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Sunday, December 11, 2016

#28MHz ARRL 10m @PE4BAS and neighbourstations

Well, this is my contest review for 2016. The 10m ARRL contest is not over yet but after sunset the band is completely dead. So it ends for now.

There were hours I only heard noise and then suddenly a CW or SSB signal came up. The propagation was not too good this morning, I only worked some Dutch and German stations via groundwave. PI4DX managed to have a 57 signal here which is strong for a station about 300km away. See the map here from DXmaps.com. A busy 10m band? Well at that time only noise could be heard at my QTH.




Of course I had limited time and missed a opening to scandinavia. But suddenly V55DX came up from Namibia and I managed to make a QSO. Same for FY5KE, he was spotted on the DX cluster but I couldn't hear him. I just listened on his frequency a while, propagation lifted for a minute, I called I worked him and he faded away into the noise.

Later on I worked Peter PA4O  he told me CX Uruquay was on and I worked 2 of them both on USB as CW. The last station I worked was VP5CW before I had to go. Unfortenately missed the opening to the USA. If I had unlimited time for this hobby....


Here a visual map:


I think it's amazing considering the 10m band was not really open. Remember I work with a 2 element HB9CV on only 6m above the ground. In the direction of French Guyana it even got the house between in. This kind of DX only happens at a populair contest like the ARRL 10m. I don't care for the points actually but I care about the amazing DX worked on a almost "dead" band. It's difficult and most of the time you listen to noise, the magic happens when a voice or some beeps are reaching your ears. You try to decode a call and you hope the opposite station can decode yours. When the QSO happens you feel great afterwards especially when the station was only audible for a short time. I think this is what DXing is, this is what a DXer likes. This kind of propagation needs operating practise and experience. And afterwards you feel that you earned every single QSO.

Antenna PG0DX
What did others do? My neighbourstations (same provence). I took a close look at PG0DX Henry. Henry has a great DX station with a big antenna on 18m heigth. I contacted Henry to find out what he worked. Last time I heard him he gave progressive number 71. So I guess he worked a couple more as I have seen a lot of cluster spots afterwards. He wrote me at least some DXCC he worked, it's not the complete list:

Austrialia, Thailand, Guatemala, Israel, Namibia, Reunion, USA, Ireland, Crete, Cyprus, Honduras, Venezuela, EU Russia, Kuwait, RSA, Argentina, Brazil,Uruquay, Morocco, Canary Isl, Madagascar, Puerto Rico, England, Germany, France, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Austria, Italy, Slovakia

I contacted PA4O as well, Peter is using a FB33 at 18m height. He did send me his log. A visual map: (click on it for a bigger one)


Like always I had fun, especially with this contest as 10m is my favorite band. Next year it will be even worse I expect but I think I will have a better antenna and at least twice the height. Hopefully that helps to have even more fun on 10.

12 comments:

  1. Ik heb vandaag wat geluisterd maar alleen ruis gehoord.

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    1. Niet genoeg geluisterd dan, of op het verkeerde moment Tjeerd. Er was echt wel wat te horen/werken. 73, Bas

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  2. Hallo Bas, hier was de band ook dood en bleef dood. Zondermeer een prestatie om toch nog mooie DX verbindingen te maken, ongelofelijk! Je hebt je best gedaan en zo slecht ben jij nou ook niet met je HB9CV t.o.v. de 3 elem. beam van Peter. Mijn complimenten heb je. 73 Hans, PE1BVQ.

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    1. Klopt helemaal Hans. Peter is ook gewoon een goede CW operator en dat heeft onder slechte omstandigheden voordelen. Daarnaast zat hij op het goede moment voor de set. Hij heeft mijn blog gewoon goed gelezen en de juiste momenten er uit gekozen. Overdag was er bijna niks te doen, met een paar uitzonderingen. Het begon eigenlijk om 1600 UTC wat beter te worden to een half uur na zonsondergang ongeveer. 73, Bas

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  3. Hallo Bas, mooie resultaten. Af en toe wel even geluisterd maar niets gehoord. Die HB9CV is een goede antenne, ook ooit een op 2m gehad en dat ging ook prima. 73 Paul PC4T

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    1. Hallo Paul, ja als je een kleine richtantenne wilt hebben voor 10m dan is een HB9CV echt aan te bevelen. Doet het op geringe hoogte ook prima. Versterking is ongeveer 4dB t.o.v. een dipool maar in de praktijk is het door polarisatie vaak meer. Bij mij scheelt het gemiddeld 2 S-punten t.o.v. mijn vertical die ook nog 3 mtr hoger staat. 73, Bas

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  4. Nice to read your report, Bas. You worked some good DX on a band that might not be dead but is certainly ill! I was operating portable for our NPOTA event on 20-40m during the contest but went to 10m during slow moments. I never heard even one station on 10m, phone or CW. I thought I would hear something, but nothing at all.

    It sounds like that antenna of yours is a "keeper".

    73 - John AE5X

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    1. Hello John, that's why I investigated the 10m 3 days before the contest. It was clear which times would be best. Signals were very low though. Although 5R8IC was 57 here most of the time. Years ago I decided after a storm to replace my broken 3 element beam for a homemade HB9CV (I was on 11m that time). The DX world opened for me! 73, Bas

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  5. Zaterdagmiddag heb ik meegedaan met de arrl 10m. Ik heb ruim 30 qso's gemaakt waarvan 2 met zuid Amerika en 1 met Mauritius, verder alleen EU. Na ruim 2 uur had ik er genoeg van en ben qsy naar 20m gegaan om wat te dx'en. Bij thuiskomst rond 17:00LT nog een PY gewerkt. Helaas had ik geen tijd om tot ruim na zonsondergang te blijven op de contest locatie. 73 PA4M

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    1. Toch niet gek Mark, ik heb je volgens mij niet gehoord. Maar gezien de resultaten zat je er ook op de goede tijden voor. Congrats! 73, Bas

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  6. Replies
    1. Bedankt Gerard, jouw blog net ontdekt. Moet eens even wat meer er van lezen. 73, Bas

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Thanks for your comment. Bedankt voor je reactie. 73, Bas