Tuesday, December 10, 2019

#10m #FT8 10-Dec-2019 running up to the 10m contest

SFI:70 SN:0 A:4 K:0

Upcoming weekend there is the yearly ARRL 10m contest. Interesting since at the bottom of the sunspot cycle 10m seems to be death most of the time. Except for this particulair contest weekend. There are always some die-hards that will try and make some 10m contacts. Last year was a disaster and one of the worst 10m contests ever. I worked only 21 QSO and have been on the radio for hours without even hearing a thing other then noise. But why should it be easy....difficult is a complete different game. I have a better radio (IC-7300) and a monoband 10m 4 element LFA now. So my hope is that the 10m opens a little. Even a small amount is good for me....

So the next couple of days I will keep an eye and ear (at least my computer) to see what I receive on the FT8 frequency. WSPR on 10m is not interesting anymore for 10m propagation research I think.
Starting with today....


Not really promising... ODX was EA5HM at 1642km...

4 comments:

John, EI7GL said...

Have to agree with your point about WSPR on 10m Bas, it's only good and useful during the Summer at the height of the Sporadic-E season.

There is a distinct lack of activity on the 10m band at the moment. I hear G0OYQ and a RA2F? most days on 10m because they are very active there. If there is just a small bit of Sporadic-E then there should be plenty of contacts.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for East-West paths from Europe to N America on 28 MHz. Maybe down to South America at best.

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hallo Bas, Vandaag even de 10 m band gemonitoord (FT8) alleen een PD2WL uit Enkhuizen CQ huren geven, verder niets gehoord. Er zal in het weekend wel iets meer kans zijn op contacten omdat dan de meesten vrij zijn. 73 Paul

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Indeed John, besides that the WSPR database gets worse these days. I can see RA2FL several times a day. No African stations unfortunately although MUF is well above 28MHz in that part of the world. 73, Bas

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Paul, ik denk dat jouw locatie en antenne ook mee spelen. Maar je weet maar nooit wat je ontvangt....73, Bas