DXpeditions This Month | October 2026 DX Calendar | Greyline
The Clubhouse -- DX Calendar
DXpeditions This Month: October 2026
The month's rare ones, in one place, updated as the teams post -- because a DXpedition is a reason to walk out to the antenna, and every one of these is workable from a backyard vertical. October is the month the low bands come back and the biggest contest of the year lands on the last weekend; the list below is what to chase in between.
On The Air This Month
XR0Z -- Juan Fernandez Islands (SA-005). October, dates tentative per the DX-World timeline, 160 through 6 meters, CW, SSB and FT8 from Alexander Selkirk Island. A Pacific entity that is often loud into North America on the high bands in the afternoon.
6O2M -- Somalia. October 5 through 25, OG2M from Garowe, Puntland, 40 through 10 meters, CW and SSB, spare-time operation. One of the rarer African entities; the grey-line path from North America is the one to watch.
9T0MD -- Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through October 11, a never-before-used prefix, 160 through 6 meters with a stated focus on the low bands. If you have been waiting for a reason to see what 80 and 160 do from your vertical, this is it.
H49A -- Solomon Islands. October 7 through 21. Pacific DX on the long path in the North American morning.
TF -- Iceland. October 7 through 17. The entity one of our owners works the world from, under the auroral oval; see the Signal Report below.
7P8GE and 7P9EA -- Lesotho. October 16 through 29, and October 26 into November. A mountain kingdom at the bottom of Africa, two operations back to back.
S21HRG -- Bangladesh. October 16 through 20. Short window, rare entity; worth setting an alarm for.
JD1BQP -- Ogasawara. October 17 through November 2. Japan's far islands, a reliable Pacific path on 20 and 17.
C6AQQ -- Bahamas. October 22 through 27, ND3F from New Providence. Easy from anywhere in North America; a good first DX for a new antenna.
V63SC -- Micronesia; 9N7XT -- Nepal. October 22 through 26 and October 23 through 31. Two ends of Asia in the same week.
Month's end: V47JA St. Kitts (Oct 28 to Nov 6), 6W Senegal (Oct 28 to Nov 9), V26JJ Antigua (Oct 30 to Nov 6), KH8A American Samoa (Oct 30 to Nov 12), YJ0SP Vanuatu (Oct 30 to Nov 5, VK2SP from Port Vila).
Also on the timeline: ZA Albania (Oct 8-30), 9H Malta (Oct 10-12), VP9 Bermuda (Oct 17-20), and RI1FJZ Franz Josef Land winding down from the Arctic -- dates as the teams post them.
The Last Weekend
CQ World Wide DX Contest, SSB -- October 24 and 25. Forty-eight hours when every DXpedition above is on the air at once and half the planet is calling CQ. The best single weekend of the year to find out what your antenna can do; a 100-watt vertical in a small yard fills a logbook in this one. Check the band map, pick your hours, and go.
Compiled from the DX-World October timeline and the NG3K Announced DX Operations list -- the people who do the real work of tracking this. Dates change; check the source before you plan a weekend around one.
Working Them From A Backyard Vertical
The physics is on your side more than the pileup suggests. A vertical dipole puts its energy at the low angles the long paths use, and it does not care what your yard is made of -- both halves are in the air. The Arctic entities reward patience over power: polar-path absorption comes and goes with the K index, so the operator who watches the oval and calls in the quiet windows beats the operator who calls all night. The low-band operations reward aperture: every foot at the top of the pole pays its largest dividend on 80 and 160, which is why the 9' DX Whip exists and why the tilt is how you get it up there. And every vertical works together with its mirror image in the ground; giving the antenna a little more sky is the 4' Image Lift.
Proof from the field: K1LDO worked Franz Josef Land the week he walked his antenna up alone. TF1CB works the world from under the auroral oval. KB6FRD broke a Hawaii pileup on 17 with 100 watts. The field reports live on The Signal Report.
The Antenna For The List
160 through 6 meters, no radials, a flagpole to the neighbors. The Greyline line, designed and built in the Mountain West -- and the tilt and whip that get the most out of the low-band ones. Antennas ship within days, free to the USA and Canada; order this week and it is up before the contest.
Ham Radio is fun again! Pass it on...
73,
Jon KL2A
Greyline Performance -- Sun Valley, Idaho
435-200-4902