10m DXCC Summer Challenge League Table 2024

League Table

User	Name	Callsign	Pts
SangueG	Neal	2E0LMI	65
Sydthecat	Craig	2E0VRX	59
John H	John	G0DNV	50
Kaosss	Al	MW6RDX	38
VanRougeT4	Deb	G1DBS	33
peewee norfolk	Jimmy	M7PCA	13
Simon467	Simon	ME7EWO	1
GaryWilson	Gary	2E0GGQ	0
Ivy Mike	Mike	G1HWY	0
Victor	Victor	M7VIC	0

Last update: 31-08-24 07:00

Is a point now being given for each US state worked?

Otherwise may I humbly request that M7PCA checks his total…

John H wrote:

Is a point now being given for each US state worked?

Otherwise may I humbly request that M7PCA checks his total…

Amended the board. I am not on the ball today, tired, sorry. Good spot.

SangueG wrote:

John H wrote:

Is a point now being given for each US state worked?

Otherwise may I humbly request that M7PCA checks his total…

Amended the board. I am not on the ball today, tired, sorry. Good spot.

No problem Neal, I didn't notice it until this evening.

I think it should be the individual’s responsibility to make sure they don’t double up on countries claimed.

No computer log here, so I keep a running total in my logbook cross referenced with a DXCC entity sheet.

Probably a bit OTT for the amount of points I normally manage to get during the summer!!! 

Sorry everyone was tired and just so chuffed I got them

SangueG wrote:

John H wrote:

Is a point now being given for each US state worked?

Otherwise may I humbly request that M7PCA checks his total…

Amended the board. I am not on the ball today, tired, sorry. Good spot.

I just checked CEPT T/R 61-01 that now recognises UK callsigns by country codes. I believe that for our purpose, these all count as one point each, is that correct?

CEPT also recognises each US state as individual callsigns, for example: W8 for Ohio and KH6 for Hawaii, etc.

Wouldn't it make sense to count individual US states and islands as one point?

Just me thinking out loud.

Deb

No worries Jimmy. You should be chuffed, you're doing better than I.

Deb, I think for this year as it is already in progress we should keep 'as is' i.e. simple, just 1x point per recognised DXCC entity using SSB. It has been this way since before I joined CT. I've made suggestions for changes / additions to this challenge previously, but we've all decided to keep 'as is'. Good to have new input though and I am sure we can have discussions throughout it and after and maybe formulate different rules for future challenges. Just my opinion though.

US States / Calling areas, are not clearcut and bloomin' annoying sometimes btw. E.g. I've chased KH6s only to find after much calling that they're actually in a mainland state not Hawaii, and K6 and N6s not in California, plus same with other numbers

SangueG wrote:

No worries Jimmy. You should be chuffed, you're doing better than I.

Deb, I think for this year as it is already in progress we should keep 'as is' i.e. simple, just 1x point per recognised DXCC entity using SSB. It has been this way since before I joined CT. I've made suggestions for changes / additions to this challenge previously, but we've all decided to keep 'as is'. Good to have new input though and I am sure we can have discussions throughout it and after and maybe formulate different rules for future challenges. Just my opinion though.

US States / Calling areas, are not clearcut and bloomin' annoying sometimes btw. E.g. I've chased KH6s only to find after much calling that they're actually in a mainland state not Hawaii, and K6 and N6s not in California, plus same with other numbers

Yes Neal, it was much easier when the US call areas were mandatory.
I cannot understand how OFCOM saw fit to ditch the previously mandatory UK call prefixes, it will cause even more confusion than the American system…

Off to Bonnie Scotland on a coach trip tomorrow for five nights, based in Fort William.
Only taking my UV5R 2/70 handheld with me, so obviously conditions on 10 will improve dramatically!
Good DX to you all, I'll still be keeping an eye on proceedings on here!

73,
John

Just got back from a few days in the UK near Doncaster. Nowt to report

Threw a random 41ft wire up into a tree with a 9:1 balun this afternoon. Working great on 40 & 20 but 10 seems dead.

Deb

Hope you enjoyed your few days in UK.

When I have been able to get on the radio at my QTH 10m has not been dead, but long periods of quietness. When it has come to life it has been almost entirely Canary Isl and Brazil. I am guessing similar for others of us hence this league table not making much changes past few days.

Did anyone work the Easter Island station tonight? Heard lots of UK stations working him. Sadly my 20w didn't make it through.

VanRougeT4 wrote:

Did anyone work the Easter Island station tonight? Heard lots of UK stations working him. Sadly my 20w didn't make it through.

No. Only actually heard the station for a few minutes. Also failed to get through to Nicaragua. And the frequency US Virgin Isl was on had a localised never ending +20dB data signal, which although I could filter it out a lot... not quite enough to hear well enough to call. Evening of failure for me, but it was my wedding anniversary, I think the radio was giving me a sign I should be spending time elsewhere.

HI Deb
if you mean 3G0YA, i tryed for errrr dont think im mad..........3 hours lol.....LIKE YOU SAID 20W ARHHHHHHHH but if you dont try you never know i had a real good few contacts on 20w and 10w but if i hear them again i will just keep shouting, thats how i got uraguey think they thought better answer him he not going to give up lol.......... got to love this radio thing, best thing i ever done i think, listing is great but being able to talk to the people that ive heard over the years even better !!!!!!! good DX and dont give up,if i hadnt had work think it might have been 5-9 hours lol........

and Snap Neal mine sunday, no radio for me then,,,............

peewee norfolk wrote:

HI Deb
if you mean 3G0YA, i tryed for errrr dont think im mad..........3 hours lol.....LIKE YOU SAID 20W ARHHHHHHHH but if you dont try you never know i had a real good few contacts on 20w and 10w but if i hear them again i will just keep shouting, thats how i got uraguey think they thought better answer him he not going to give up lol.......... got to love this radio thing, best thing i ever done i think, listing is great but being able to talk to the people that ive heard over the years even better !!!!!!! good DX and dont give up,if i hadnt had work think it might have been 5-9 hours lol........

Yep, that's the station. Not sure how rare Easter Island is, but would've been good to get it in the log. I tried for over an hour then gave up soon after sunset when for me he faded. Hoping things pick up tonight like they did last night. Good luck.

EDIT: I've been trying to figure out what the propagation path to that station was. Any ideas?

Deb

The Brains Trust say there’s no correlation between sunspot maximum and Sporadic E.

My logbook certainly suggests otherwise, with the amount of Es openings here in Barnstaple showing a steady decline in the last four summers  

Had LZ5R yesterday as a couple others of you did. That's my first Bulgarian 10m SSB contact since January this year. In 2023 I had 4 in the log over same period. In 2022 it looks I had 15 in the log over the 6 month period.

I read somewhere once, and I've been searching for the article but can't find it, I will post it if I do, that there there is a drop in E's with more sunspot activity. This may be a thing, but I have noticed that the 10m FT8 segment is often full of operators, low power European CW beacons have been booming, and when rare DX is on the band or major contests are on suddenly plenty of SSB calls can be heard from around Europe, so it looks there are E's floating around up there even when the main part of the band looks dead.

My thoughts at the current moment are that there are a drop of E's at sunspot maxima, but also operators are choosing to use other modes than phone on 10m, and when good E's form operators are moving up the bands to 6m, 4m and above. A couple of days ago when I had some spare time, both 10m SSB and FT4/8 looked vary lethargic, but 6m was rocking so I joined the crowd for a bit of time on that band

10m certainly has challenges, that's partly why I like it. With the possible drop in E's, and operators spreading themselves into other modes bands bands when E's do form, the challenge of making a 10m SSB contact increases. It's not going to put me off though.

I think every one of you who have managed to get a point on the board so far this year have done amazing. If you haven't, but have been monitoring, heard and tried for any then good on you too. Thank you! Let's all get keying up and calling CQ or calling back and show everyone that there are some formed E's up there just waiting for us to use.

Interesting post SangueG. Could it be somehow related to strong and longer lasting D layer charges which also happens at summer solstice time/longest day of the year shortest nights ?

If we consider many E layer contacts are possibly higher angle contacts as they tend to be shorter ones say 300-1800 miles, it might mean greater attenuation going through D layer makes them less often in solstice time of year coupled with high SFI's charging the F2.

I am not suggesting this is the case just thinking aloud.

3 layers interacting is very difficult to work out. And E layer at the best of time extremely complicated and unpredictable and unreliable.

I suspect a lot of people are on digital these days as it allows them to make contacts impossible on SSB Phone. SSB Phone is hard work with radio power and no beam on 10m. It seems somewhat more difficult than 11m. 

There are no digital users on 11m so by default you are a SSB Phone op so the activity is super intense when the band becomes properly open and many many people generally converge in one place for DX.

The sun spots have been extremely active but not necessarily in a useful way for DXers. Lots of solar flares/CME's and as a consequence geomagnetic storm disturbances. Not all radiation emissions from the sun work in a DX stations favour.

It is all a bit of a strange solar cycle. What can you do ? Pick a band, get on an try.