The new Youth category for the CQ World Wide DX Contest will debut October 30 – 31 with the phone weekend. The category covers contesters age 25 years old or younger and applies to both the phone and CW weekends (CW, November 27 – 28).

International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 (the Americas) is one of several organizations sponsoring plaques for the top young scorers. In Region 2, plaques will be awarded to the top Youth score in each CQ WW event in North America and South America — four in all.

Youth plaques are sponsored by other entities for participants from all continents in both events.

Unlicensed listeners can log all the stations they hear and compare with other shortwave listener (SWL) logs. Certificates are available for everyone submitting a contest log.