Amateur Radio News and Notes 5/22/2026
In the log this week
* Dayton Hamvention 2026 Recap
* MVARC Nets on the Air
* What’s happening with DX?
* Solar Activity Update
* Upcoming Contests
* Interesting Online Radio Content
As always, links to all referenced content can be found in the show notes, or at our Substack at mvarc.substack.com [https://mvarc.substack.com].
Thanks for reading Amateur Radio News and Notes. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Dayton Hamvention 2026 Recap
The 2026 edition of Dayton Hamvention took place on May 15-17, 2026 and Amateur Radio News and Notes was there. There were new product announcements from Icom and Yaesu, scores of vendors and flea market attendees selling their wares, many forums to attend, and several awards given to individuals and organizations of note in the amateur radio hobby.
Perhaps the most anticipated announcements of Hamvention were those from Icom. They had several new and upcoming items on their list including ID-5200 mobile VHF/UHF rig which was on display with support for APRS and a Bluetooth KISS TNC. A price and release date has not yet been announced, but it is likely to be released at Tokyo Ham Fair later this year. Also announced was a new microphone and the AH-6 automatic antenna tuner, and both have no announced release date. The big tease from Icom was for their X-026 prototype. They had a plastic mockup under glass, but it was just a black box with no details on it and Icom staff were more interested in getting attendees thoughts on what it could be than giving specifics. Amateur Radio News and Notes was able to get some time with Icom’s Ray Novak N9JA to talk about what they brought to Dayton.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: Hey, we’re here with Ray Novak here at the Icom booth, N9JA, and of course everybody knows Ray. Ray, you’ve got a lot of things being announced here, some a little more, real than others, some still in the prototype phase. Tell me about what, what we’re looking at here, new stuff here from Icom.
Ray Novak N9JA: Well, a couple of the things here, we’re in various stages of prototypeness here. We’ve got the new X026 which is in a design concept, you know, one of those molded vehicles at the auto show that everybody goes, “Oh, that is so cool,” and then in the automobile industry maybe 20 years later they finally release the Tonka version of the Bronco. That took forever.
But then we’ve got a microphone that is designed by the JAIA. I’ve heard that it looks like one of the Heil microphones, the PR781, uh, had somebody else tell me it looks like a Rode microphone. I haven’t had a chance to play with it to see what the front to back looks like, but it’s got in it the, uh, buttons to trigger—like I said I haven’t had a chance, but it looks like it triggers the digital voice keyer in the radio.
Uh, we’ve got two almost production prototypes here, one being the AH6 which is 160 through 6 meters, both a random wire or a coax fed antenna system. And then finally the ID5200.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Well very good. Well, I’m very excited. I know there’s a lot of buzz around the, uh, the X026. I know you and I were talking a little earlier, might be a little while before it goes to market, but a lot of lot of speculation. Do you, do you have any, any favorite guesses you’ve been hearing, because I know a lot of people have been asking about it.
Ray Novak N9JA: The more favorite guesses I guess I could say isn’t the ones where they’re like speculating what bands it will do, it’s more what would you like to see outside the box. And those, those have been the ideas that I’ve liked the most because it gives me an idea of hams thinking differently.
Instead of just where does the microphone plug into, how long is the remote head cable, I want to see it do this band, that band, the other, I want the typical things that you would expect out of a black box. But I’m having fun hearing some of the things like what we did in the ID5200 with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, APRS, things like that. So those, those are the fun outside... it’s definitely outside the Icom box with like the APRS.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: Fantastic. Well Ray, thank you so much for your time. I know you’re busy, got a lot of people going to talk to you but I appreciate you spending some time with us and, uh, look forward to seeing all this stuff out in the market.
Ray Novak: Alright, thank you very much.
Another highly anticipated set of announcements was from Yaesu. They announced the latest version of their digital voice system, Yaesu System Fusion III, along with their new DR-3X Repeater Systems. No price or release dates were announced, but Amateur Radio News and Notes spoke to Cory Sickles WA3UVV to learn more about what Yaesu announced at Dayton.
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: Sure, I’m I’m Corey Sickles WA3UVV.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Well very good, so looking at the release here, I know they were talking about System Fusion 3 and then the new series of the DR3 repeaters. Can you tell me a little bit about that? What’s new in 3 and what can people look forward to with the new repeaters? I know a little bit more power, right?
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: Uh, it is more power. Uh, the new repeaters are now available, they have dual band, dual input receivers still... compared to the DR2X, but a single transmit output and a single band. And the reason for that is that the increased power... what’s available with today’s technology for a given price point is such that it’s easier to do in a mono band configuration. So with VHF you get 85 watts out. With UHF you get 65 watts out. 100% duty cycle, full bore... that’s kind of the story of that part of things.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Well very good. So my, the club that I run this podcast through, we we use the 2. So what would be the... so obviously more power, I noticed also some new signal processing on that.
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: There is. There’s a, uh, interference avoidance system, more information will be coming out about that, I don’t want to speak about it just yet. but if you have... and this is used in some commercial applications elsewhere in the world... you have interference, the repeater can switch to a different input frequency automatically AND communicate that transfer to radios... with firmware that will be upgraded at some point to do the same thing. So it would be an additional memory you’d have for this... situational kind of thing where it goes to that.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: So would this be something where you’d have members of the club would sort of program it ahead of time with some sort of a key and then it would know, okay, it’s it’s time to go based on that authentication?
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: Right. Right. One one example I could give of this, and it’s not the perfect one, but for my own club, we have a repeater up in the mountains. There’s a SCADA unit not too far from us. Every day at the exact same time, a gas valve opens and it puts that noise into the repeater. We once had that thing hang and it just tied up the repeater, couldn’t do anything about it other than report it to the gas company. Because we knew who the perpetrator was based on past experience. So this is something that in that scenario, the DR3 configured accordingly and the users, it would flip.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Okay. So I imagine in tight urban areas where you have a lot of, you know, you don’t have a lot of open frequencies that might be a bit of a challenge. Or or is the idea... I know they only transmit on on the band that they’re for but they do listen on both right? So would this be a situation where would it be maybe would people be moving from say VHF to UHF for the input during that time or would it...
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: That is one possibility. Let’s say it’s a UHF repeater. You know, we have 30 megahertz on the 70 centimeter band. We heavily use 10 of that. Give the satellites their due. Still a lot of open room down in the 430 range... for for auxiliary inputs if you will, for something like that. So there really, you know, when we get to that band, we really don’t have the crowding of things.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Well very good. And another thing I noticed to talk about was the ASP which I know some of your newer rigs have. So would this... is my understanding right that essentially in weak signal conditions it’s going to add a level of audio processing and then that would then be boosting or taking that processed audio on the repeater output?
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: Right. It’s a very current state of the art, digital signal processing for an analog signal. Uh, if you’ve had things like, uh, picket fencing, fry eggs, uh, you know the different sounds we have... It remedies that to whatever extent it needs to that technology allows. It’s a, it’s a really great thing. I mean, somebody who has used FM since the 70s and there are just certain things you just live with... we’re now at a point where we have a delivery of something where you don’t have to live with that.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Fantastic. And then in terms of the System Fusion 3 part, so what other things can people expect from the new standard? I know it’s backward compatible, right?
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: Yes, absolutely. We’re we’re not taking anything away. there will be new features via firmware for certain radios. New things, you know, to come. If you remember the old Tonight Show billboard, ‘more to come’ along with that. And and some of this is is being developed. What you have right here is a working pre-production unit. It’s a real product. The firmware software things like that... later to be released to allow some of these features.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: And any timelines of when when people can expect?
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: Nothing that I... I I do not know. So if I were to give you a date, it would be a lie. And and we don’t do that. But just, you know, stay tuned, pay attention to those things coming up. A lot of exciting stuff with this.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Fantastic. Well I really appreciate your time.
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: If you look at the front panel, you might notice a few things over the DR2 also. Uh, USB-C input, extra RAM.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: So take with what you might want to with that with programming features that sort of thing.
Corey Sickles WA3UVV: Absolutely.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: And is there any any pricing right now or is that still...
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: None whatsoever.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: Okay. Well again thank you so much for your time.
Corey Sickles WA3UVV: 2 will be coming.
Amateur Radio News And Notes: All right. Well thank you again for your time I really do appreciate it.
Cory Sickles WA3UVV: Absolutely Ed.
Another vendor showing off some of their newer releases was FlexRadio. They were highlighting their Aurora line of transmitters announced last year at Dayton. We spoke with Michael Walker VA3MW to find out more about what they had on offer.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: I’m here with Michael Walker, VA3MW, at FlexRadio, and uh, Michael, what, what’s uh, what’s Flex got on offer these days? What should we know about uh, from the Flex booth?
Michael Walker VA3MW: Well, it’s the second Dayton Hamvention that the Aurora radio has been out in, and it’s been our big interest, and you know what, our biggest seller. So that’s a 500-watt, not QRP, transceiver, HF from uh, 160 through to 6 meters, 200 watts on 6 meters. But it runs its new technology called polar modulation, or Envelope Elimination and Restoration, which makes it incredibly power efficient. Now, most of us don’t care, but uh, you know, 500 watts and you’re only drawing 6 amps from a typical house circuit means that you also do not have to special-wire power into your shack. And because it’s a Flex radio, uh, it also has the latest, greatest features that we build or whatever. And did you know I have a cool line that Flex radios get better as they get older? And even if you bought one of our 6000 series, I don’t know, back in 2012, it’s still better than the day you took it home.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: Yeah, absolutely, they’re amazing. I’ve, I’ve been looking at the uh, the Aurora, it looks like an amazing radio. I know you have uh, like two different main models. Of course, there’s also the Maestro and the non-Maestro, and I think the difference there is whether or not it has a display or is fully network-connected. But what’s the difference between the two different models that you have uh, of those for the lesser expense and the higher expense?
Michael Walker VA3MW: Right. So the radios come with one or two—well, every radio comes with something called a Spectral Capture Unit, every radio you buy today. And that’s the part where we take the energy from the antenna and convert it into whatever we’re going to do with it. And in today’s direct sampling world, where we convert that into numbers, that direct sampling is incredibly critical. FlexRadio direct samples the entire HF spectrum from 30 kHz to 54 MHz, meaning that we can use multiple receivers at the same time anywhere in the HF spectrum, not just 100 kHz away. So you could be on 160 and 6 meters at the same time. So that’s incredibly powerful uh, for a variety of reasons. So that’s if it comes with one Spectral Capture Unit and it comes with an A/B antenna switch.
So the 520 series or the 8600 series come with two Spectral Capture Units, and it’s like having two radios on your desk at the same time. So if you were a 6-meter op uh, in days before, we might have our TS, oh I don’t know, our 520 or something on the desk for HF, but then another radio dedicated to 6 meters only, because if you’re a 6-meter hunter you never know when it’s going to show up. So that’s the core difference. And then you share the transmitter. Uh, so it’s not like it’s a sub-receiver, they’re all main receivers. And some radios come with two VFOs or four, we call them slices, because they’re a slice of the radio spectrum.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: And while you have multiples of those, does your own transmit uh, interfere with your receive, or are they isolated in some way?
Michael Walker VA3MW: Uh, they can, based on math. Uh, they’re incredibly well isolated from each other, but of course if I’m transmitting on 7150 and I’m on 20 meters at 14300, which is the second harmonic, I’m certainly going to see it. But it’s not uh, anything to really worry about, doesn’t damage anything.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: And I imagine probably some people are using it for stuff like SO2R kind of stuff, right?
Michael Walker VA3MW: Yeah, the, the 8600 and the Aurora 520 series, if you’re a contester, single operator two radio, uh, includes many things. If you want to build one today in another world, you’re buying two radios, two amplifiers, uh, audio switching circuitry. This is all actually built into the radio, so you can put down a single radio like an Aurora 520 on a desk uh, with being able to use different antennas, and have QRO power 520 watts and full N1MM or similar SO2R integration. And that includes the audio switching called OTRSP... yeah, I forgot what it stands for. But you know, when you need to have one VFO on one ear and the other one on the other and then quickly switch so they’re mono and you get the... and it’s all built in.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: I saw a wild video, I think it was about a week ago on YouTube, where a guy took an Aurora out to a park to do POTA, and he was using one of these, you know, battery-powered power banks, but was absolutely able to incinerate the ionosphere and get all the contacts, so...
Michael Walker VA3MW: So that was David. Uh, he’s in the UK, and he uh, he took a 520M I believe, and uh, uh, very uh, fun guy. I did a show with him, one of his shows. And he took a, I think it was a Bluetti, a 1000-watt Bluetti. And I had done the math on this and I said, hey, if I wanted to take this POTA-esque, and how long could I run a 1000-watt device for if I was going to do a mixture of SSB, CW, and FT8? And I dumped that into an AI and gave it a bunch of parameters, and it said, well, about 7 hours. And that’s what he came up with, an answer, right? He operated at 200 watts for, into a, was it a DX Commander Expedition?
Amateur Radio News and Notes: Yeah, I think that’s what it was, yeah.
Michael Walker VA3MW: Yeah, for about six or seven hours. And dead, you know, no generator running or anything, he said it was awesome.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: That’s fantastic. Well, this sounds really exciting. I know what I want for Christmas, but thank you so much for taking the time, and I know you’re busy, but Michael, best 73, thank you so much.
Michael Walker VA3MW: Thanks Ed, pleasure to meet you.
Just across the way from FlexRadio was the American Radio Relay League booth and we stopped by to chat with ARRL CEO David Minster NA2AA about what’s happening this year with the league.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: I’m here with the CEO of the Amateur Radio Relay League, David Minster, NA2AA, and, uh, wanted to ask you David, uh, what’s going on lately with the ARRL? Is there anything that listeners should know about, things they can do, and fun stuff happening coming up soon?
David Minster NA2AA: Sure. So, ARRL this year, it’s the year of the club. And so there’s a lot of attention on, uh, getting clubs more active, uh, growing clubs by having special interest groups in a lot of different areas. Uh, to that end we have the Marconi program, which we encourage clubs to get involved in. And, uh, one of the things, uh, that we’re doing, uh, in conjunction with year of the club is the, uh, US semi-quincentennial. And we’ve got W1AW portable stations on the air through the course of the year. And it’s one of the endorsements that you can get for the America 250 Worked All States award. So, there’s a lot of good reasons to get on the air this year that, uh, ARRL is hoping people will take advantage of.
And the other thing is we’ve got, uh, we have two new books that are out and, uh, one that you and I talked about is the fact that Salty Walt’s got his second book out, which is an absolutely great book for people that like to experiment with antennas and getting out into the field. These are very simple to deploy antennas that have, uh, that have more gain than just a vertical so you can, uh, you can play with some performance antennas that are really low price.
We’ve also brought out a new satellite book. And, uh, it was written by a guy who has worked with our collegiate program since he was in college. And the book is really written for people that want to get on the air, work the birds, and, and getting on the air with satellites happens to be one of the areas in the Marconi program that I mentioned before. So lots of good reasons for folks to get on the air.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: Well fantastic, well that sounds like a lot of fun. I really appreciate it. I know you’re busy and you’ve got a long line of people here, but thank you so much for your time and, and, uh, thanks for all that you do with the Amateur Radio Relay League.
David Minster NA2AA: Terrific, thanks.
And speaking of Salty Walt, we got to talk with Walt Hudson K4OGO about his new book which he was signing at the ARRL booth.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: All right, I’m here at the ARRL booth with Salty Walt K4OGO. Of course, as you know from the podcast, we listen and watch his channel quite a bit. So Walt, you got something new today. Can you tell us about what’s going on and your new book?
Walt Hudson K4OGO: Hi Ed. Yeah, second book. My first book was Salty Walt’s Portable Antenna Sketchbook. This is Salty Walt’s Next Level Portable Antenna Sketchbook, and it’s kind of a continuation from the first book, but just a little bit more challenging, a little bit more portable. Mostly portable wire antennas that anyone can build, but it takes antenna building to the next level. Pun not intended, but yeah, you know what I’m saying.
Amateur Radio News and Notes: Well fantastic. Well, I know I’ve been a long-time watcher of your channel. You have a lot of inspiring designs and I love how from very simple kinds of things—you know, wire—anybody can make an antenna, and then you show not only can you make the antenna, but you can work the world with it. So thanks for all you do, Walt.
Walt Hudson K4OGO: Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Thank you.
In addition to the announcements, Hamvention awarded Robert Famiglio K3RF the technical achievement award, Dr. Jose “Otis” Vicens NP4G the Amateur of the Year award, Martha Fell N3QBE and Joe Fell W3GMS the Special Achievement Award, and the Long Island CW Club was awarded Club of the Year. More on the achievements of these deserving recipients can be found at https://www.arrl.org/news/dayton-hamvention-2026-award-winners-announced [https://www.arrl.org/news/dayton-hamvention-2026-award-winners-announced].
This year’s Hamvention was a lot of fun. Thanks to all the volunteers with the Dayton Amateur Radio Association who put on such a well organized event every year. And thanks to everyone who stopped to say hello and introduce themselves to me. I’m definitely looking forward to next year.
MVARC Nets on the Air
* 2 Meter FM Net: Tuesdays at 7 PM [146.655/- MHz (141.3 Hz PL Tone) ]
* 2 Meter Digital Net: Immediately Follows 2 Meter FM Net [146.655/- MHz C4FM]
* MVARC Slow Speed CW Roundtable: Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 AM [3.565 MHz CW]
* MVARC Cherry Tree Net: Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 AM [3.920 MHz LSB]
What’s Happening with DX
There will be a lot of DX on the air this week. Stations on the air include Galapagos (HD8R, HC8M), Western Sahara (S09S), Kenya (54Z/MM0ZBH), French Polynesia (FO/F6CBW), Mauritius (3B8IDX), Juan Fernandez Island (3G0Z), Namibia (V5/N7XOB), Palau (T88JH, T88KY, T88IL, T88PB), Tonga (A31WW), Saint Kitts and Nevis (V4/WW6W), Ascension Island (ZD8KX), Cyprus SBA (ZC4RJ), Chatham Island (ZL7IO), Martinique (TO3E), Bolivia (CP7DX), Bonaire (PJ4CB), Azerbaijan (4K0T), and Maldives (8Q7QR).
A calendar of DXpeditions can be found at NG3K’s Announced DX Operations List at https://www.ng3k.com/misc/adxo.html [https://www.ng3k.com/misc/adxo.html].
Solar Activity Update
As we go to press the Solar Flux Index (SFI) was 118 and the estimated sunspot number was 67 with 5 numbered sunspot regions visible from Earth. Over the last week the SFI has increased. Solar activity has been at low levels in the last 24 hours. The geomagnetic field has been at quiet to unsettled levels in the last 24 hours and the Kp index reached 3 yesterday. The solar wind peaked at 490 km/s. Solar activity is predicted to be at low levels with a chance of M-class flares today through Sunday. The geomagnetic field is forecast to be at quiet to unsettled levels today and Saturday and at quiet levels on Sunday. The chance of solar radiation storms at the S1 or greater level is at 5% today through Sunday. R1 to R2 radio blackouts are possible with a predicted probability of 25% today through Sunday. R3 or greater blackouts are unlikely with a 5% chance predicted today through Sunday. It remains a fantastic time for amateurs to get on the air and work the world.
Good sources of real-time solar information include https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/ [https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/] and https://solarham.com/ [https://solarham.com/]. A good overview of conditions can be found at https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/ [https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/]. To see D-layer absorption data and associated radio blackouts, visit https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/d-region-absorption-predictions-d-rap [https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/d-region-absorption-predictions-d-rap]. To see real-time Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) and Critical Frequency (foF2) information from radiosonde data, visit https://prop.kc2g.com/ [https://prop.kc2g.com/].
Upcoming Contests
This weekend is the calm before next weekend’s CQ WW WPX CW storm, so there are only a few contests on the air this weekend. This weekend brings Real Time Contest and the QRP ARCI Hootowl Sprint. As always the K1USN SSTs, the MSTs, and the CWTs will also be on the air.
The full contest calendar with events and exchanges can be found at https://www.contestcalendar.com/weeklycont.php [https://www.contestcalendar.com/weeklycont.php].
Interesting Online Radio Content
Dugbo KD7RT shows us why he does SOTA as he goes to where summits have no name on his mountain bike -
Walt K4OGO reveals which QRP radio he has selected to take to an upcoming trip to Australia -
Forrest KI7QCF tries out the new Palm Radio Mini Mic on his first ever SSB activation -
Kevin KB9RLW shows how he modeled a snag-free pulley using 3D printing -
Mark KD7DTS activates SOTA with Becky W6BKY and Devin W6DVN -
Josh KI6NAZ shows us the reveal of the new Icom 5200 and X-026 -
Stuart VE9CF discusses the DX Marathon -
Josh KI6NAZ does a walk through of the Four Days in May Vendor Night -
That’s it for this week.
Best 73,
Ed
N2EC
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mvarc.substack.com [https://mvarc.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]
