Summits on the Air Challenge for 2026 - 2m/70cms SSB/CW

The management team of the Summits on the Air (SOTA) programme have just announced their new SOTA Challenge for 2026 and it's for operating SSB & CW on the 2m and 70cms bands.

Their last challenge was for the year 2024 and that was for the 28 MHz (10m) band. See previous post HERE.

SOTA is a very popular awards programme and it most of the activity on the HF bands. Any SOTA activity on the VHF bands tends to be on FM on 145 MHz so it would be nice to see more activity on SSB & CW on 144 MHz & 432 MHz.

Here is an excerpt from the SOTA posting...

2m/70cm SSB/CW

Many activators and chasers will have access to equipment already for these bands and modes - whether the old faithful FT-817 and FT-857s or newer options like the 2m option for the KX3, the timely CW modification to the cheap and cheerful Quansheng handhelds or the ubiquitous 2m transverter kits available on various auction sites for relatively low cost. 

Many antenna options are available, whether lightweight Yagis, Hentennas, Oblongs, Quads, Flowerpots or J-poles (Slim or otherwise). Many propagation modes are available. 

This should provide an interesting and challenging year for each individual participating, where the activators and chasers will have their work cut out to make QSOs under different conditions and via different means.

Scoring format: - Given that SSB and CW are considered useful as DX modes on these bands, points will be awarded based on distance, number of summits activated and unique callsigns logged in an activation.

Activators: - Your score will be 1pt/km for each QSO with a unique callsign (per summit) activated within the year, multiplied by the number of unique summits activated.

Chasers: Your score will be 1pt/km for each QSO with a unique callsign (per summit) chased within the year, multiplied by the number of unique summits chased.

Dates: 1 January 0000 UTC to 31 December 2359 UTC 2026

***

Over the last few years, there has been an exodus from modes like SSB and CW to data modes like FT8. Hopefully this programme will encourage people to check the SSB portions of the VHF bands more often.

Keep an eye on the dx-cluster for SOTA activity... https://sotawatch.sota.org.uk/en/

If there is any activity near you then give them a call as they may need to make a certain number of contacts for it to be a valid activation of a summit.

More info here... https://reflector.sota.org.uk/t/2026-sota-challenge/39799

SOTA website... https://www.sota.org.uk/

End of the road for the International Reply Coupon (IRC)

The International Reply Coupon or IRC was very much a part of amateur radio history for decades. If you wanted a QSL card from a station for a particular contact that you had made then the idea was that you would send them an envelope containing a self-addressed envelope, your QSL card and an IRC to pay for the return postage.

Some people preferred to use $1 notes but they were more prone to theft. The IRC could only be used to pay for postage for an unregistered international airmail letter and had no other value.

In reality, these IRC's often didn't get cashed in at all and went around in circles. Someone would send you a QSL card with an IRC enclosed and then you'd use the same IRC to send to someone else for a QSL card that you wanted.

My own experience with IRCs was that the local small post office had no idea what they were. If you wanted a postage stamp then you had to pay in cash. I think I tried taking them to the main post office in the city centre and I didn't fare much better. It was like trying to pay for something with magic beans! 😂

I was using them over 20-years ago so I'm not sure if any radio amateurs are using them anymore? 

The older type of IRC is shown at the top of the post. The more 'modern' version is shown below.

The UBU (Universal Postal Union) announced on the 15th of December 2025 that the International Reply Coupon would no longer be valid after the 31st of December 2026.

Press Release: End of a chapter, start of a legacy – the international reply coupon enters the history books

15 December (Berne, Switzerland) – Since its introduction on 1 October 1907, the international reply coupon (IRC) has accompanied generations of correspondents, travellers and collectors across the world. Serving as a truly universal paper currency, it enables the holder to pay for postage of an unregistered international airmail letter between the UPU’s 192 member countries.

For almost 120 years and across 10 successive models, the IRC has embodied the values of universality, fairness and solidarity upon which the universal postal service is founded.

On 17 September 2025, at the 28th Universal Postal Congress in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), the UPU member countries decided, with a view to adapting and simplifying the universal services, to discontinue the IRC as of 31 December 2026. This decision is a natural progression within the broader transformation of international postal services, in alignment with the digital practices and modern outlook of their customers.

The UPU International Bureau is proud to provide support in this transition and is currently working towards the IRC’s transformation into a part of the UPU’s heritage, in keeping with its history and unique role in global postal cooperation. IRCs will remain valid and available for sale by and exchange with the designated opera­tors of UPU member countries until 31 December 2026.

Lastly, in celebration of the exceptional legacy of the IRC, a special commemorative product will be released. Tracing the history of the IRC and offering an unprecedented customer experience, this product will honour this iconic page in the history of philately and the UPU.

2225 km opening on the 70cms band from Madeira Island to Ireland - Oct 2023

Eduard, ON1AB recently posted a video on YouTube showing a remarkable contact he made on the 70cms UHF back in October of 2023.

Using a Radioddity GD-77 handheld and a small 3-element antenna for the 70cm band, he managed to make a contact through a UHF repeater in Ireland, a distance of some 2225 kms.

As can be seen from the photo, ON1AB was looking over the Atlantic Ocean at a location called Boca do Risco which is 340m above sea level.

The repeater in Ireland is EI7MHR on a mountain called Mullaghanish which is 649m ASL.

 Callsign:   EI7MHR
Location:    Mullaghanish, Co. Cork.
Locator:    IO51KX
Output:   430.875MHz
Input:   438.475MHz
Shift:   +7.6MHz
Access:   103.5Hz

You can see the video below. The Irish station is Hugh, EI2HI who is mobile at the time.

The propagation mode was marine ducting with the signal getting trapped which allows for some staggering distances on the VHF & UHF bands.

While there have been openings on the 70cms band from Ireland to Madeira Island in the past, it is still remarkable seeing someone making a 2225km contact with a handheld radio and a small beam.

Links...

a) See my 70cms page for more examples.

45th Anniversary of the first 2m digital repeater - Dec 2025

This week marks the 45th anniversary of the first operational packet radio repeater! The repeater went live on the 10th of December 1980 and it operated on a frequency of 146.580 MHz 

The new packet radio repeater was installed by Hank Magnuski, KA6M (now SK) at his home at Menlo Park near San Francisco.

In a report on the new repeater, KA6M wrote... "Since its initial turn-on in December of 1980, the repeater has been transformed from an experiment to a major Bay Area repeater serving a user group now approaching 30 stations. The repeater has been extremely important in testing new hardware and software, and in provoking interest in the area’s amateur community.

From its initial turn-on in December, 1980, and through most of the Spring of 1981 the packet repeater was operating out of my residence in western Menlo Park, California, a location which is in the foothills which border the western shore of the San Francisco Bay. It was an experimental machine then, but could be heard well through most of the northern end of Silicon Valley, even though the power level was modest. The only station equipped to use it then was located in the same house, so there was never any real problem with signal path. 

Since then we have installed a couple of upgrades to the control software, we have used a better CPU card, increased the power level, moved the repeater up to a/00 ft. elevation, and integrated its operation to be 100% compatible with the protocol used by the Vancouver Digital Communications Group’s terminal node controller. The repeater has changed from being a laboratory curiosity to a major Bay Area repeater heard from Marin/Berkeley to south San Jose, and the user community has grown from a couple of stations to a network approaching 30 users. (See the April, 1981, QST for the initial announcement on the machine.)

The KA6M/R repeater is currently operating on a simplex channel assigned (in the San Francisco Bay area) for non-voice use, 146.580 MHz., and transmits data at a speed of 1200 Baud. The machine consists of a Z-80 microprocessor, a Bell 202 compatible modem, and a solid-state transceiver with power amplifier.

The repeater hardware is based on STD bus cards. The STD bus uses 56-pin 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" cards and is very popular. for industrial process control applications. There are now many manufacturers supplying cards for this bus, and the repeater uses the Z-80/CPU-2 card from Mostek, which costs about $195. The STD card is very compact, and does not have unneeded extra circuitry which is typically found on more versatile personal system CPU cards. A WD1933 chip was breadboarded onto a Vector STD board, and one additional card to control the transmitter is all that was required.

A Bell 202 modem uses a mark tone of 1200 Hz., and a space tone of 2200 Hz. The modulation is AFSK-FM using unmodified voice-frequency radio equipment."

From those humble beginnings packet radio would go on to become hugely popular with radio amateurs in the 80's and 90's. It was of course when most people didn't have access to the Internet yet at home and packet gave rise to bulletin boards and dx-clusters all over the radio.

In the late 90's, packet radio waned as more and more people got on the Internet with much higher speeds and a huge variety of content. Packet radio on 2m today is used primarily for APRS - Automatic Position Reporting System.

Links...

1) Internet Archive - ON THE CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR PACKET REPEATER by Hank Magnuski, KA6M

2) Pacific Packet Radio Society

10m QRSS Challenge: - K4BYN & KQ9RSS in the USA - 1st December 2025

Conditions on the 28 MHz (10m) band are still very good and on the 1st of December 2025, I noticed several QRSS (slow morse) signals just below the WSPR signals on 28.1246 MHz.

Starting from the top...

a) I was getting a very weak signal from WA1EDJ in Georgia and I was able to get a positive ID by piecing together the callsign over several cycles. I had a good capture of WA1EDJ from an opening in March 2024. See previous post.

2) KQ9RSS is the call of the Lower Illinois DX Society and it was a struggle to get a good clean capture in one cycle. Matt, WM9C operates the KQ9RSS callsign on QRSS and reports using just 150-milliwatts from a QRPLabs ULTIMATE3S to a half wave dipole in a second story attic. It's great to see such a low power signal reach the other side of the Atlantic.

KQ9RSS was also QRSS station #30 as part of my 10m QRSS challenge to capture as many images on the band.

3) K4BYN was another new one... #31 and was the strongest of the signals heard. When you look at the screen, the QRSS signal can look quite strong. The reality though to my ear was that the signal from K4BYN was no more than 319 to 419 in strength.

You'll notice from the map below that all three US stations were around the 6000km mark and it was likely via two x 3000km F2 layer hops in the ionosphere.

The remaining signals are G0MBA and G0PKT from the east of England and practically there every day and I think the propagation mode is back scatter. They always seem to have that distinctive back scatter fuzz on the signal.

IK2JET was too weak for a good signal but I was able to get fragments to confirm an ID. I suspect it was backscatter again as the signal was quite spread out in terms of amplitude.

In summary... That brings the QRSS tally so far for 28 MHz up to 31-callsigns & 12 DXCC.

1) 8th Jan 2024: VE1VDM - DXCC #1
2) 10th Jan 2024: VA1VM
3) 15th Jan 2024: G0MBA - DXCC #2
4) 15th Jan 2024: G0PKT
5) 15th Jan 2024: AE0V - DXCC #3
6) 16th Jan 2024: RD4HU - DXCC #4
7) 16th Jan 2024: W1BW
8) 17th Jan 2024: OH5KUY - DXCC #5
9) 18th Jan 2024: TF3HZ - DXCC #6
10) 6th Feb 2024: VA3RYV
11) 16th Feb 2024: IK2JET - DXCC #7
12) 16th Feb 2024: N8NJ
13) 21st Feb 2024: PY3FF - DXCC #8
14) 26th Feb 2024: VE6NGK
15) 27th Feb 2024: NM5ER
16) 28th Feb 2024: VK4BAP - DXCC #9
17) 2nd Mar 2024: WA1EDJ
18) 5th Mar 2024: FR1GZ/B - DXCC #10
19) 30th Apr 2024: IK1WVQ
20) 8th May 2024: IW0HK/B
21) 14th May 2024: IZ1KXQ/B
22) 3rd Jun 2024: M0GBZ
23) 3rd Jun 2024: G0FTD
24) 17th Oct 2024: AA7US
25) 19th Oct 2024: DJ5CW - DXCC #11
26) 21st Oct 2024: KC2CHK
27) 16th Jul 2025: GB3PKT
28) 20th Jul 2025: ON4CDJ - DXCC #12
29) 12th Aug 2025: DL3PB

30) 1st Dec 2025: KQ9RSS

31) 1st Dec 2025: K4BYN

For previous QRSS posts on the blog, click HERE