HF Contacts 10m

Glad you caught some 10m action Deb!

I have not really done anything on HF for a week since the CT challenge finished, but been on 10m off and on today and conditions are amazing. Of course they would be now our challenge is over Have heard stations world wide all at the same time, across the US including one in Hawaii, alongside Asiatic Russians and middle eastern stations. Qatar, Oman, Kazakhstan and Georgia amongst others worked today, wish it had been like this a few weeks ago. Using 25 watts SSB currently into a loft mounted dipole that is DESpole shaped facing north / south, so it's doing pretty well making contacts to the east.

You did well Neal. Was all that on phone?

I gave up late afternoon. I couldn't take any more of the splatter right across the band from a Russian station. There were much stronger stations on the band, but that one was causing real problems for me.

Deb

Yes, all phone today. CW is just full of contesters going a bit too fast for me, and I haven't even looked at the FT4/8 segment.. I bet that's solid with no spot to operate lol, I am sure some of the members here can let know on that.

Just got a US contact in the log, that's the first US one on 10m SSB since April, yay

The MUF is still showing above 29MHz over main part of the UK as it has been all day, just as it should be at this point in the sunspot cycle. Go 10, go 10, go 10!!!   ...I'm happy if you haven't guessed

The conditions the last two days have been fab indeed. The first US stations I worked yesterday were surprised to hear me break in. W2FTJ and KE2AQX Frank & John said they are regularly on 28325. Worth listening out for them. The W2 station was really strong. I heard them again today.

Deb

New one today on 10metres FT4
07:41 FK8HM RG37

Confirmed in QRZ and LOTW.

Only running 40watts, MAT 1500 tuner just could not get the SWR lower than 2.5 at 28.180.
Must change that water filled coax.

Nice one Mike. Not had that one on 10m yet.

Looks conditions on 10 and 11m are going to be awesome for the whole day again going by what I can hear on the band now and prediction charts. Don't know how much of it I'll get to catch as am out and about a lot today. Am happy though as just managed a couple of decent ones using same setup as yesterday, 25 watts SSB into loft mounted DESpole shaped dipole (last half metre of each leg angled straight down).

UK8OM - Uzbekistan
JF2QNM - Japan

I wish all CT members some great contacts on 10 & 11m today. Have fun!

I've just unplugged here Neal as we've got some massive lightning strikes - I'm a bit more nervous now that I have external antennas!

Missed recent conditions/activity as been busy with family.

I wish everyone well.


Oh, and well done Mike with New Caledonia.   
One I haven't got in my logs either.

SangueG wrote:

Nice one Mike. Not had that one on 10m yet.

Looks conditions on 10 and 11m are going to be awesome for the whole day again going by what I can hear on the band now and prediction charts. Don't know how much of it I'll get to catch as am out and about a lot today. Am happy though as just managed a couple of decent ones using same setup as yesterday, 25 watts SSB into loft mounted DESpole shaped dipole (last half metre of each leg angled straight down).

UK8OM - Uzbekistan
JF2QNM - Japan

I wish all CT members some great contacts on 10 & 11m today. Have fun!

Well done on the SSB cotacts.

A lot of JAs on FT4/FT8 this morning.

Victor wrote:

I've just unplugged here Neal as we've got some massive lightning strikes - I'm a bit more nervous now that I have external antennas!

Missed recent conditions/activity as been busy with family.

I wish everyone well.


Oh, and well done Mike with New Caledonia.   
One I haven't got in my logs either.

Have worked Eric on 20metres FT8 but nice to get on 10m

Have missed a bit been messing about with some ground mount solar panels.

Some heavy showers here but not had any thunder.

We had very close strikes here leading to the village having a power cut.

Was satisfying seeing my 12 volt battery backup system come in to play with the radio & laptop still powered but of course my secondary monitor (plus FT710 monitor) went down and then of course there was the little matter of internet. Seems I didn't account for everything.

I've just been tying up some CT admin matters so now hopefully I can get back to enjoying a bit of radio.

Well done again with New Caledonia there Mike. 
I should have my DX100 by now but still waiting on confirmations, however I'll enjoy carrying on trying.

Good on the battery backup always need some power in an outage.
Keep chipping away at the dx it will come eventually.

As you know my station is solar powered now so I'm fairly good for a few days of autonomy.

Re internet.
My internet in the shack is my EE 5g phone tethered to two laptops.
I have 100GB allowance and use on average 20GB a month for hamradio and browsing the net
while in the shack. The phone can easily run all day without charging.

What amazes me is the speed at which the net can work.
As soon as I logged the QSO with Eric I went to my QRZ log and he had already confirmed.

I did look into a solar system Mike but in the end just running a couple of my SLA mobility scooter batteries with a relay switchover. A UPS unit was used before but wouldn't last very long.

Good pointer with tethering a phone for internet but in my case we lost cellular network coverage too.

Didn't get the radio time I desired in the end as the station manager was in a bit of a flap about washing stuck in the machine mid-cycle and the Sunday roast. Mind you the new FT710 is so immune to QRM I doubt I would've noticed much of a difference anyway.  


All the best to you there Mike and apologies to everyone else for straying off-topic for a moment.

Ivy Mike wrote:

As you know my station is solar powered now so I'm fairly good for a few days of autonomy.

Great to hear of another solar powered station  

My cabin is 60 or so metres from the house, and then a window and two mud walls for line of sight internet to the router. I use a usb directional wifi active antenna that gives me rock solid internet. However, like you I can tether from my phone if/when the internet goes down.

Victor...
We have a portable Lifep04 power station that runs the 230vac appliances in the van. When not used for camping, we keep it charged up in the house for use during the many power cuts we have here. It also has 0.1 seconds automatic UPS capability.

No problem re off topic. All interesting stuff   

Deb

Thanks for the feedback there Deb. A lithium power station is on my wish list.  

I only made mention of being 'off-topic' because we have had complaints in the past.

As far as I'm concerned if we're all helping each other then it's not a problem.

Victor wrote:

Thanks for the feedback there Deb. A lithium power station is on my wish list.  

I only made mention of being 'off-topic' because we have had complaints in the past.

As far as I'm concerned if we're all helping each other then it's not a problem.

I do see a sub forum for general chat, but a sub forum for equipment in the shack other than antennas, contacts, and propagation etc. might be an idea. Is that possible?

Deb

That sounds like a good idea there Deb and would more than likely be useful for many members.

We do have the 'Help & Discussion' section that may benefit from the addition of such.

Leave it with me and I'll run it by the rest of the admin team to see what they think about it but also if we can accommodate the change. (We may have to delve into the controls and code which scares the bejesus out of some of us! )

Brilliant stuff there Deb, we're always welcome to any ideas for the forum. It is after all a 'home' for us all.  


73,
Victor

New country in the log for me on Sunday on 10m SSB. 25 watts into the DESpole shaped dipole. They were a genuine 59+10dB into me with no preamps switched in.

E2K - Thailand

Conditions were phenomenal despite the solar-terrestrial data showing just fair or poor whenever I looked at it. Managed a couple of contacts into Kazakhstan on 10m SSB too, and one into Lebanon on 11m.

Well done with Thailand on 10m there Neal.  

I've only managed Thailand on 12m and in fact most of my Asian contacts have been on 15/12/10m. You're right with the typical prop predictions suggesting otherwise but always worth giving it a go even if it looks like it might be difficult. My Taiwan contact was made in the afternoon which would have been well into the night for them.

This mornings severe G4 geomagnetic storm has scuppered things today though!

DXCC 203
14:28utc FM4LV FK94 FT8

Good going there Mike. The DXCC numbers are really clocking up for you!

I managed to get FK8HM in the log yesterday using FT4 the same as you did a few days back on 10m. Used a bit less power. It looks unfortunately for me though that he may not have me in his log, as he has 10m logs showing in his QRZ log for yesterday but mine isn't confirmed sadly. I had a 73 from him though so I know in my heart I at least made it. 

Got a VK in the log yesterday too on FT4, VK8DR, so that made me happy as not an everyday occurrence for me.

A 73 should be ok, Eric QSLs ok via LOTW.
Keep checking the logs.

Just had a surprise in LOTW.
1A0C just confirmed for two QSOs last year, 20 and 40m.

So don't give up,

Neal
FK8HM does confirm on all bands in QRZ.
Had him on 30-20 and 10m all confirmed.

10m contact with FK8HM confirmation rejected on QRZ   Am a bit sad as I always am from a rejection, but never mind, with conditions as good as there are (in between solar flares) there's a strong chance to try again soon.

Usually I only manage the Caribbean weirdly on 40m but despite yesterdays solar conditions causing poor to fair propagation 10m opened up a little window....

7/10/2024 - 09:52 - J69DS - FK94 - St. Lucia - FT8 - 25W

Nicely this was my 105th country but my 100th confirmation for my QRZ DX100 award.  

(Adding LoTW, the new clothes line antenna plus the fabulous FT-710 radio have all helped to raise a smile there! )

Well done Victor it all adds up.