The VHF+ Newsletter 97 is out.

In this issue, the VHF+ Committee would like to inform you about the revision of the VHF Handbook, especially the section devoted to contesting. Some of the phrases have been amended and, at the suggestion of the RSGB VHF Contest Committee, a rule on self-spotting has been added to section 9.7. pag. 69.

The reason is to harmonize the use of self-spotting on the DX Clusters in all IARU R1 V/U/SHF
contests, so that it is consistent with “self-spotting” on ON4KST, etc.
The RSGB proposal was approved by the members of the VHF+ Contest Working Group and submitted for formal approval to the EC, which formally approved it at a meeting in Vienna for the upcoming contest season in 2026 as an interim decision. Please consider that it is necessary to send a proposal about this rule from the C5CWG to the upcoming General Conference in Vienna (September 2026) to be formally ratified by the Conference.

The new version of the VHF+ Handbook 10.03 is available.

The final results for the 2026 IARU Reg.1 Trophy (4^th edition) are available on the IARU R1 VHF Contest Robot pages.

A total number of 12.209 logs, from 145 MHz and above, have been evaluated in 2025, with an average of 1744 participants for each contest.

In the graph, you can see the number of participants for each band in all four editions of the VHF+ Trophy.

In the following table, you can see the number of logs received for each contest of the Trophy. For the March, May, and June Contests, we have the highest number of logs ever received; unfortunately, the 2025 October UHF & MW Contest has seen bad conditions, which resulted in a negative record of only 1486 participants.

Thanks to all the participants from all the IARU Region 1 countries, congratulations to all the section’s winners.

The official prizing ceremony will be in Friedrichshafen Hamradio Messe in June on the Main Stage.

Category	Winner	Eligible Participants	Total Participants
145 MHz — SO	OM5AW	238	1863
145 MHz — MO	OL7M	57	320
145 MHz — SOLP	OK1NPF	63	581
145 MHz — MOLP	T70A	10	70
145 MHz — 6H	IQ4KD	21	457
435 MHz — SO	DL8NAS	181	826
435 MHz — MO	OL3Z	50	161
435 MHz — SOLP	IZ3QFG	47	220
435 MHz — MOLP	OK1RDO	5	39
435 MHz — 6H	IZ3NOC	13	153
1.3 GHz — SO	IK3GHY	110	577
1.3 GHz — MO	OK2A	36	142
2.4 GHz — SO	OE5VRL	46	174
2.4 GHz — MO	DK0NA	25	66
3.4 GHz — SO	OE5VRL	23	69
3.4 GHz — MO	OK2A	16	28
5.7 GHz — SO	OE5VRL	25	85
5.7 GHz — MO	DK0NA	16	40
10 GHz — SO	OE5VRL	44	178
10 GHz — MO	IN3HOG	21	62
mmGroup — SO	DG2NES	22	81
mmGroup — MO	DK0NA	8	31