CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

The largest amateur radio contest in the world. 48 hours of phone on six HF bands, working the 40 CQ zones and DXCC countries as multipliers, counted once per band.

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

When it runs

Last full weekend of October

0000Z Saturday → 2359Z Sunday

Times are UTC, as the sponsor states them.

Next runnings

0000Z Sat 24 Oct → 2359Z Sun 25 Oct · 47h 59m2026
in 22 days
Logs due 2359Z Fri 30 Oct
0000Z Sat 30 Oct → 2359Z Sun 31 Oct · 47h 59m2027
in 393 days
Logs due 2359Z Fri 5 Nov
0000Z Sat 28 Oct → 2359Z Sun 29 Oct · 47h 59m2028
in 757 days
Logs due 2359Z Fri 3 Nov
0000Z Sat 27 Oct → 2359Z Sun 28 Oct · 47h 59m2029
in 1121 days
Logs due 2359Z Fri 2 Nov
0000Z Sat 26 Oct → 2359Z Sun 27 Oct · 47h 59m2030
in 1485 days
Logs due 2359Z Fri 1 Nov

Operating

Modes: SSB
Bands: 160m80m40m20m15m10m
Six bands only: 1.8, 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz
Exchange: RS report plus CQ Zone number of the station location
Power categories: High Power 1500 WLow Power 100 WQRP 5 W
Logs: Cabrillo · due 5 days after the end · cqww.com
Who can enter: Anyone, anywhere.
CQ WW rules I: 'For amateurs around the world to contact as many other amateurs in as many CQ zones 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: cqww.com states the period ('Starts 00:00:00 UTC Saturday Ends 23:59:59 UTC Sunday') and the year's dates but no recurrence rule. Last full weekend of October reproduces all ten CQ-published SSB runnings 2016-2025, each read from that year's archived rules PDF on cqww.com, including 2020 (Oct 24-25, not the Oct 31 last Saturday). Verified 2026-08-16.
Recorded caveats: CQ has not published 2026 CQ WW rules: cqww.com/rules.htm still serves the 2025 rules and cqww.com/rules/2026_rules_cqww.pdf is a 404. log_deadline_days is the 5 days those 2025 rules state; CQ WPX, CQ WPX RTTY and CQ WW RTTY all moved to 48 hours for 2026, so recheck this when the 2026 rules appear.

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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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-ww-ssb

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.