RSGB Eclipse 3.5 MHz CW Contest
Three hours of CW on 80 m during the total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026, run to measure what the eclipse does to propagation.
Rules at rsgbcc.orgThe rules are the sponsor's. This page holds the dates and the facts.
When it runs
Dates set by the sponsor each year (no derivable rule)
- 1630Z → 1930Z
Times are UTC, as the sponsor states them.
The sponsor announces these dates a year at a time and there is no rule to derive, so this calendar holds only the years they have published: 2026.
Next runnings
This calendar holds runnings through 2026 and none after it — the record is closed, not missing. The note below says what the sponsor announced.
Operating
- Modes
- CW
- Bands
- 80m
3510-3570 kHz.
- Exchange
- RS(T) plus a serial number starting at 1 and incrementing by 1.
- Logs
- due 1 day after the end
- Who can enter
- Anyone, anywhere.
Two sections, UK & CD and non-UK & CD, so entry is not restricted.
Where this comes from
- Checked against the sponsor
- Yes. The rule on this page was read off RSGB Contest Committee's own published rules. Link last confirmed 2026-08-23.
- What the source says
rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2026/r_eclipse_cw.shtml, the RSGB Contest Committee's own rules. 'Wednesday August 12, 16:30 UTC to 19:30 UTC.' Band: 3510-3570 kHz on 80 m. Exchange: 'RS(T) plus Serial Number starting at 1 and incrementing by 1'. Two sections, UK & CD and non-UK & CD, single or multi-operator, club callsigns permitted. Logs due by the day after. Purpose: the contest investigates 'propagation effects due to the eclipse', using RBN data alongside entrants' logs. Checked 2026-08-23.
- Recorded caveats
- A ONE-OFF, TIED TO ONE ECLIPSE, AND CLOSED RATHER THAN EXPIRED. RSGB ran this for the total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026 and describes it as a one-time opportunity tied to that event. So it carries active_until: 2026 -- which is the field's real meaning, 'the sponsor stopped running it', and NOT the same state as the thirty-odd manual records waiting for next year's dates. The detail page will say the record is closed rather than missing, and it stays off the expiry cliff because there is nothing to re-check. If RSGB runs an eclipse contest for a future eclipse it will be a different contest with different propagation to study, and it gets its own record.
Something wrong? How to report it — a link to the sponsor's own page is all it takes.
Take it with you
Subscribe (iCal)This record as JSON
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=rsgb-eclipse-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.