10M CHALLENGE (Part 1)

RATHER ENJOYING this thus far.

But min range from SW seems to be limited to about 1500km min distance one can hear and work the Sotas. But beyond has been good.

Managed to clock a couple W6 Sotas in California region. never reached that part of world before but best seems about 1600hrs utc here.

The Greek Sotas seemed to be always there of late also, spotted, seen, wkd and on to next one.

Even wkd into South Africa Sota.

Be interesting come spring and summer months how the dead zone changes no doubt be lot more Europeans work during Es season :slight_smile:

10m is open work it milk it whilst ya can won’t last long once the cycle heads downwards.

2E0FEH

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That seems to be what most people think, but even at sunspot minimum, regular as clockwork, up pops the summer Es!

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Glad you are enjoying it Karl. You were a big signal on 20m today. 59 on the KX2 S-meter. Both 20 and 40 seemed to be excellent.

Sit and wait for May, Karl! All Euro activators will sure be keen to work you in the Es season.
See you on the band!

Ahoi
Pom

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Thanks for your patience, Karl!
The QSB was wreaking havoc on each E of your call.
It’s great to make SSB QSOs with EU stations.
72, David N6AN

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I completely agree its been allot of fun, conditions have been good and I’ve learn’t allot along the way.

Hats off to whoever organised/suggested it.

Its been really good for me approaching sunset QRP. This morning i got up early to try the pacific. You could hear VK, JP stations on 10m but I struggled, high demand with allot of power in the way.

Then I tried 20m expecting europe and got VK and saint helena in the log almost immediately. I never would have thought ……

Tim

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Hi All,
Well, I’ve logged my first 10m activation of the year. It was not as easy as I had hoped on a very busy band and a lot of calling was needed to get 5 valid contacts, that being said the first two were Adele ZS5APT and Sid ZS5AYC out of South Africa and the last one was Gary K3TCU out of Pennsylvania, so my new wire beam antenna seems to be “sort of” working - albeit the contacts into South Africa were off the side lobe of the beam!


Thanks to Adele, Sid, Martin (DF3MC operating DA20XOTA), Axel DJ0AL/P and Gary for the contacts.

73 Ed.

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Yesterday I activated my first SOTA peak in 2024, on the 10m band I was able to log several stations from the USA, Canada and South Africa. Highlights were my first S2S ever with north america (a big thanks to @K2CZH) and two contacts into South Africa. I worked with nothing special, using my usual setup … KX2 with 10 watt and an inv-v endfed 49:1 for 40/20/15/10m. Here is part of my logfile:

Enjoyed a nice pre-spring activation, it was unusually hot (+10°C) on the summit for this time of year. After the sunset I rushed back to the car to get there just before complete darkness.


Summit Cross just before sunset …

73 Martin
OE5REO

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Well done Ed.

They worked me recently and I was pickled pink as they were my first ever SA voice contacts from Cal.

Ain’t 10m fun!!

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Hi Martin,
I saw your spot and listened for you and although I could hear your chasers I could not hear you for an S2S - too close I think.
73 Ed DD5LP.

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Hi Paul,
I had hoped for an S2S with you based on your alert time but unfortunately, I had to pack up prior to you getting to the summit I think - more luck next time.

73 Ed.

Whether I plan one or more activations in a day, I always try and do the first such that I am on a peak around sunrise. Bit chilly (well, by Cal standards) but it enhances the chance of a “memorable” long distance S2S.

We’ll make it sooner than later!!

I’ll go along with Dave, N6AN, 1500 to 1700 for Europe to West Coast USA
on 10 and 15 meters. It has been pretty good so far. I have 20 European SOTA
QSOs this month, all on 15 and 10 meters. A few before sunrise!
I have never (that I can recall) ever gotten a European SOTA QSO on 20 meters
any year.
73,
John, K6YK

That’s awesome the bands were cooperating big time. I was using 25w and a vertical “flowerpot” dipole (Huge thanks to Andy @VK1AD . Link here:
https://vk1nam.wordpress.com/2022/12/02/28-mhz-antenna-project-10m-flowerpot-antenna/

The beauty of the flowerpot style dipole is 1. It’s cheap, 2. It’s mechanically strong and takes lots of abuse, 3. If you make it out of a 50 foot piece of coax you can get the base at least 16 feet off the ground, and the takeoff angle is favorable to DX.




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I’ve been starting out on 10m the last couple months and have yet to come up short.

Yesterday from W3/PW-038 I was able to pickup ZL1TM Pennsylvania to New Zealand with the IC705 and 10/20/40 endfed 10m off ground! That is my longest QSO to date. @8500 miles @5W


73
Erik

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Morning folks.

Yes agreed its been fun back on 10m especially catching the Sotas on a nice long distances across the pond etc and only using 50w and the FW loop for 40m with tuner. All being well have the beam back up :-)))))))

But the most DXCC wkd so far is Greece where there always loud at Mo and Reg as clockwork worked again NICE :-))))

Come spring summer when Es kicks in again oh god its going be a European mess again NICE LOL and good to get logging in Sota’s on 10m bit a of a different band to normal sota catchs.

2E0FEH KARL

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It’s been a really good day in the 10m Challenge, although I wasn’t at home all day to enjoy it.

Great to see ARGENTINA activators en-masse from LUM/FU-034 this afternoon. Very good signals on CW & SSB.

73 Phil G4OBK

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Phil, I heard him calling and aswell the qsos with Mario, DJ2MX and more. But I was on Pota and and had to control myself very much not to call S2S. Here’s the qso with Jan, SM5LNE and maybe Michael, DJ5AV?

73 Chris

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OK Chris

There was a group of LUs on the summit. The two I worked on 10m were LU8MIL/M Ivan and LU9MDH/M Dan.

73 Phil

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N6AN reached 100,000 activator points in the challenge, more than double my own … and I’m trying really hard. We’re only three and a half months into it. What’s the prediction for end of year challenge points?

Elliott, K6EL