It’s all to do with when it does that particular operation. When uploading something, it has the entire upload at its disposal, calculates points to allocate, etc, and then uploads everything into the database. Once we run the challenges and honour rolls, it no longer has that entire information at hand, so has to rebuild it and has to do that calculation itself and there’s a lot of logic to take into consideration RSLs, CEPT, etc, which isn’t so easy to translate to the particular flavour of query language - and certainly not towards the end of the year when we’ll easily in the tens of thousands of 10m QSOs (if not hundreds of thousands) that would all need processing.
No it doesn’t.
No they won’t.
And if they do, it can be handled via other means, like the Spirit of SOTA piece. I write the software and I’m saying it stays.
(Speaking of which, I have fixed the various bugs reported, and currently enjoying a nice beverage at the lounge in Delhi)
It should be possible to work quite respectable non-DX paths with some antenna gain, a bit of power and FT8 type modes. i.e. even if there’s no SpE or F2 on 10m
Say using a Moxon or 2/3 ele beam and say 50W and FT8 may still net you QSOs over a few 100 kms rather than typical F2 or SpE skip distances.
It’s probably scatter from an inonized area in the E or F the layers in my opinion. You could determine the direction of the ionization or tropo cloud if you had a rotatable beam. Most of the 10m UK contacts I have made outwith ground wave range on 10m since the 10m Challenge started have been scatter of some sort.
When the RSGB introduced a 10m UK Counties award in the 1980s, I believe I was the was first one to get it, living in Lancashire then - I was using a 3 element 10m yagi and 100 watts from a Yaesu FT-107M. I tried to find the certificate - but that one must have got lost in a house move sometime.
Scatter of some sort was the mode used for many of the contacts I’m sure. Inter UK contacts on the 10m band have always been of great interest to me - “pushing the envelope” so to speak.
Just for reference, my antenna was a 40m long doublet, not an ideal antenna for this band because although it exhibits a number of lobes with significant gain it also exhibits as many nulls and the nulls cost me contacts. I think I had a few dB gain in Tom’s direction.
FB Brian on the copy experienced on the doublet. I just worked F8AST/P on F/AM-646 28188 USB. In his sideband on 28.1889 was the 5 watt vertically polarised beacon SV5TEN/B sending callsign and station details at around 14 WPM. The beacon was as strong as @F8AST and a steady 559 in my ears (albeit nil in the S meter).
Yesterday I heard Phil G4OBK working Pete M0PJE/P on May Hill G/WB-019 (which is my nearest SOTA, and can be seen from my shack). Phil’s signal had an interesting echoey warbling quality to it. Clearly some sort of scatter was involved. I wondered at the time whether there was anything auroral about it, or whether it was very-long-path…
Given how close I am to May Hill, I was slightly surprised how few of Pete’s successful chasers I could hear. The catch with backscatter propagation is figuring out which direction to point the antenna, and mine was quite likely pointed the wrong way for some of them, and others may have been behind my local obstructive geography. Needs pondering…
Pete tried to work me on 10m yesterday (w6/sc-369) but my 857 “noise” swallowed his weak signal. I could make out the M0PJ?/P. After a short lunch break I returned with a KX3 as this is the second time the 857 has swallowed a potential S2S.
I’m really bummed as that would have been a complete for me as I activated May in 2016. My brothers house looks right onto it.
It seems you have fixed all right your portable yagi , as I had a booming signal from you yesterday at home. Not sure if you were using your 857 or KX3 with me, but you sounded loud!
I’m having troubles to chase from EA, as 10m propagation starts later in our Western EU locator, so I’m having difficulties with the early EU activators and, instead, more success with the late transatlantic like you…
Our Q was a real surprise and very welcome. I was running the 857 at around 35w into my Yagi. I figured out I had built it wrong and between that and fixing the rotation/slip problem, it performed very well.
You were very readable at my end.
Another memorable contact (and I made > 150 voice Qs on 10m yesterday) was a /M operator driving around London. Great signal.
Using the KX3 at 15w in the afternoon yielded lots of S9 and S9+10 reports from US operators in the mid Atlantic states (SC, NC etc).
Shame I wasn’t around yesterday - as we had a big family event elsewhere to celebrate me leaving hospital last Thursday night after a two night stay. It’s been pretty good today today working around EU. The Greek stations on SSB have been particulary loud in Northern UK, none on summits yet today unfortunately. I hope to be around for your next effort with your two element yagi.
10m into NA hasn’t been great for me this week, it was much better in the last week of December. Signal reports have been down both ways despite using the same gear at my end.
I assumed it was short path and long path at the same time? It was only affecting Phil, everyone else had no echo but was further away (or 59 with line of sight!)
Either that or Phil has bought an echo mic.
Down here by the Severn (with a hill immediately to my south-west) I’ve not been hearing the Greek stations on 10 metres. I’m mostly putting that down to the hill being in the way. Here’s how heywhatsthat.com shows the view from my antenna. The two pointers on the horizon are May Hill just west of north and Robinswood Hill (near Gloucester) a bit to the east of north. The Malverns are the red bumps due north.
That obstruction between south and north-west is Stinchcombe Hill (17º above horizontal at it’s most obstructive point), and I suspect it’s getting in the way of signals on 10 metres. Even to the east the geography is a couple of degrees above horizontal.
I am in TA3 (KM39ii) near sea (Gulf of Edremit) with FT897D 50 Watts and a easy Vertical.
Looked for chasing on 10m - and really abt 14 UTC :
MI0TXM - on GI/MM-007 in CW nice readable on 28060
CT2IWW - on CT/MN-054 in CW also nice on 28057
(both booked on SOTA log)
Erich
Never had an echo microphone Pete! I think there’s known usage of those in the CB community. On HF at home I stay with the Radiosport RS60CF Headset with the electret microphone. Far to heavy to lug on to a sunmmit and you can’t hear a thing outside when you have them on your head.
But you have a key with echo-dits! I remember on 12m back in 2014 you calling me and I was getting long path and short path round the world echoes. It was a stream of dits and echoes and dahs and echoes and was completely unintelligible. Annoying because I wanted the QSO
