Intresting to note that my 10m SSB QSO with VK2CPC was just over 2 hours following sunset in New South Wales, VK. Certainly conditions remain good for a few hours following dusk.
This QSO was 16965km =10,541 mi which only leaves New Zealand as a more lofty 10m DX prize from the UK at about 19,000km =11,800mi. And just how long do we have left to try this before conditions start to wane !?
Until it’s too late.
Nobody at the start of this year knew about the CMEs and other fun things that would happen most of the year.
Was your contact with the VK2 via LP or SP. The path length is different. It may be way more than you think. Or may not. No way to prove it either way. That guy who thinks WSPR signal variations can tell where planes are could help you. WSPR signal levels are the highest measured in the 50 sec transmission, or are the lowest, or the weighted mean. Who knows?
Was the vk2 running high power and a beam, or was he a SOTA portable running 10w into a dipole. There’s at least 10 -15 db variation in signal level right there. This is not to criticise or denigrate the contact, its just to point out that a contact cannot be used to measure propagation strength. Even signal reports are subjective and somewhat a measure of S:N rather than absolute signal strength. And are totally misleading in the strength report. With 3 db-6 db variation in the value of an s point, proven many times on many different radios, its all a guessing game.
Good luck with making further contacts at night, I might be one of them one day.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
How can you tell which path it is?
40m and 20m were fine for my yesterday but sounds like I should’ve tried 10m!
As far as I know you can only compare the signals on the two paths when using a directional antenna, not always practical. The point is that most distance calculators assume the short path and at certain times of day the short path is in bright sunlight and is not likely to work. The early morning in EU and late afternoon in VK/ZL is when the path is most often LP, aided by the grey line where propagation is bent downwards into the umbra of the setting or rising sun.
I worked Victor GI4ONL yesterday who was about 150km away. But he had 3 or 4 round the world echoes so some of the signal could have travelled 4 x 40075 + 150 = 160450km 
Not been too many stations with such echoes this maximum though yesterday 3Z9VI (Poland) didn’t have distinct echoes but lots of “reverb” so was probably coming via several paths at the same time.
After round the world echoes, the next distance challenge is EME. Then receiving the stronger deep space satellites on S and X band. Good fun this radio stuff.
How about this for a challenge: a few months ago some optimist started a discussion on the Zed about bouncing signals off Mars!
Yesterday afternoon ten was rife with echoey signals. I was kicking myself later because I reckon that was possibly a good indicator for F2 on six metres.
It may well be Brian.
I think some 10m echoes will be a combination of short path and long path at the same time. I’m sure I read that when the F2 ionisation is good enough you can get F2 chordal hop where the lossy ground bounce is not happening making the chordal hop multi hop signal stronger that normal multi hop signal.
I suppose what it does mean is when you hear it on 10m, you start calling and listening on 6m. It would be interesting to see what 8m propagation was like at the time as it’s halfway between 10 and 6. But I don’t think we’ll ever get a proper allocation there now that 40-50MHz has been allocated to satellite based climate monitoring radars. At best we (UK) will be able to run beacons. That may just rub in the lack of allocation more so as you see your 40MHz beacon being received in VK but you can’t have a QSO on the band
I am not an expert but is 10m long path even possible ? My experience of 10m is that is does die off in the evenings and takes time to get going in the mornings. I was assuming that my GP vertical is beaming low on the horizon where the isonosphere is still ionised with daylight… ?
I do agree huge difference between QRP and power + beams. It was a difficult contact and lots of QSB in and out. I was 20W portable on G/SW-019 with a 1/4 Vertical. I don’t know the power or setup of the VK2 station other than it looks like he has a Yagi… or even if he was beaming in my direction. I will ask !
I have tried so many time in the past year for a 10m VK contact, without even coming close. I’ll take this one, and hope for more in the coming months 
Yes, of course. It’s possible during SS maximum, usually between March and June in a range of 20:00 UTC until well after 22:00 UTC. Signals are usually weak and since I’m only using a vertical and low power there are most likely beams and more power involved at the other end.
73, Roman
Yes. At this end, a SpiderBeam, four elements on that band, ~11 m height, TX power 100 W.
Probably SP, which is the direction the antenna was pointed. I did not try listening LP, as I was able to copy, weakly, on SP and didn’t want to risk missing you.
LP seemed unlikely as much more of the path was in daylight along the SP. Plus, the dark part of the SP, just to my west, would still have ionization lingering for some time following sunset.
Longpath on 10 is actually fairly common…
I worked Longpath on SIX Meters April 7th 1991 in the peak of that cycle…I was working the Caribbean at the time and started hearing JA’s…thought they were portable, but they disappeared with my beam at JA.
Ended up working 3 JA’s in Okinawa on longpath…QSL cards ore on the wall in the shack.
So definitely watch for it on 10M.
Pete
WA7JTM
Hi Andrew,
I am always on the hunt for VK’s activating VKFF parks and/or SOTA on 10 cw. Great to hear you and even better to get you in my log. I have often worked Gerard, VK2IO and Peter, VK3PF while they were at a park/summit combination or just a summit.
de W6LEN / Jess
I’ve clearly been spending too much time on awesome 10m summits to summits with Arizona! Thanks for another good one G/SE-006 to W7A/MN-130
Ok I’ve had this before, working US stations on 10m late afternoon UTC and then getting Indonesian stations pop out of the noise on the same frequency all of a sudden ! Crazy when this happens!