Adrian. Many thanks for the two QSO’s SSB and CW. There was QSB about, but fortunately your signals were very clear as always. 73 de Paul M0CQE.
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Now up to 90 DXCCs on 10m, from SOTA activations in 2024. The law of diminishing returns appears to be kicking in with just 3 DXCCs added in the last 4 weeks or so. Plenty of South American DX available most days, but North America seems to have all but disappeared! I need to haul myself out of bed nice and early a few mornings and chase the Pacific / Far East regions. For some strange reason it is feeling like it used to be easier to do this 10-20 years ago…
| Prefix | DXCC | QSOs |
|---|---|---|
| 3A | Monaco | 1 |
| 4K | Azerbaijan | 1 |
| 4L | Georgia | 2 |
| 4X | Israel | 10 |
| 5B | Cyprus | 8 |
| 5R | Madagascar | 2 |
| 5Z | Kenya | 1 |
| 7Q | Malawi | 2 |
| 8P | Barbados | 1 |
| 9A | Croatia | 7 |
| 9H | Malta | 4 |
| A6 | UAE | 1 |
| BY | China | 6 |
| CE | Chile | 2 |
| CO | Cuba | 1 |
| CT | Portugal | 8 |
| CT3 | Madeira | 1 |
| CU | Azores | 1 |
| CX | Uruguay | 6 |
| D4 | Cape Verde | 2 |
| DL | Germany | 6 |
| DU | Philippines | 1 |
| E7 | Bosnia Hercegovina | 4 |
| EA | Spain | 16 |
| EA8 | Canary Islands | 40 |
| ER | Moldova | 1 |
| ES | Estonia | 3 |
| EU | Belarus | 4 |
| EX | Kyrgyzstan | 2 |
| F | France | 12 |
| FM | Martinique | 1 |
| FR | Reunion | 1 |
| FY | French Guiana | 1 |
| G | England | 160 |
| GM | Scotland | 3 |
| GW | Wales | 33 |
| HA | Hungary | 5 |
| HB | Switzerland | 10 |
| HI | Dominican Republic | 3 |
| HL | South Korea | 1 |
| I | Italy | 21 |
| IS0 | Sardinia | 1 |
| J6 | St Lucia | 1 |
| J8 | St Vincent | 1 |
| JA | Japan | 9 |
| JY | Jordan | 1 |
| KH7 | Hawaii | 1 |
| KP2 | US Virgin Islands | 1 |
| KP4 | Puerto Rico | 4 |
| LA | Norway | 1 |
| LU | Argentina | 18 |
| LY | Lithuania | 2 |
| LZ | Bulgaria | 15 |
| OD | Lebanon | 3 |
| OE | Austria | 1 |
| OH | Finland | 10 |
| OJ | Market Reef | 1 |
| OK | Czech Republic | 2 |
| OM | Slovakia | 2 |
| OZ | Denmark | 1 |
| PJ2 | Curacao | 1 |
| PJ4 | Bonaire | 1 |
| PJ5 | Saba & Sint Eustatius | 1 |
| PY | Brazil | 56 |
| PZ | Suriname | 1 |
| RA | Russia | 153 |
| S5 | Slovenia | 7 |
| SP | Poland | 11 |
| SV | Greece | 70 |
| SV5 | Dodecanese Islands | 1 |
| SV9 | Crete | 5 |
| TA | Turkey | 11 |
| TK | Corsica | 1 |
| UA9 | Asiatic Russia | 26 |
| UN | Kazakhstan | 3 |
| UR | Ukraine | 57 |
| V2 | Antigua & Barbuda | 1 |
| V3 | Belize | 1 |
| V4 | St Kitts & Nevis | 1 |
| VE | Canada | 24 |
| VK | Australia | 2 |
| W | USA | 369 |
| YB | Indonesia | 7 |
| YO | Romania | 24 |
| YU | Serbia | 12 |
| Z6 | Kosovo | 2 |
| ZC4 | British Military Bases, Cyrpus | 1 |
| ZD7 | St Helena | 1 |
| ZF | Cayman Islands | 1 |
| ZS | South Africa | 7 |
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Congratulations, Tom!
Conditions have been difficult in California recently, but I did manage to catch a few new countries during WPX, PJ5 and ZF.
The count was wrong in my previous post. I am now up to 88 countries.
Stations SWLed include 7Q,CP, KH2, V4 and several dxpeditions, whose pileups are tough to crack.
Power to you!
73, David N6AN
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Hi David,
I had a lot of fun on Sunday during WPX contest from OE/SB-268
with nice result: 108 unique contacts and 1753 points for 10m Challenge 
73, Mario DJ2MX
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I did. Hardly worth it though. The band is almost dead.
I have worked a CT station on 10m FT8. The ZB2TEN/B beacon is coming in well. I can hear Phil @G4OBK but he isn’t RXing me - yet.
The CW and SSB portions of the band appear completely empty.
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Hi Tom
Tried beaming in various directions, no reflections of M1EYP/P seen. One way reception your end due to power and antenna differentials I guess.
The only activty I saw on screen on 10m FT8 at this early hour was a PD1 and an EA station. Called CQ for 5 minutes and got no takers around the time you were spotted.
73 Phil G4OBK
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Worked two further CT stations in the meantime but still very little action.
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Source: SpaceWeatherLive
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The band did recover - to some extent - very slowly!
I finished with 18 contacts (17 FT8, 1 CW) - but that was over a three hour stay on the summit!
CT: 5
CT3: 1
EA: 4
EA8: 1
G: 2
I: 5
Fairly consistent direction(s) and distances involved. No new DXCCs for the Challenge.
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Kp fell to 2 during the day, but we’re on a rollercoaster with two quite active groups on the sun!
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I looked this morning and the K index was 3 with a prediction of rising to 6 later. Obviously the CME must have missed us. Anyway I expected things to be borked and for a change threw up the 30/20/17m dipole. It worked OK, I probably worked about 20-25 stations. But on those 3 bands I managed to work Europe, Africa, n. America and I think maybe Asia… I need to check exactly where SV8 is other than “somewhere in Greece”. I’m hoping it maybe Asia like 5B4 is.
I’m just hoping I can steal Sarah’s knees later when she’s not looking as mine are knackered after moderate climb and descent after a few weeks hiding from the rain!
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No copy in OK/PA on 17m, I know it is difficult but sometimes may happen 
73, Jarek
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Nowt special. Just normal mainland Greece a la SV1.
The “special” numbers for Greece are 5 and 9.
SV5 = Dodecanese
SV9 = Crete
These count as different DXCCs to SV. (There’s also /A for Mt Athos, which is another one)
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Cheers Tom. I’ve never heard an SV8 before so it was a nice “oooh… what’s that moment.”
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I’ve had similar false excitement being called by SY1 or SZ1. You start to think “Ooh, new Middle East DXCC”…mistakenly!
It can work the other way round too. I once worked a WH7 and didn’t realise until weeks later that it was Hawaii. Same when I worked a NL7 and had no idea I’d just worked my first ever Alaskan!
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Speaking of stolen Sara’s knees, that actually happened to Alistair Cooke post mortem. A mortuary employee stole them, plus femurs, and sold them for bone transplant.
Elliott, K6EL
SV8 prefix is commonly used on the many small Ionian islands in the deep blue Ionian Sea, so it’s quite special, hi.
But yes, SV8 only viewed through the lens of radio competition and diploma programs is of course nothing special/countable 
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Yes, the SV8 Prefix is pretty common looking back through my logs, I’ve worked 38 different SV8/whatevers over the years. In 2008 & 2009 I worked Lutz as SV8/DL3SBA/P on three SOTA summits SV/AG-031, SV/IO-003 and SV/IO-002. Other SV8 SOTA activators logged were SV8/G4ONL/P last year and SV8/OE9HRV/P in 2018.
73 Phil G4OBK
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Except the IOTA programme! Thank you for the information; I never realised SV8 indicated islands.
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There’s some Es about today, but not much activity to take advantage of it! So far I have had chases into EA and HB. Perhaps its just me, but I think that so far this year the Es has been pretty lacklustre.
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