With Solar Cycle 25 still at peak conditions, and several popular contests this time of year, there have been some interesting, if not totally rare, DX opportunities on the HF bands. Spots have been flying on DX club email reflectors this week. VK9XU on Christmas Island, V73WW on Marshall Island, 5N9DTG in Nigeria, KH7AL/KH9 on Wake Island, and 7Q2MM in Malawi have all been noted, among many others. 

The featured DXpedition timeline on DX-World.net shows a number of interesting opportunities to add to the logbook totals in the next several weeks. A full slate of operators is fanned out around the world for the ARRL International DX Contest. The CW portion was this past weekend, and the phone weekend starts March 1 at 0000z. 

“Getting on the air and being familiar with current propagation conditions is a great way to prepare for contests,” said ARRL Contest Program Manager Paul Bourque, N1SFE. Contest activity is on an upward trend with the peaking solar cycle. Bourque hopes more entrants brings an even higher level of excitement to the contest. “Last year,” he noted, “we saw a record number of logs submitted. I hope even more operators participate this year. You don’t have to be a big gun to be part of it. Everyone is welcome, hopefully the solar cycle will give even modest stations like mine access to a global playing field.”