Author name: W8NI

Announcing the 2026 Club Operating Awards!

Celebrate Your Skills • Push Your Stations • Have Some Fun on the Bands

As we turn the dial into a brand-new year, it’s time once again to recognize the operators in our Amateur Radio club who go the extra mile (or the extra thousand miles!) with their on-air accomplishments. We are excited to announce the 2026 Club Operating Awards, designed to encourage activity, sharpen operating skills, and celebrate the spirit of radio exploration.

This year’s awards focus on one of the most exciting achievements in ham radio: DXCC — confirming contacts with 100 or more distinct DX entities. Whether you’re chasing signals across the globe on HF or grabbing those elusive long-haul contacts on VHF/UHF, this is your chance to shine.

Click HERE to download the tracking spreadsheet!

2026 Award Categories

🏆 Most HF DXCC (SSB, CW, Digital)
Separate awards will be given for each mode. Whether you’re a phone operator punching through the pile-ups, a CW enthusiast working the bands the traditional way, or a digital-mode aficionado making magic with FT8 or other modes, every path to DXCC counts. And once you get to 100, keep going! The winner will be the individual with the most entities!!!

🏆 Most VHF/UHF DXCC (SSB, CW, Digital)
Our VHF/UHF DXCC categories take on a fun twist: states and provinces count as “DX.” These awards recognize operators who push the limits of VHF/UHF propagation—whether through tropospheric ducting, meteor scatter, E-skip, or just good station engineering. Every new state, province or country you contact brings you one step closer to the top of the standings. Separate awards will be given for SSB, CW, and Digital modes.

How to Participate

Participation is simple:

• Keep accurate logs of your 2026 contacts. We’ve even provided a spreadsheet to assist.
• Submit your totals at the end of the year.
• Contacts must be made between January 1 and December 1, 2026.

So start planning your strategy, checking your antennas, and fine-tuning your station.

Why Participate?

These awards aren’t just about numbers—they’re about:

• Improving operating skills
• Experimenting with antennas and propagation
• Encouraging club activity and fellowship
• Challenging yourself to grow as an operator
• Celebrating your accomplishments with fellow hams

Whether you’re a seasoned DXer or someone looking to dive deeper into the hobby, the 2026 awards are a great opportunity to stretch your capabilities and enjoy the thrill of radio.

Start Calling CQ!

The world is waiting to be worked—one contact at a time. Fire up the rig, spin the dial, and let’s make 2026 a year full of great signals, strong friendships, and memorable operating achievements.

Good luck, and may the propagation gods smile upon your station!

October is here, which means the Defiance County Amateur Radio Club Christmas party is right around the corner. This year it will be held on Saturday, December 6th and we hope you will all be able to attend.

This year, along with the Christmas party comes a set of awards. I hope you have been tracking your activities throughout the year and will submit the results. As mentioned clear back in January, the awards are as follows:

1. WAS (SSB) in 2025
2. WAS (CW) in 2025
3. WAS (Digital) in 2025
4. Most contacts (SSB)
5. Most contacts (CW)
6. Most contacts (Digital)
7. Most total contacts (all modes)
8. Longest distance unassisted VHF/UHF contact
9. Attend most DCARA meetings/nets
10. Attend most events (Breakfast, Summer Field Day, etc.)

The “logs” need to be turned in (or emailed to me, W8NI) by our November meeting (November 10th). If you completed the WAS, please let me know how many states you worked and/or the date it was completed, just in case several of you got all the states. For the most contact categories, a number of contacts per mode is sufficient. The longest distance category, I only need to know the number of miles (and I would like to know the band you used for it). Finally, for category #9 and #10, just a number will suffice.

If you have any questions, please just ask. I look forward to getting your “logs” and am even more excited about handing out the awards at the Christmas party.

And for those of you looking ahead to 2026, our awards will be different. Next year the awards will be as follows:

For HF, the award will be for most DX entities. This will be broken down into CW, SSB and Digital modes, as well as a combined category. For VHF/UHF the award will be for most States/Provence. So, start working those into your plans for 2026, and I look forward to seeing you all on December 6th.

It has been cold in NW Ohio. But natural disasters don’t wait for perfect weather, and neither does the Defiance County Amateur Radio Club (DCARC). On Saturday, January 25th the DCARC took part in Winter Field Day (WFD). WFD is an event that aims to help amateur radio operators improve their preparedness for disasters and enhance their operational abilities even in adverse conditions.

The purpose is for participants to go out and setup a temporary station in an effort to improve emergency preparedness skills. This station consists of a few radio transmitters, temporary antennas that span several feet, and coax to connect the two together. Using this system, radio operators use different radio frequencies and modes to make contacts. The operators leverage these contacts to send and receive information worldwide. Different modes consist of regular voice contacts (one operator talking to another operator), digital (computer to computer over RF) and morse code.

Participation in this event also allowed for a lot of fun and conversations off the radio waves. The DCARC enjoyed making contacts with 34 different states and 6 different countries. If you would like to know more, or are interested in amateur radio, we would love to talk to you about it. Check out our Facebook page or email us at dcarc.k8von@gmail.com

What an amazing year we had in 2024! So many fun events and get togethers as we continued to learn from one another and improve in our amazing hobby. The pinnacle of which was our 2nd place finish in the OSPOTA contest. But the year consisted of much more than that one event, as we also participated in Winter Field Day, Summer Field Day, Amateur Radio Day and a few others.

So much fun was had, and it culminated in our club Christmas party as we finished out the year. The party was well attending, the conversation joyful and the food delightful. But as I reflected on everything, it seemed as though there should have been more.

So this year, in 2025, we hope to provide more. This year at our club Christmas party we look to recognize and give awards to radio operators who are furthering our hobby. But rather than just “spring” these awards on you, we want to let you know the categories and let you set them as goals for 2025. The awards are as followed;

1 – WAS (SSB) in 2025
2 – WAS (CW) in 2025
3 – WAS (Digital) in 2025
4 – Most contacts (SSB)
5 – Most contacts (CW)
6 – Most contacts (Digital)
7 – Most total contacts (all modes)
8 – Longest distance unassisted VHF/UHF contact
9 – Attend most DCARA meetings/nets
10 – Attend most events (Breakfast, Summer Field Day, etc)

We hope these goals will encourage you to operate more in 2025. We also hope they will fuel excitement and friendly competition. Also, we hope this will foster discussions for new categories/awards in 2026! From all of us, we hope you have a radio-active 2025!