens (W2F), 2 Turtle Doves (W2T), and a Partridge in a Pear Tree (W2P). There will also be a bonus station WP3S in Puerto Rico.
If you work any of the stations you’ll be eligible for a certificate, and if you get them all you’ll get a Full Sweep endorsement. Ops will be on all bands on both CW and Phone. More information can be found on the QRZ pages for each of the special event calls and on https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/tis-the-season-12-days-of-christmas-is-on-the-air.975349/. Happy Holidays and Good Luck!
Contest Spotlight: ARRL Rookie Roundup CW
This weekend brings the latest edition of the ARRL Rookie Roundup. This contest is a 6 hour event that focuses on newly licensed amateur radio operators who have been licensed in the last 3 years. The event runs Sunday from 1800 UTC (1 PM ET) until 2359 UTC (6:59 PM ET) and this edition is entirely on CW.
The purpose is to get newly-licensed ops (which the ARRL calls “Rookies”) in North America on the air. Experienced ops are very much encouraged to participate. The bands of operation are 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters and power is limited to 100 Watts. The exchange is the call sign of the station worked, your call sign, your first name, the two digit number of the year you were first licensed (called a “check”) and your state/province (or DX for all others). For example if I were working K1ABC my exchange would be “K1ABC DE N2EC ED 90 VA”. For scoring, each rookie-to-rookie QSO gets 2 points and rookie-to-non-rookie QSOs get 1 point. Contacts not with a Rookie station are not valid for the purposes of the contest. Multipliers are each US State and DC, Canadian Provinces, Mexican Call Sign Areas, and 1 DX multiplier for all other areas.
Logs need to be submitted within 72 hours of the end of the event. The top 5 rookies in each US call area, Canadian province, Mexican call areas, and DX will get electronic certificates emailed and all rookies who submit a score get a participation certificate. This is a great way to dip your toes into CW contesting if you’re a new op, or a great way to give back to the next generation of ops if you’re more experienced. More information and full rules can be found at https://www.arrl.org/rookie-roundup. Get on the air this weekend and have some fun. Good luck.
Free Extra Class Course Online Starting January 15, 2026
Rol Anders K3RA and the National Electronics Museum will be starting a 11 week online course to help operators study for the Amateur Extra Class license. Classes will be held on Zoom on Thursdays at 6:30 PM ET from January 15, 2026 until March 26, 2026. Attendees should hold (or be studying for) the General Class license. If you’ve been considering upgrading your license and learning a lot more about the hobby, these free classes are a fantastic opportunity. To sign up contact Rol at roland.anders@comcast.net.
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 this week. Stations on the air include South Sudan (Z81D), Madagascar (5R8IC), Mali (TZ4AM), Colombia (HK3JCL), Gabon (TR8CR), Greenland (OX7A, OX7AM, OX7AKT, OX3LG), Gambia (C5YK), Solomon Islands (H44MS), Marcus Island Minami Tori Shima Islands (JG8NQJ/JD1), and Antarctica (DP0GVN, FT4YM).
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 116 and the estimated sunspot number was 68 with 5 numbered sunspot regions visible from Earth. Over the last week the SFI has decreased. Solar activity has been at low levels in the last 24 hours. The geomagnetic field has been at quiet to minor storm levels and the Kp index reached 4 yesterday. The solar wind peaked at 723 km/s. Solar activity is predicted to be at low levels with a slight chance of an M-class flare today through Sunday. The geomagnetic field is forecast to be at quiet to unsettled levels today through Saturday and at quiet levels Sunday. The chance of solar radiation storms at the S1 or greater level is at 1% today through Sunday. R1 to R2 radio blackouts are unlikely in the near term with a predicted probability of 15% today through Sunday. R3 or greater blackouts are unlikely with a 1% chance predicted today through Sunday. There is a chance of 6 meter propagation so keep an eye on the band and spotting clusters to be ready for the next time the magic band does its thing. It remains a fantastic time for amateurs 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 AGB-Party Contest, the Feld Hell Sprint, the OK DX RTTY Contest, the RAC Winter Contest, the Croatian DX Contest, the ARRL Rookie Roundup on CW, and the Run for the Bacon QRP 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
Mark KD7DTS, Ara N6ARA, and Josh KI6NAZ talk SOTA, YouTube, and Antenna on Sofas on the Air -
Jerry KM4ZKB builds a 1:1 choke balun for his ZS6BKW antenna -
Walt K4OGO give his top 5 portable commercial HF antennas -
Peter VK3YE shows how to support a mast with your own body weight -
Matt M0DQW tests out the Xiegu GPA100 100 Watt amplifier -
Mike K8MRD does an A/B comparison between the Icom 7300 and the Icom 7300 MK2 -
George VK2AOE talks about some issues he’s had with his QMX radio -
Farhan VU2ESE demonstrates the newly available Larcset 40 meter radio kit -
Peter VK3YE shows the FreeDV mode on HF and how it provides power efficient voice communication -
Steve KM9G tests the ATU-10 QRP ATU -
Mike K8MRD takes a first look at the Icom 7300 MK2 -
Matt M0DQW looks at the HamGeek 6699 radio -
Rob N1NUG builds a hidden transmitter for foxhunting -
Evan K2EJT shows his most used radios of 2025 -
Alan W2AEW uses a TinySA to measure keyer speed on a Kenwood TS-890S -
The Long Island CW Club has a new promo video with a voice you may recognize -
Kevin W1DED reads “Twas the Nite B4 Ten Opened” by Mike VE9AA -
Walt K4OGO builds a Rhombic Antenna -
Mike K8MRD builds an antenna with paracord like RSE line -
That’s it for this week.
Best 73,
Ed
N2EC
