Results of the 2025 DX Marathon

Another incredible year! Once again, the growth of the DX Marathon program makes us the fastest growing program in DXing today.

As we close the books on the 2025 DX Marathon, I want to thank every participant around the world who continues to make this program such a success.

In 2025, our program grew at a year over year rate in excess of 30%. The QSO total of our participants were just short of 500,000 growing from 338,000 in 2024!

The DX Marathon was designed to celebrate the joy of DXing—encouraging operators everywhere to get on the air, work new DX, and enjoy friendly competition throughout the year. As we continue to grow, preserving that spirit remains our highest priority. We want the program to expand, but always remain welcoming, accessible, and enjoyable for everyone.

DX Marathon resonates with operators across the globe.

Europe Surges Forward

One of our key goals has been to expand participation in underrepresented DX regions, particularly in areas with strong DX activity.Europe was a major success story in 2025.

Participation from European operators increased by an impressive 89% compared to 2024, representing the fastest growth of any region. This achievement reflects the expanding awareness of the DX Marathon within the European DX community. Within Europe, several countries made particularly dramatic gains:

• Germany increased participation by an incredible 578%
• Italy increased participation by 300%

Germany’s growth is especially noteworthy. In fact, German participation has risen so rapidly that it now stands just a few participants behind Italy, historically the European leader in DX Marathon participation.

To all of our European friends:: well done and let’s do it again in 2026! We all know you are great DXers.

South America Rebounds Strongly

Another bright spot in 2025 was South America, of course led by Brazil. Out of 40 plaques awarded this year, we had 7 from Brazil, one from Chile, and one from Venezuela! (22%).

After a difficult year in 2024, participation in South America rebounded strongly in 2025 with a +58% increase in participants.

South America remains the second-largest participating region in the DX Marathon, and its continued enthusiasm for the program is deeply appreciated. A significant number of the plaque awards this year were taken by Brazilian hams!

A Truly International Program

While North America continues to lead in total participation, one of the most encouraging trends we are seeing is the rapid growth from the rest of the world.

The DX Marathon is increasingly becoming what it was always intended to be: a truly international program.

Operators from Europe, South America, Asia, Oceania, and Africa are joining in greater numbers each year, making the program more vibrant and globally representative.

Looking Ahead

As we look forward, one of our key priorities will be to continue expanding participation in regions that remain underrepresented in the program.

Two areas of particular focus will be:

• Europe, where DX activity is exceptionally strong (including contesting) and;
• Japan, home to one of the most passionate DX communities in the world.

Both regions have enormous potential for participation, and we look forward to welcoming many more operators from these areas in the coming years.

Thank You

Finally, thank you to every operator who submitted scores, activated DX, chased new entities, or simply enjoyed another year of DXing.

The DX Marathon continues to thrive because of you.

Whether you finished at the top of the standings or simply worked a few new ones along the way, or you were in the program just to assess your own personal year over year improvement in working DX, you are part of what makes this program special.

Here’s to another great year of DXing in 2026!

Personal Testimonies

JN1THL: 235 points | UNLIMITED | ALL BANDS MIXED MODES_

“I decided to participate because I had heard a lot of excitement about the DX Marathon in emails from CWops. What surprised me was that Mr. Mark from WC3W asked me to help spread the word about the DX Marathon in Japan. We’re running out of time this time, but I’ll continue to promote it for the next time in JA. Ken Tanuma, JN1THL

(Ken-san. we need to find the key to unlock the many, many JA DXers, please continue to help me! MVW)

IK2DZN: 2014 points | CHALLENGE

“Glad I managed to have exactly 97% of my QSOs confirmed. Worked hard for this. Fantastic help by DXLab Suite. Really loved the CQ DX Marathon Challenge! By the way, I achieved during the Marathon year over 130 new slots, now to 2.360 overall. Mark, great job on your side! Thank you.”

K5BG: 278 points | UNLIMITED | SINGLE MODE CW

“I enjoy this operating event and appreciate the opportunity to participate. Thanks to all the guys who work so hard to keep it going and to all the sponsors. Very 73, Bob, K5BG”

W3GW: 245 points | FORMULA 100 | SINGLE MODE CW

“My old Ten Tec Omni d, Vibroplex bug, and 80 meter dipole fed with ladder line got a work out this year. Lots of Fun. Thanks to Mark and the gang for all their work.”

JM8SMO: 113 points | LIMITED | SINGLE MODE CW

“This is the first time participating in the DX Marathon. I appreciate all the stations I worked this year.”

K4SBZ: 207 points | FORMULA 100 | ALL BANDS MIXED MODES

“I have been DXing for years, but this is my first submission to the DX Marathon.”

W9KNI: 265 points | UNLIMITED | SINGLE BAND 40m

“Another fun year - and isn’t that what it’s all about?”

DL1MGB: 151 points | UNLIMITED | ALL BANDS MIXED MODES

“First time participation, motivated by DL8OH.”

W8QZA: 256 points | QRP UNLIMITED | ALL BANDS MIXED MODES

“My 19th consecutive year in this contest!”

AF9W: 140 points | FORMULA 100 | ALL BANDS MIXED MODES

“Good year for my HOA approved antenna.”

K9IR: 273 points | UNLIMITED | SINGLE BAND 30m

“First time focusing on a single band.”

W1BOY: 198 points | FORMULA UNLIMITED | ALL BANDS MIXED MODES

“Thanks for a great annual DX program!”

N1AM: 103 points | FORMULA 100 | ALL BANDS MIXED MODES

“CQ Marathon is a great contest.”

VE3VEE: 312 points | UNLIMITED | SINGLE BAND 20m

“It is amazing to see the participation in the CQ DX Marathon grow so much every year!”

N3CTG, Tom, President of the Dominion DX Group.

“Also I would mention, I really appreciate the user-friendly submission tool. When we come up with a new contest, it is often difficult for members to get the needed information from their logging program and this discourages participation. The submission tool’s ease of use definitely helped the members decide to go with the Marathon.”

These are just a small sampling of the many comments we have received from our participants. For me, it is incredibly rewarding to hear from so many of you who take the time to share your thoughts and experiences.

While my involvement in this program—and that of our team—requires a tremendous amount of time and effort, the opportunity to give back to a hobby I have loved for more than 60 years makes it all worthwhile.

Please keep those comments coming, and most importantly, GO TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

CLUB RESULTS

Before discussing the overall results of 2025, I want to highlight one of the most important strategic priorities of the DX Marathon Program—General Club and Contest Club engagement.

Across more than 100 Zoom presentations to clubs this year, I consistently heard the same concern from club leadership: member engagement is declining. As engagement declines, apathy often follows,

The DX Marathon Program has proven time and again to be a powerful tool for energizing club participation. As a result, this has become a central message in my presentations and conversations with club leaders. This opportunity extends beyond traditional DX clubs to include contest clubs as well—there is no reason a contest club cannot successfully engage in both contests and the DX Marathon.

I will be sharing this story, along with the 2025 results, on Friday in Dayton—I encourage you to come and listen.

A few examples of Club engagement is the Potomac Valley DX Club. Only a few years ago they were not even aware of the DX Marathon Program. Through the leadership of Frank Donovan, W3LPL, participation has grown to nearly 100 members. Once again this year, PVRC has earned another plaque—clear evidence of what can happen when leadership embraces the program.

Another outstanding example comes from my friend Chris Plumblee, W4WF, President of the Florida Contest Group. This year the FCG club received a brand new DX Marathon plaque category, “Most Improved Club,” with an impressive 538% year-over-year increase in participation.

Lastly, through the leadership of John, K9EL, the Northern Illinois DX Association significantly increased participation and earned a beautiful plaque.

The formula for club success is remarkably simple: a club leader commits to participation, a member is designated to champion the program, and the DX Marathon becomes a regular agenda item at monthly meetings. That small commitment can yield a surprisingly large impact.

Whether a member contributes 50 points or 500, the important thing is participation. Every member who gets on the air becomes part of the team helping move their club forward in the DX Marathon Program.

With that context in mind, the results of the 2025 DX Marathon Program are especially encouraging. Participation grew significantly across many regions of the world, with particularly strong gains in areas that have historically been underrepresented. Clubs that embraced the program saw measurable increases in member activity, and many individual operators discovered that the DX Marathon added a new level of enjoyment and purpose to their operating throughout the year. These results reinforce what we have been saying all along: when operators and clubs engage with the DX Marathon, the entire amateur radio community benefits.

RESULTS OF THE 2025 DX MARATHON PROGRAM

Logs received were up over 30% year over year (2025 vs 2024).

Of the submissions received, the Unlimited category remains the most active. (See Figure 2). However, the growth in the Formula class is particularly noteworthy, with participation increasing by nearly 60%. This aligns with a philosophy I strongly believe in and have actively promoted—encouraging greater participation among DXers operating in the Formula category. Formula represents what I consider the largest segment of hams worldwide: those using wire or vertical antennas and operating barefoot, without amplifiers. (This year, in response to popular demand, we also introduced a special “full legal limit” subclass within Formula.)

To me, this growth reinforces an important message: you don’t need a mega-station to enjoy and succeed in the DX Marathon. Cycle 25 has certainly helped, but more importantly, it shows that DXing is accessible to everyone. Whether you’re running CW or FT8 with modest equipment, my message is simple—just get on the air and have fun.

The Unlimited category saw strong growth, with a formidable 35% increase in participation.

Cycle 25 has been exceptional, though as my good friend Frank Donovan noted during a DX Marathon Zoom presentation he generously shared with many of our participants, “it peaked in the summer of 2024.” Importantly, he also emphasized that we can still expect several strong years following that peak.

One of the key ways we track solar cycle impact is through average scores and the distribution of QSOs across the bands—particularly the proportion of activity on the higher bands (10, 12, and 15 meters). Interestingly, in 2024 these three bands accounted for 53% of all submitted QSOs, while in 2025 that figure only slipped slightly to 50%.

By that measure, and consistent with Frank’s observation, Cycle 25 in 2025 remains very much alive and well.

Here is a graphic that shows the total QSO’s in those three bands, 10-12-15 historically.

Another metric we use to measure the strength of Cycle 25 are scores above 300.

Interesting metric here as the number of scores above that magic 300 level actually increased but this was also pushed by the fact that we had over 30% growth in submissions! Again, the conclusion is Cycle 25 is still alive and well.

Another metric that we track are average scores in each class available to participants to enter. As we expected, almost a year past the Cycle 25 peak, the average scores reflected in 2025 vs that in 2024 were down just a bit, but this also is unadjusted for dxpedition differences between the two years which of course will impact these average scores.

What is pretty amazing about this is that even with varying sun spot cycles the averages are very consistent year over year.

One of the metrics we also like to track is our All-Time Records, and each year we note how many of these records have been broken. In 2025, a total of 57 records were broken, compared with 44 in 2024.

I would like to recognize a number of those achievements here. Congratulations to each and every one of you. Please pardon me for not listing the entire group in this report—the full list will be posted on our website.

Congratulations to:

• Cedric, F5UKW, 6M - 220 points
• Pia,DL7PIA, Top Youth - 305 points
• Juan, EA8DHH, Africa - 266 points
• T. Naranbaatar, JT1BV -Mongolia - 216 points
• Phil, CT1TS, Zone 31 - 264 points
• Tom, 9J2FI, Zone 36 - 263 points
• Jose, CE1KR, Chile - 283 points
• Wanda, SP7IWA, YL - 312 points
• Lefty, CO2QU, Cuba - 292 points
• Sergei, ES1LL, Estonia - 292 points
• Carlos, YV4ABR, Venezuela - 287 points

Wonderful achievements. In addition to these accomplishments, we welcomed an impressive 17 ATNOs—entities among the 346 possible (DXCC 340 plus 6 WAE) that had never before submitted a score to the DX Marathon. This is truly remarkable and further demonstrates the growing awareness and reach of the DX Marathon Program within the global amateur radio community.

We had more than a 30% increase in QSO’s submitted in 2025. The mix of those QSO is shown below.

Digital stayed steady at about 71% of the QSO, CW secured 17% and Phone was 12%.

In 2025, we introduced a new plaque award for the highest scoring station within a country entity. For just $100 USD, a Club or individual can sponsor a plaque honoring the top operator in a specific country. These sponsorships help expand our awards program and directly support participant recognition. In 2025, we had sponsors for the following countries: Venezuela, Turkey, the Slovak Republic, and Chile. We will continue with this country award in 2026 as long as we have sponsors. If you are interested in sponsoring a country—or helping us find a sponsor—please contact me. We had hoped that we had more country sponsors. Be reminded that a club or individual can sponsor the high country award. I would like to see this category double or triple in 2026. A sponsorship for a plaque is $100US. If you have an interest, simply send me an email and we will get it posted on the website immediately.

The sponsors and winners this year are:

Country	Sponsor	Winner
Turkey	TA2OM	TA2LG (316)
Venezuela	KI2D	YV4ABR (283)
Chile	W4VIC	CE1KR (283)
Slovak Rep	VE3VEE	OM2DX (305)
Brazil *	W9KNI	PY5CC (305)

* in recognition of Atilano Oms, PY5EG for his support of the DX Marathon Program

The Winners Are!

The DX Marathon believes in recognition of participant’s hard work in securing DX contacts throughout the year. Recognition comes in many forms. It may be a mention in this annual report, it may come in the form of a beautiful plaque, or this year for the first time, it may come through the issuance of a certificate listing to each and every person listing their most significant accomplishments! Most of our participants don’t participate to win a category or class. In fact most of our participants do it to establish a metric on how well they did year over year in pursuing the love of DX’ing. Many of our participants do it to contribute to their clubs success in the club competition.

Paula, K9IR sent me this in an email that described why she participates each year. Please note her mention of club contribution. Clubs like the PRVC, or the NIDXA that proactively involve their members in the DX Marathon have witnessed “new life.” Just do it!

Before I begin discussing awards, I would like to take a moment to recognize a long-time participant who has become a Silent Key. Lada, you will be missed.

His consistent excellence in CW competition—earning the #1 CW score for 10 consecutive years—may never be matched. Rest in peace, Lada.

I wish to recognize first what I believe are priorities for the DX Marathon Program. Youth, YL’s and Clubs before I move into individual recognition.

Youth participation has been growing year over year, and we actually split the youth category into two tranches, 15 to 24 and 14 and below.

The winner of the 15 to 24 for the second consecutive year was Pia, DL7PIA. Pia is an amazing young woman and is an excellent spokesperson for our hobby among the youths of the world. If you have not heard it yet, my good friend Bill Salyers, AJ8B did a podcast with (https://podscan.fm/podcasts/the-dx-mentor/episodes/episode-82-dl7pia?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Pia.

This year, Ann, WA1S—an outstanding DX’er, a long-time DX Marathon participant, and 2024 World YL winner—stepped up to personally sponsor the Youth (14 and under) plaque.The winner is 10-year-old Nahla, YD1NAV!

Is there hope for the future of DXing? I think so!

This year we had a new winner in the special YL category, Wanda, SP7IWA with a score of 312.

I would be remiss if I did not also recognize Ann, WA1S, last year’s winner of the overlay category. Ann also achieved an outstanding score of 312. As per our rules, ties are broken by the date on which the score is completed. Wanda reached 312 on December 21, while Ann secured her 312 on December 27.

What an incredibly close finish—reminiscent of the Olympics, where only the smallest margins separate the very best.

Congratulations, Wanda, and welcome to one of the fastest-growing programs in DX worldwide!

Repeating his success, this year’s Unlimited World Winner is John, K9EL with 318 points. The category—like the YL class—featured a tie at the top, with Stefan, OM3JW also finishing at 318.

The tie was decided by timing: Stefan secured his final entity on December 31, while John completed his total on December 27.

Still, an outstanding result for Stefan, who earned the plaque for the Highest Score Europe with his 318 total. And here’s a remarkable highlight—his son, Michal, OM2DX, captured the top score in the Slovak Republic (sponsored by VE3VEE) with a score of 305.

That makes it a first for DX Marathon—two plaques awarded to members of the same family. Since this was a country-sponsored award, we recognized Michal as the top scorer in Slovakia.

Michal—can you top your father in 2026?

Moving to the Limited competition, we have for the first time a new winner, Gary, AF7NX with a score of 304. This was achieved from the Pacific Northwest in the US which sometimes can be a difficult DX location. Nice job Gary.

Formula Unlimited Class, we have Can, OE1TOA taking the top spot with 304 points while the traditional 100W Formula was won by Ali, TA4RC with an amazing 315 points.

The tough QRP class was divided into two sections, QRP Unlimited with no antenna restrictions, and QRP Limited. The winner of the QRP Unlimited was Carlos, PY2CER with 269 points while QRP Limited was won by our second Polish plaque winner, Stan, SP4NKJ with 236 points. Congrats to both of you for competing in this challenging class with 5W. This class is indeed challenging and frankly the participation has fallen off over the last few years. For this reason, in 2026, we will be recombining the QRP class into a single class. We also will be removing the plaque award. A certificate listing accomplishments will be issued to all participants in the single QRP class in 2026.

In the second year that we have done the Challenge Class we had two new winners at the top of the leaderboard. Giuseppe, IT9FTP from Italy secured the #1 position with 2276 points while the runner up was Mark, K4SO with 2,258. Better watch out in 2,026 all of the Challenge Class participants, #3 in 2025 was none other than Frank, W3LPL with 2,220.

The prestigious John Sweeney, K9EL Super Marathon Award—representing the rolling average of the previous five years’ scores—goes to Barry, N2BJ.

Finishing in second place was last year’s recipient, Marvin, VE3VEE, with a total of 1,271 points. Remarkably, the difference between first and second place was once again just a single point—exactly as it was last year.

As a reminder, once a participant receives this award, there is a five-year waiting period before becoming eligible again.

And with results like these, I suppose we can safely say that Chicagoland is not exactly a DX “black hole”! (K9EL—just kidding!)

Before moving on, I want to take a moment to give a huge thank you to our sponsors. While I cannot mention every one of them, they are listed on our website at www.dxmarathon.com. Our sponsors include a mix of both individuals and clubs that generously donate $100 to cover the expenses of the beautiful plaques and shipments to their winners. The Northern Illinois DX Association has sponsored the Unlimited, Limited, and Formula plaques for years. The CWops organization now sponsors 4 plaques going to the World Highest CW score, high US, EU, and CWops scores. The Araucaria Group in Brazil led by Oms, PY5EG generously sponsors all single band plaques. We are so grateful to every club and individual who continues to support the DX Marathon. This year, we will be awarding 40 plaques to our participants. If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, we would be honored to match your support with a meaningful and well-deserved award in our program..

We also welcome additional sponsors who can step in as needed should openings arise. Your support helps us continue to recognize excellence across the program.

Single Mode Results

The DX Marathon has choices for just about everyone. If you really love a particular mode, i.e. CW, or Digital, or Phone, you can enter in a single mode. This year the winner of the CW only mode was PA3FQA with a score of 293. The Phone competition was won by a Brazilian ham, PY3JW with a point total of 288, while the digital world winning plaque was taken by PY2APK who captured 310 points. Steve, N3SL was a very close second at 307.

Single Band Option

Many people enjoy the single band category. We also enjoy the choices that it gives our participants each year. However, the fact is, it simply draws only about 8% of the total participation in the program. We always need to balance the cost/benefit of the generous donations through our sponsors so that it gets maximum coverage. If 8% of our participants consume 40% of the sponsor dollars. In 2025 and future years,, for single bands that have less than 10 participants, no plaque is automatically provided, but if a winner would like a plaque, they are available from us for $100US.

A separate email will be sent to those single band winners whose band did not achieve the 10 participant level asking them if they would like to purchase a plaque.

I have summarized in the following table the single band winners

BAND	WINNER	SCORE
6m	F5UKW	220
10m	K2TQC	312
12m	PU2UAF	295
15m	K2ZJ	308
17m	PY2MST	306
20m	VE3V33	311
30m	PY2NF	289
40m	PY5QW	274
60m	W1NG	202
80m	PP5JR	249
160m	DL8OH	184

Congratulations to all of the single band winners in 2025!

In second place right behind Cedric is PY2XB with 218 points. PY2XB was last year’s 6m winner.

Behind John on 15M was WW3S with 279 points followed by PY2CER with 269 points.

Then we have steady Marvin, VE3VEE who certainly has figured out how to be competitive on 20M finishing 91 points higher than #2.

W9KNI has historically locked up 40M however this year Vigand slipped into the number one slot with a total of 274 points.

Finally, those tough German hams are not only good at contesting (and boosting DX Marathon figures this year), they are innovative. Dieter, DL8OPH wins the 160M World plaque with 184 points.

We look forward to continued growth in participation from German hams in the DX Marathon in 2026. I encourage those already involved to reach out to fellow operators within outstanding DX clubs such as the Bavarian Contest Club, DARC, the 599 DX Association, and the Rhein-Ruhr DX Association, and invite them to participate.

Contesting and the DX Marathon are highly complementary—every QSO made during a contest can be credited toward entities and zones in the DX Marathon.

Reminder to all contesters. You can participate in the DX Marathon, push your numbers to your club score, and still work contests. Anything you work in a contest can be credited to the DX Marathon score! Just do it!

Speaking of clubs, we already mentioned a few earlier in the article. Once again, the YB-Land DXing Passion Club won the International Club category with an impressive total score of 35,445. They have taken a commanding year over year lead in winning this plaque. Congratulations!

In North America, clubs competed in three categories based on club participation levels.. In the Large Club category (75+ participants), the Potomac Valley Radio Club captured the top spot with a score of 20,688. Finishing second was the Willamette Valley DX Club—welcome to the competition.

In the Medium Club category (26–74 participants), one of our long-time consistent sponsors, the Northern Illinois DX Association, earned the top honor with a score of 10,218. They were followed by the Southeastern DX Club (9,739 points) and the Western Washington DX Club. Finishing fourth was the Florida Contest Group with 8,148 points. The FCG in 2025 was recognized as the Most Improved Club, increasing participation by more than 500%. Congratulations on earning a plaque!

Finally, in the Small Club category (1–25 participants), the Hudson Valley Contesters and DXers took first place with a score of 4,081. The Carolina DX Association followed in second place with 3,860 points.

Congratulations to all of the clubs for an excellent year of competition.

The DX Marathon has something for everybody! As most know, if you are a mode enthusiast, you may enter in a single mode, phone, digital, or CW. The top world digital winner this year was Antonio, PY2APL with a total point score of 310. The top world phone participant was Jeber, PY4JW with a total of 288 points. No mess with those Brazilian operators on single mode. However, from the Netherlands, Dick, PA3FQA kept the winning CW score in the EU for another year. Congratulations. As most know, the CWops organization is a huge supporter of DX Marathon sponsoring Top World CW, Top EU CW, Top US CW, and Top CWops. This year top NA was Erik, K9EU with 287 points while the top CWops operator was Alex, UR8UQ with 252 points from the Ukraine! Erik is shown below 10 years ago with K9EL. Below that picture on the QRZ site is the following:

“2015 CQ Marathon North America CW–on the real, my proudest moment in ham radio; sooooo I got that going for me. I am taking another shot at it ten years later, 2025, since I am not getting any younger; turning 80 this year and still hoping someday soon in becoming an adult. No way!”

Erik, you did it and my sincerest congratulations to you for #1 in NA!

Errors in submission

One of the key objectives of the DX Marathon Program is to help participants become better DX operators. This includes accurately copying callsigns, correctly identifying zones and DXCC entities, and, overall, improving proficiency in working DX.

As part of that effort, we provide feedback on logging accuracy. As in past years, each participant will receive an email detailing any deductions between their claimed score and their verified score.

We encourage you to review this information carefully, as it can be a valuable tool to help improve your accuracy and performance in the coming year.

The error rate as a percentage of total QSO’s actually decreased this year as compared to last year. The total number of “mistakes” that were found was just short of 10,000. That is only a 2% error rate when ratioed with 500,000 QSO’s but the composition of these QSO’s was amazing. The highest percentage of errors were due to incorrect reporting of zones which represented 36% of the total. The next highest category was calls not found which means calls were reported that simply did not exist. This would include typos in recording QSO’s. That percentage was 27% making the combination of these two nearly 65% of all errors made! Check those two carefully as you accumulate QSO’s in 2026!

Closing Thoughts

I am honored to serve in a position of leadership within the DX Marathon Program. On an almost daily basis, I see how much people genuinely enjoy the pursuit of DX—something that, for many of us, is what drew us to this hobby in the first place.

Our mission is to provide a simple framework that allows amateur radio operators to pursue that passion while also encouraging broader participation in the program. A fundamental requirement, however, is adherence to the rules. We have worked hard to keep those rules straightforward and have intentionally avoided burdens such as confirmation requirements.

Integrity is at the heart of DX Marathon. Playing by the rules—and playing honestly—are essential cornerstones of the program. We firmly believe that the vast majority of participants operate in this spirit.

To protect those who do, it is our responsibility as program administrators to identify situations where the rules are not followed. This year, that has included disqualifications in cases of clear rule violations, as well as reclassification of participants who did not comply with the antenna requirements of their declared category.

Looking ahead to 2026, one area we will be monitoring very closely is the accuracy and completeness of antenna descriptions on submission forms. This year, we were required to move a number of participants to higher classes due to non-compliance with antenna rules. To avoid this, we ask that you provide as much detail as possible when describing your antenna systems—particularly height above ground (in feet or meters).

A lack of sufficient detail may result in reclassification to a higher category. The burden of proof for compliance rests with the participant, so please ensure your antenna system is described as clearly and accurately as possible.

Another area of focus will be the Formula 100 and QRP categories. These classifications require strict adherence to defined power limits. Any deviation from these limits will be treated as a serious violation of the rules.

We are also looking forward to continued growth in 2026, with a particular emphasis on increasing participation in underrepresented regions of the world.

In addition, we launched our first Marathon Sprint Program in October—a 10-day event that proved to be a success. We are tentatively planning a similar event for the fall. As with the Sprint, all participants will receive a certificate—similar to the one shown below—for their participation in the 2025 DX Marathon, and we plan to continue issuing these certificates in 2026. We recognize now based on lots of feedback from many that the certificates are much appreciated and valued. I want to acknowledge credit for this idea in a discussion I had with Randy Thompson, K5ZD. Randy simply stated to me, “People like to know what they are going to get when they enter into a contest or a program.” Brilliant! With the help of our staff Sebastian, KI2D who put together a magnificent software package to allow us to pick out each and every participant’s key accomplishments, we “got it done.”

Last year, we established a 501(c)(3) organization, making contributions to the DX Marathon Program tax-deductible. A QR code is available on our website, allowing you to contribute directly and easily to the program.

We are happy to provide documentation for your tax reporting purposes. Contributions of all types can be made using the same QR code.

If you are considering options for directing your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) funds, we would be grateful if you would consider supporting the DX Marathon Program.

Lastly, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our dedicated and hardworking staff—they truly are the best. They invest hundreds of hours to make this program what it is today, consistently going above and beyond to ensure its success. I am deeply grateful for their commitment; quite simply, the program would not run without their skill and effort.

We would also like to recognize the developers who have integrated the DX Marathon Program into their software. Special thanks go to Dave of DX Labs and Michael of HRD, whose outstanding tools make it much easier for participants to record and validate QSOs for submission.

Finally, thank you to all of our participants around the world. We are truly an international program, with approximately two-thirds of participants now residing outside of North America. We encourage each of you to help spread the word about DX Marathon within your clubs, among your peers, and throughout your networks. If you have an interest in serving as an Ambassador for the program in regions outside North America, I would welcome the opportunity to hear from you.

I leave you with my presentation at Dayton last year. I just received this but it pretty much tells our whole story. If you have friends who may have an interest in the DX Marathon Program, send it to them.

Hamvention 2025: https://youtu.be/_PlR0mRJyHI

73, and best wishes for DXing in 2026.

Mark, WC3W