HF Contacts 10m

Thanks guy's, my next goal is  Countries!

Tonyvic wrote:

Thanks guy's, my next goal is  Countries!

.
Well done Tony

After you have conquered the world it only leave Burgess Hill

In between pruning some trees had a small session on 10m FT4 this afternoon.

14:26 C5C IK13
14:44 HR5/F2JD EK54
15:23 AF6O DM14
15:31 5H100TC KI64
16:31 K6XX CM87

Razz229 wrote:

Tonyvic wrote:

Thanks guy's, my next goal is  Countries!

.
Well done Tony

After you have conquered the world it only leave Burgess Hill

Thanks Ray, Burgess Hill as well as Eastbourne/Hastings are the ultimate challenge for me.

It's b*%^$y hilarious, I can do about 7000 miles on 10W FT8 but on 11M not 8 miles on ssb to Burgess Hill! Huh.

Well done Tony on your first FT4/8 contacts. You've made some good ones. Whilst little stations can still be stomped on, and I have been quite a few times, I am finding that digi operations generally make the playing field a lot more even and occasional checks on psk reporter to see where I am being heard boost my confidence to keep trying far away places.

Congrats on the contacts Mike. I tried for all of those. Only one I managed was K6XX an hour after you. Also KD6WKY 10 mins after on 12m. My first Californian state contacts on any ham bands so I was very happy with those. K6XX was so strong (and audibly loud listening to the FT4 wail) that I think it could of even been possible for a short QSO via SSB if they had tried the mode. The conditions are definitely good right now, have fun every one!

SangueG wrote:

Well done Tony on your first FT4/8 contacts. You've made some good ones. Whilst little stations can still be stomped on, and I have been quite a few times, I am finding that digi operations generally make the playing field a lot more even and occasional checks on psk reporter to see where I am being heard boost my confidence to keep trying far away places.

Thanks Neal, I agree about where I'm spotted but I sometimes ignore that. When I went for Indonesia I had no spots anywhere near but he had been CQing for 3-4 minutes with no response so I thought why not aim for the sky, and cor blimey we completed the contact and confirmed!

SangueG wrote:

Well done Tony on your first FT4/8 contacts. You've made some good ones. Whilst little stations can still be stomped on, and I have been quite a few times, I am finding that digi operations generally make the playing field a lot more even and occasional checks on psk reporter to see where I am being heard boost my confidence to keep trying far away places.

Congrats on the contacts Mike. I tried for all of those. Only one I managed was K6XX an hour after you. Also KD6WKY 10 mins after on 12m. My first Californian state contacts on any ham bands so I was very happy with those. K6XX was so strong (and audibly loud listening to the FT4 wail) that I think it could of even been possible for a short QSO via SSB if they had tried the mode. The conditions are definitely good right now, have fun every one!

Well done on California.
K6XX only gave me -18 but he was strong here.

I find with the Cobweb it either goes or it doesn't.
Also 10metres appears to be the hardest band with the cobweb.

40m aside, which is mostly only good for nvis due to the low height above ground, 20m is my poorest band.. I think again due to the feed point height. The fan dipole has a feed point of approximately 7.5m above ground, that's about half wave at 15m and I do well on that band, and obviously a bit higher than half a wave on 12m and 10m which I presume why 10m works well for me, but under a half wave for 20m.

After sun down yesterday I had some real surprises on 10. Trying to keep my w*lly waving contact posts to a minimum lol, but had to share as got a real buzz last night even though the contacts were digi and not SSB. Instead of working down the bands as the sun went down, I worked up them. When it was totally dark I put a call out to HI8S Dominican Republic and they came straight back to me. After completing the QSO another Dominican Republic called me, and also Mexico, Chile and Argentina. I mostly only get close European stations calling for me like that. That was a great feeling

Well done with South America there Neal.

I had a contact with PY7C HI21 Brazil on 10m the other day in the afternoon and although I was received by other countries such as Argentina, Chile, etc. I failed to get a completed QSO with them. (Would've been handy for the log and build up my country score! )

Never thought to try again after sunset even though it often heralds results.

Well done again, awesome stuff.

Excellent 10m contacts Neal, well worth the waving.
 
Got a new one for 10m FT8 yesterday.
90Watts to the 6BTV, rain made the cobwebb swr to high but the Hustler is a good backup.
08:21utc 9X5RU KI58

Worked three bands now, 10, 15, and 17m.

Thanks Mike, and well done on getting the 9X. I see you managed a phone contact too! You must have a direct line to them

A tip for anyone (but probably for more newer people like me) trying for this particular dxpedition on digi, be aware they seem to be using a few different operating styles, e.g. sometimes returning a RR73 / 73 and sometime not. They did 73 me on 30m and 17m, but didn't on 12m. A couple of days later I checked their log an they had me in there for 12m. So tip.. if you think you didn't manage an "official" QSO with them then check a couple of days later, you might just be in their log. You can check here:

9x5ru.org/en/log-search/

Not having much luck breaking through with my 10 Watts and lawnmower lead antenna on SSB (Naff all so far for the 10m summer challenge!) so I dropped down to FT8 to give that a bash as the bands were lively.......and was gratefully rewarded.

19:59 CE3SOC FF46 Chile

First time to Chile!...then this happened.

20:05 CA3TSK FF46 Chile


Yep, need me a lay down.

I might not be a Super-DX station but I don't half have fun with what little I have.


Edit: CA3TSK QRZ Confirmed! Very happy bunny.

Victor, for another pastime we have a tongue-in-cheek slogan to describe to other people what we do, and has been plastered onto mugs and t-shirts which goes along the lines of "I use multi-million dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the woods." I think there should be something similar for the breed of amateur that you are, something like "I upcycle salvaged electronic junk to communicate around the world on tenth the power of a traditional household lightbulb."

Very well done on the Chilean contacts! The feeling is awesome when further DX stations come back to you after having an awesome first contact, I know how you feel, and I am so pleased you've experienced that terrific feeling

We have high expectations now though Victor. We do expect to see out of this world contacts in the future... 

Much appreciated there Neal mate and loving the humour.  

I was very much in the lap of the propagation Gods as I had naff all before or after but obviously thrilled with almost milliwatt-per-mile type of contacts. Not for everyone but definitely keeps me happy.

(Lit up South America but no one was answering! Must've barely lit their waterfall.)

FT4 6/5/2023

14:46utc YO4RYU/MM JF88 VLCC
14:54utc VP8KCC special call

Is anyone making any north American contacts on 10m at the moment? I don't know if it's just me or the way the propagation is running at the moment, but it seems quite a while since I have had one to the US or Canada. In fact, not even heard any for a while too. There were a sprinkle of not very strong US stations on FT8 last night, but didn't make contact with any.

I thought it might be the Lynton inspired loop I am using as the position it is mounted is firing closer to north / south than to the US, but swapping between that and my fan dipole last night didn't seem to bring the few weak US stations in any stronger.

Well the USA is mostly NNE or so (Great Circle map not Mercator) so don't think your Delta is to blame Neal.
(I'm fairly N/S on my antenna but get East Coast USA probably due to clear ocean and proximity.....but not much recently.)

Who knows but I haven't found much in the way of long skip this year so far just the Continental stuff on the upper bands. Then again I haven't had much (any!?) luck with the 10m challenge despite hearing stations as they don't hear me and all but given up for the time being.

Haven't got the resources or space for a beam so will just have to let Mother Nature decide.
(MUF reports have been fairly low though.)

SangueG wrote:

Is anyone making any north American contacts on 10m at the moment? I don't know if it's just me or the way the propagation is running at the moment, but it seems quite a while since I have had one to the US or Canada. In fact, not even heard any for a while too. There were a sprinkle of not very strong US stations on FT8 last night, but didn't make contact with any.

I thought it might be the Lynton inspired loop I am using as the position it is mounted is firing closer to north / south than to the US, but swapping between that and my fan dipole last night didn't seem to bring the few weak US stations in any stronger.

Most likely the lower layers of the ionosphere are stopping propagation during the day, this is called blanketing and absorption. The lower layers become more ionized during the summer months and block signals going to the higher layers.
There can still be multi hop Es so all is not lost.

Thanks both. Throwing every spare moment to put the loop through its passes for a few weeks on FT8 when I am not receiving workable SSB activity. There's a definite pattern emerging where I am managing with it, some good 7k+ miles DX too, but a gaping hole in the north Americas... not a sausage, and was wondering if it was just me.

You might be overthinking that Delta Loop there Neal when we're definitely in the lap of the radio Gods.

My 6m version seemed to bag me a NNE/SSW direction at first with contacts running from Spain up to Finland....then the inevitable 'dead band' moments....next time I was gaining contacts from Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia as if in the opposite direction(!?!)

I've modified my ATU so that I can easily tune the 6m band now on the big doublet and despite then being able to compare the two there was in no reality any differences in areas received.

I believe Mike is on the ball with his absorption mention (quickly did a read, interesting stuff!) as apart from the odd flutter of Continental 10m FT8 I haven't had any big DX since my Chile contacts some weeks back.

That's why I love radio, so deliciously damned infuriating at times! 
(Be boring if it was like picking up a telephone. )

Last real DX I had was VK5PAS ON THE 1st July at 07:16utc. FT8

Before that HC3RJ 18:03UTC 11th May FT8
and VP8KCC 5th May 14:54utc FT4

From May onwards been concentrating on 4metres so could easily have missed stuff.

HC1HW just now.

09:42utc 3W1T OK33 FT4

Ivy Mike wrote:

09:42utc 3W1T OK33 FT4

Nice one. That is one I've tried for and failed on quite a few times.

FT8 ......Country 182 on QRZ confirmed straight away

0940utc 8Q7PR MJ64

also caught
0942utc 6M0MM PM36