In the wake of some solar flares from region 3842, 10M earned its reputation as one of the “Magic Bands” today (Wednesday). When I arrived at the summit of W2/EH-003 today, I found Chris, KD2YDN, working DX on 15M CW.
Starting at 1435Z, I logged 27 European contacts on 10M CW, including an s2s with Armin, F/DL6GCA/p. Rig today was FT-818 at 5 watts to a 40M EFHW inverted-vee up 7.6 meters on rock ledge. Many thanks to all the trans-Atlantic chasers !! Hopefully good conditions continue for the trans-Atlantic event in November.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
I’ve been wanting to be on a summit in the evening for a long time… to see if it´s heading towards North America.
FL/VO-167 isn’t the best location… it’s in the wood - but comfortable and has a shelter and benches and tables. I was out with KX2, 60 watts and the Oblong 3m over ground.
Yes - it really was a crazy day on the 10m band
QSOs were possible all over Europe from 500km… but it also worked to the west coast of the USA… including 3 S2S
As soon as I have time and the weather permits, I’ll be active on 10m again at a summit until dark.
Yes, it was very good that morning (my time). The European chasers were louder than you! I had to sneak in between them to work you.
And I also caught F/DL6GCA/P on 15 and HB9HZC on 10 that
morning. It’s been a while for that kind of condx here on the west
coast. Hope it keeps up!
73,
John, K6YK
Today I was once again on a double activation with Uwe DK8OA. After his enormous pileup at 20m, I went to 10m in CW for fun.
And suddenly Hideo JH1MXV came back. The male first name of Japanese origin means “excellent man”. Hideo, that’s fitting, you’re my very first chaser from Japan after over 800 activations
We have the pleasure of working JH1MXV (and many other excellent JA ops) very frequently here on the west coast of the USA. I sure wish I could have been on a summit during that epic opening! I was hearing all kinds of DX here on multiple bands. Sadly it was during work hours for me, so no way I could sneak out. Glad some of you managed to take advantage
Yesterday on W0C/PR-074, I chased Matt K0MOS on W0C/FR-026 - he was on 28.422 MHz SSB, and I had to call several times through a wall of loud DX QRM to get Matt’s S2S contact! He had a pile calling him and maybe others as well!
So just for kicks I went down to 28.063 CW and called CQ - I got spotted really fast - and in just a few minutes I had 13 EU contacts logged!
It was surreal being at 3588M, up in the Byer Peak Wilderness, well above tree-line, not a soul in sight all day, and hearing all those LOUD signals calling from across the USA and across the Atlantic Ocean! Yes, they were calling me, and all I had was a thin #24 teflon wire on a thin carbon-fiber pole, guyed to rocks so it would stay up, and a KX2 running 10W sitting there on the ground! What an amazing set of conditions to be in!
Now we’re starting the slide into winter, and the really high places will be covered with snow before long, but right now it’s abnormally dry in Colorado, and we’re hanging onto summer by a thread!
10 Meters is really back for real! As the days get shorter, 10 will be even better, as long as we have so many sunspots. I remember back several solar cycles, and all I can say is get ready for surprises! When you call CQ on 10M, keep the audio gain down to a safe level!
Be careful when you call CQ on 10M, because you may get more chasers than you really want to log!
Lately my “pet peeve” is that so many US activators are spending too long on 10M and forgetting all about their fellow activators who would like to make a quick S2S contact on some reasonable frequency like 10.113 or 14.063 MHz!
Thanks for the reminder George. At this point in the solar cycle we activators sometimes face a hard choice: Stay on 10M to see what new DX calls, or go hunting for s2s contacts.
The best thrill is DX s2s !!
Hopefully the bands stay open for the trans-Atlantic s2s event in November. Meanwhile, have fun !! Always glad to hear you calling “s2s s2s”.
Stay well & 73!
Mike WB2FUV