CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

48-hour single-band contest on 160 metres, worldwide, working U.S. states, Canadian provinces and DXCC countries as multipliers. Single operators may work 30 of the 48 hours and multi-operator stations 40.

Rules at cq160.comThe rules are the sponsor's. This page holds the dates and the facts.

When it runs

Last full weekend of January

2200Z Friday → 2200Z Sunday

Times are UTC, as the sponsor states them.

Next runnings

2200Z Fri 29 Jan → 2200Z Sun 31 Jan · 48h2027
in 120 days
Logs due 2200Z Fri 5 Feb
2200Z Fri 28 Jan → 2200Z Sun 30 Jan · 48h2028
in 484 days
Logs due 2200Z Fri 4 Feb
2200Z Fri 26 Jan → 2200Z Sun 28 Jan · 48h2029
in 848 days
Logs due 2200Z Fri 2 Feb
2200Z Fri 25 Jan → 2200Z Sun 27 Jan · 48h2030
in 1212 days
Logs due 2200Z Fri 1 Feb

Operating

Modes: CW
Bands: 160m
1810-2000 kHz in ITU Region 1; 1800-2000 kHz in ITU Regions 2 and 3
Exchange: RS(T) and state for U.S., province for Canada, and CQ Zone for DX
Power categories: High Power 1500 WLow Power 100 WQRP 5 W
Logs: Cabrillo · due 5 days after the end · cq160.com
Who can enter: Anyone, anywhere.
CQ 160 rules I: 'For amateurs around the world to contact other amateurs in as many U.S. states, Canadian provinces and countries as possible.'

Where this comes from

Checked against the sponsor: Yes. The rule on this page was read off CQ Magazine's own published rules. Link last confirmed 2026-08-16.
What the source says: CQ 160 publishes dates, not a recurrence rule: cq160.com/rules/index.htm gives the period ('Each contest is 48 hours long and starts at 2200Z') and the year's dates ('CW: 2200Z January 23 to 2200Z January 25. SSB: 2200Z February 27 to 2200Z March 1'), and none of the eleven archived CQ 160 rules 2016-2026 contains any recurrence wording. Last full weekend of January reproduces all eleven CQ-published CW runnings 2016-2026, including 2026 (Jan 24-25, not the Jan 31 last Saturday, whose Sunday falls in February). Verified 2026-08-16.

Something wrong? How to report it — a link to the sponsor's own page is all it takes.

Take it with you

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Add to Google Calendar puts the next running in as a single event. It is one event, not a subscription — come back for the one after it, or use the feed below.

Subscribe (iCal) carries this contest's runnings for the next twelve months as UTC instants and keeps them current. Apple Calendar, Outlook and Thunderbird take this address directly. Its identifiers are stable across deploys, so re-subscribing does not duplicate anything: https://contestclock.com/api/ics?id=cq-160-cw

Google has no working one-click subscribe. Paste that address into Settings → Add calendar → From URL. Google then polls it on its own schedule, often 8–24 hours, and that cannot be forced — so use Add to Google Calendar above if you want the next running in your calendar now.