2026 DX Marathon Sprint

Ladies and Gentlemen: We are pleased to announce that we will again offer the DX Marathon Sprint this Fall. We had great participation last year and for that reason, we are again going to offer it out to both our regular participants and any new folks that would like to get a taste of our year long program. Details are listed in the attached. Once again, we will be issuing 100% recognition certificates to all those that participate. If you are a regular participant of the DX Marathon, please go invite your friends to give it a try. The same submission tool that is used will again be used so the process of entering is identical to our current DX Marathon system. Participation is free, and to enter, all you will need to do is generate an adif file of your log, and upload it. That’s it! I have also posted the 2026 Rules for the Sprint on the Group io page as a document.

Good luck, Mark WC3W

2026 DX MARATHON SPRINT RULES: Dates: October 17th, 2026 (00:00Z) through October 26th, 2026 (23:59Z) Log Deadline: November 1, 2026 (23:59Z) The CQ DX Marathon Sprint is designed to promote DXing activity with existing and new participants of the DX Marathon. Credit is given for contacts on all ham bands (160-6 meters) including those not normally used for contesting (60, 30, 17 & 12 meters). Any QSOs are legitimate to claim, including contesting QSOs (CQ World Wide SSB on October 25-26) as long as a single station location is maintained. Summary of Changes Between Full Year DX Marathon vs DX Marathon Sprint

1. The DX Marathon is a full year program starting on January 1 and ending December 31st. The DX Marathon Sprint is a 10 day program. In both, participants try to work as many DXCC entities and Zones as they can.
2. The majority of the rules as described on the DX Marathon website for the full year Marathon will apply except as explicitly stated within this document
3. For the Sprint, the participants will select their class (Unlimited, Limited, Formula, or QRP). They then will select their mode. The mode selection will be “All Modes”, or single mode (CW, SSB, Digital). There will be no Single Band entries nor Challenge entries.

Summary of Changes From the 2025 Sprint and the 2026 Sprint

1. There will be only a single change between the two years. This year, 2026, we are including and testing a concept that may or may not be incorporated into the Full 2027 DX Marathon Rules. We are including a “Classic” Class entry. The Classic Class entry will be for participants who wish to enter the Sprint ONLY with SSB and CW contacts may do. We are including this as a test case as there have been a few participants who prefer to compete on the basis of traditional modes.

DX Marathon Sprint 2026 rules: Activity Period The CQ DX Marathon Spring will start on October 17, 2026 00:00Z and end on October 26, 2026, 23:59Z.
Frequencies and Disallowed Entries Radio frequencies in the 160-6 meter bands are eligible including the 60m band and WARC bands (30, 17 & 12 meters). Contacts through repeaters or satellites are not allowed nor are contacts with maritime or aeronautical mobile stations. All contacts must be made entirely over amateur radio frequencies – i.e., Echolink-type, DMR, All-Star, etc. contacts do not count. Stations designating /AM (aeronautical mobile) will not be counted as a legitimate contact. Stations designating /MM (maritime mobile) are located on a floating, undocked, or docked watercraft and will not be counted as a legitimate contact. All operations are allowed provided the station is operated from a single location, i.e. multiple operating locations are disallowed. Modes Any modes for which the operator is licensed may be used. Popular modes seen in the DX Marathon include: ● CW: Utilizes the International Morse Code ● Phone: USB, LSB, DSB, FM (voice), AM ● Digital: FT8, FT4, PSK, RTTY General Each participant in the DX Marathon Sprint program may submit one log for the designated activity period per operating location. Participants wishing to participate in single mode categories must so designate on their submission. A participant may use up to two callsigns per station provided that the callsigns are clearly stated on the submission form. Both callsigns must be used at the same operating location using the equipment and antennas commensurate with their entered class. Remote operation is permitted if all transmitters, receivers, and antennas are at a single physical location. A remote station in a different country than the entrant’s country of license must comply with all local laws and regulations of that country. Once a remote station is selected by the participant, the participant must use the same remote station for the designated activity period. Participants must operate only those band segments allowed by their license privileges. The use of spotting networks is allowed for all classes. When referring to power, it shall be measured at the antenna feed point.

Classes The Classes are as defined on the 2025 DX Marathon rules, https://dxmarathon.com/rules/2025/. The addition of a Classic Class will allow participants if so selected to participate entering QSO’s with SSB or CW modes of operation.

Scoring Scoring will be the same as the 2025 DX Marathon Program. You will be awarded one point the first time you work a new country/entity and one point for working a zone. Add the country and zone points together and that results in your total score. There are no multipliers in the DX Marathon Program.

Submissions All submissions must be received no later than November 1, 2026, 23:59Z. No exceptions for late submittals will be made.
Submissions will be made through https://sprint.dxmarathon.com.

Verification QSLs or any other form of QSO verification are not required. The participant is expected to claim contacts only from stations they have every reason to believe are legitimate, and only to claim contacts in which an accurate two-way exchange was clearly realized. Each contact for a claimed country or zone must be a solid contact. The station claiming a contact with a DX station is expected to have had his or her callsign fully and accurately received and transmitted by the other station along with an exchange of signal reports. The DX Marathon scoring team reserves the right to verify any QSOs submitted. Decisions/rulings of the DX Marathon Program Administrator are final.

Results The final listing of official scores will be published on the DX Marathon website. The DX Marathon administrative staff is targeting a published final score on the website on or around December 15th, 2025.

Recognition: Each participant in the DX Marathon Sprint will receive a beautiful certificate of merit that will highlight the key accomplishments of their participation. This will be digitally produced and emailed to each participant.

DECLARATION By submitting a CQ DX Marathon Sprint entry, and in consideration of the efforts of the CQ Marathon Operating Committee, to review and evaluate the log, an entrant unconditionally and irrevocably agrees that he/she has: 1) read and understood the rules of the program and agrees to be bound by them, 2) operated according to all rules and regulations that pertain to amateur radio for the station location, 3) agreed the final scored results may be made open to the public, and 4) accepted that the issuing of disqualifications and other decisions of the DX Marathon Operating Committee are final. If an entrant is unwilling or unable to agree to all of the foregoing, the entrant should not submit the entry as an official entry or a checklog.