📅 The 52 week ham radio challenge - 2026 📻

Download one of the Echolink apps and get going. You can even request a QSL card for such an uncommon connection. Which country did you talk to?

Try and find an uncommon digital mode or maybe make a CW-QSO on 2 m? Use your imagination and get on the air!

Not all antennas are equal, so why not research one of your antennas or an antenna you are interested in and try to understand how it works? A magnetic loop? What is its beam characteristic and pattern? Can it handle high power? Let us know! We are eager to hear what you find out.

This challenge is about hitting the lower bands with your QRP rig: How low can you go? Can you make it to 80 m or maybe 160 m? Hint: The mode is up to you 😉

Can you get access to the HAMNET? What services did you find useful? How did you get access?

While it says this is an easy challenge arguably whistling a digimode might be very hard. Hint: It doesn't say you need to use a radio anywhere. Maybe you toot a video of yourself whistling and receive a mention back?

Maybe your mentor or someone you recently talked to or someone who helped you with a problem? Who did you chose and why? Let us know!

Whether you set up your own station or look into how APRS works or the history of it is up to your imagination. What did you find out? Did you see APRS packets? How do you they work?

Earlier you tried the lower bands using QRP and now the challenge is to use as little power as you can to make a successful QSO. How far did you get? Which band and mode did you use? Which rig and most importantly: How low did you go?

How did you localise the QRM source? What was it and how did you mitigate the interference? How long have you been dealing with it?

How did you tackle cable management in a shack full of cables? What about the cables that run to your antennas? Tell us about your power cables, feed lines and computer cables. Do you use special cables to mitigate interference? Clip-on ferrites?

There is a plethora of outdoor activity programs these days: SOTA, POTA, COTA, IOTA and even Toilets On The Air (though this mostly happens indoors HI). Chose one that you didn't yet sign up for and complete the challenge. How does it work? Was it easy to make contacts? Which references did you activate or hunt?

Offer a course, convince someone to take the exam, donate money to people or projects who support newbies – be creative!

Time to call your local hams. Who did you reach? How long did you have to call CQ for? Which mode and frequency and which rig did you use?

Whether you acquire a kit or come up with your very own transceiver design is up to you. What did you build? How well did the building go? Any problems that came up and how did you deal with them? What was your equipment used in building? How well does your device work?

Which mode did you choose? What hardware or software did you use? Were you able to make a QSO?

Where did you meet and what did you do? An outdoor programme? A field day? A ham fest? We hope you had great fun!

Share your project with us!

Remember many of the ideas here came from your fellow ham radio operators, be a part of it!

What antenna did you build? How much did it cost? What was your QSO (band, mode, power, RST)? Be competitive

What was it? How did you find it? Was it easy to use?

What is your go to portable equipment? If you don't have a manpack yet, why don't you build one? If you can't build one: What would your ideal manpack look like? Transceiver? Power? Backup logging? Antennas? The backpack itself? Let us know

In a fox hunt small transmitters are hidden and your goal is to find them using a directional antenna and a radio. Here is a project by our friend Harm, DK4HAA to get you started. It's originally in german but the link is to Google's translation of it. This is an especially fun challenge to do with kids!

Tell us how you did it and who you talked to? Did you use a repeater? Why do people make crossband QSOs regularly? Can you explain a situation where it makes sense?

Now this might be an easy challenge for operators fluent in CW, but if you never have worked CW it can be quite the challenge. Maybe it's the start of your CW career? Or just a fun excursion? How did you send your CW? Did you use a straight key, a paddle or a macro on your computer? There are lots of beginner contests and activities as well where operators accept slower speeds and their QSO partners needing a few more tries.

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Can you receive a satellite transmission or maybe make a contact with a satellite? Can you design your own? Or show us some cool software or hardware that is related to satellites? Anything goes!

What antenna did you build? Can you share some instructions or show it to us? Why is it uncommon? Is it a useful antenna? Did you make contacts with it? How can you rate its performance?

If your antenna from last week didn't work you can try matching that, hi. Try a transmission through your rain gutter or balcony rail. Please be absolutely mindful of your local laws and your own and other's personal safety. (Needless to say we are not at all responsible for anything we inspired you to do on this website).

You could meet them in person (preferred) or maybe have a (video) call? Connect with them in a social network and message them? We can't wait to see some pics from your get-together or hear some stories.

Who did you reach and what was their location?

Who did you help and what was the problem you helped them with? How did you diagnose and fix it?

Build something useful for your shack: an attenuator, dummy load, RF choke, balun, audio interface or similar. How does it work and what did you build?

Operate from a location which you usually don't operate from. Keep it legal. What exotic locations did you come up with? Your bike? Your car? The top of a building (again, keep it legal!) or maybe a train?

Show them how to operate the radio or maybe you are another station's first contact. How was it?

Make a contact with homebrew gear on your side and the other side. What gear did you use? What did they use? Were you happy with your gear? And were they? Not all the gear has to be homebrew. It's enough if one piece of gear was DIY'd.

How many bands did you manage to activate? What was your gear? Was it hard?

Which modes did you chose? How did you prepare? What were some more unconventional modes?

Get up early and make some QSOs! What "early" means is up to you.

Stay up late and make some QSOs! What "late" means is up to you.

Make a contribution to your favorite open source ham radio project. Sometimes small changes (such as documentation changes) can make a big difference. Don't be shy. Ask for help. What did you contribute? How easy was it? How did you do it?

Contact someone north from you, east, west and south from you in one activation. Who did you reach? How hard was it? Sorry in advance to the people on Neumayer station :-)

Make as many QSOs as you can (or QRO?) and drain your battery. How many contacts did you get out of one charge? Or maybe your battery was particularly small: Every operated on a button cell?

Tune around the spectrum and find a signal you cannot immediately identify. Use a waterfall, a spectrum analyzer, online databases, or a SDR software to figure out what you're hearing. Where did you find the signal? What clues helped you identify it? What modulation or protocol did it use? Share a waterfall screenshot and explain your reasoning.

Choose an amateur radio award you have never pursued and work toward it. It could be a DXCC entity, a xOTA award, a VHF/UHF award, or a national or regional award.

The goal isn't necessarily to earn the award in one week. Make measurable progress toward a new operating goal.

Build an RF filter and characterize its performance. A low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, or notch filter will do. Measure its response with a NanoVNA, spectrum analyzer, tracking generator, or another suitable instrument.

Use an SDR to explore a frequency range you rarely listen to. What did you find? From where did the signal originate? The shortwave broadcast bands are lovely to experience.

Transmit or receive an image using slow-scan television (SSTV). You can use a radio and a computer or smartphone, depending on your equipment and the mode you choose. Which SSTV mode and frequency did you use? What equipment and software were involved?

Use the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) to investigate how well your station is being heard.

Transmit a few CW CQ calls and examine the resulting spots. Compare different bands, antennas, power levels, or times of day. If you don't operate CW, explore the network's data and learn how automated skimmers work. What is the closest skimmer to your QTH? Can you find out what software and hardware they use and how they sync to RBN?

Or in a language you don't speak (regularly). E.g. say "Hello" in spanish or german to your contact (bonus points if its their language). Hard mode: Spell your call sign in a different alphabet ("Dora Ludwig dziewięć Pawel Karol", hi). How did your QSO partner react? Who did you reach?

Create a small, repeatable experiment to characterize your station (maybe use RBN from ealier?). Measure something you have never formally documented, such as receiver sensitivity, transmit power across several bands, frequency accuracy, or the effect of a different feed line. Maybe you can find something that can be improved or where your station really shines?

Spread some festive cheer over the airwaves (or online)!

Make at least one QSO (or a post on social media) during the holiday season and exchange warm wishes with a fellow radio amateur. Whether you operate CW, SSB, FM, or a digital mode, the goal is to connect with others and celebrate the spirit of friendship and goodwill that makes amateur radio special.

Thank you for being a part of the 52 week ham radio challenge 2026 ❤️. I hope you enjoyed it! Feedback is welcome and until next year! - DL9PK, Phil and all the supporters without which this year would not have been possible. Very warm 73s from DL!