Continuing the discussion from It's time for.... the 2024 10m Challenge. (Part 3) - #100 by K6EL.
Previous discussions:
HI Paul
Yes, that was yesterday afternoon, as it was going dark here. I was without rotation at the time! My beam was pointing into EU as I did not have a rotator controller in circuit, as I now have today (from around lunchtime - thank you to UPS and Radioworld!). I saw you clearly on one FT8 interval and called twice without success off the back of my beam and then I never saw your call on the screen again as the conditions must have changed quickly, as they so often do on 10m.
It won’t be long before we make it on 10m I’m sure Paul!
73 Phil G4OBK
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I had a few hours before work this morning, so nipped up Pressendye GM/ES-047 with Mo.
We climbed through freezing fog up into sunshine and blue skies. A lovely morning on top. I only had my 10m ¼ wave vertical with me, so it was 10m or bust.
hiking out of the fog and into the light
Hooked up the the ft-857 and running 50 watts, I managed 12 QSO’s in the time available to me, including the Canaries, S.Africa, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
on the left, distant Lochnagar, with Morven close behind me
We had to head after 30 minutes. A quick turnaround back home and then off to work. Four hours later and it is still freezing fog here in Westhill.
So glad we took the chance to get up a hill this morning. 
one to contemplate
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Looks like an awesome morning and 10m is still performing ! I tried to see if i could chase some activations on 10m while working today, and all I can hear is the US 
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Conditions were similar on Ingleborough G/NP-005 today, although the cloud decided to sit on the summit for most of the time I was there, coating my antenna wires and guy lines in ice. The cloud lifted just as I was packed up and ready to go. There was quite a pile up on 30m, a lift on 2m with GW, GI and GM worked. Several US worked on 10m. A good day.
Whernside G/NP-004 poking out the clouds
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Glad you also had a good day, and saw some sky. I love how 10m propogation moves from east to west as the day goes on. I had Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa in the morning and you had USA in the afternoon.
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Yesterday’s activation of DM/BW-064 (Heersberg) resulted in 16 QSOs on 10m. 8 x NA and 3 x S2S
Because of the warm sunlight, it was possible to stay a little longer than expected.
Thanks for the contacts, it was lots of fun!
73, Roman
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3 QSOs on Gun G/S-013 last night. It was too late for 10m propagation, although I was RXing decodes from Brazil on the JT modes - no way my 5 watts was being heard though. I did find a couple of Manchester nets on 28.450 and 28.490MHz respectively. Managed to work three stations from these, but I wasn’t keen to stick around when one of the nets became Islamophobic in nature!
36 QSOs on The Cloud G/SP-015 this morning. Mixture of FT4, FT8, SSB & CW. DX from China, South Africa, Kazakhstan.
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Nice shot! Pleased to work you on the summit.
10 m conditions to EU certainly bounced back this week … and I’m slightly amazed so many EU activators are getting to summits at this time of year. The Challenge seems to be having the intended effect.
As an activator, I’ve only gotten around to two summits in 2024 for a grand total of five Qs on 10 m. However, chasing is the next best thing and I’ve logged 20 EU summits on 10 m over the last seven days.
Watching the 28 MHz contour on the live MUF map move from east to west across the North Atlantic, concurrent with hearing the signals fade in on 10 m has become a favorite morning ritual as I eat breakfast and read the news in the warm shack.
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Hi Matt, it was good to get you in the log from a couple of summits this week.
Yes, interesting to see the propagation move. Yesterday I activated two summits -
Brown Clee G/WB-002, 11:30 until 12:30
Titterstone Clee G/WB-004, 15:00 until 16:00
This sums up the conditions on the summits of both - low cloud, and air temperature just above freezing, with very little wind, which made it pleasant enough!
This was the setup on G/WB-004, at the top of a west facing slope:
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Matt, thanks for the 10m CW QSO on Wednesday. Yeah, at this time of year there’s a small window in which the MUF is high enough here in the UK mid afternoon and also in the US early morning.
Live MUF map at 1453utc today - courtesy prop kc2g com
I was lucky to get 3 west coast stations on Wednesday at about the same time of day (assuming W.C. MUFs were as low then as they were today) [See ‘radio paths’ map at Part 3 post 96]
It should get better in a few months as MUFs stay higher for longer, not to mention the warmer summit temperatures.
73 Andy
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I’ve tended to leave 10m to the end of an activation so that the US and Canada will be awake but I really ought to start with 10m to get some different parts of the world. Of course I can end with 10m too. I usually start with 30m because I can be sure of lots of contacts although yesterday’s pileup was a bit overwhelming at times. As the days get longer (and hopefully warmer) the 10m start and end strategy will be worthwhile.
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That’s a new one for me. Now bookmarked. 
I’ve been going in first with 10m for the last year, when possible. Firstly to bring the band into use ( for SOTA and as a challenge for me) and secondly because there is generally an overlap with 15m/17m into Mediterranean Europe. The thought being, if I work chasers on 40, 20, 17 and 15m in that order then there won’t be any chasers left for 10m.
Of course, now that daily 10m dx is available, that’s not so relevant but may help get the QSO count up.
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I did a traverse today and tried 10m on each summit:
10am sw05 : 4 QSO
13h sw07 : 0 QSO ( but I worked a pile up on 40 first 
)
15:30h sw06: 25+ QSO. A Few groundwave but most USA DX. I could have carried on, but it was very cold.
I don’t know if it’s the grey line or just lack of chasers early on in day ! But for time being I certainly will focus on 10m later in the day if poss.
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Morning folks.
Nice to see activity on 10m more often now, shame the winter blues is running on 10m at mo in SSB modes. Mainly collecting SV’s Sotas for the challenge this year as but only ones can hear roll on Es season
But did find a LZ Sota this morning and do hear Reg at mo this month lot of US chasers.
Looks like purchase of a 12m triple stage tilt mast is on cards soon and will one day get it installed hopefully by May. And latest and dismantle me old hand crank up telescopic 12m steel poles and set up the new tilt system and get it fully operational by May at latest.
Then interchanging of antennas will be lot simpler between the various beams i have for 2m 70cm 6m and current 10m Moxon. Hopefully be the FW quad spiral 3 El by summer.
Then save up for couple nice 12v winchs make life even better
2E0FEH
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I had my first go on 10m this afternoon. It was supposed to be a rest day after a long day yesterday seeing Monster Trucks in Leeds; a Christmas present from my wife. I decided that I could probably squeeze in an activation of White Hill G/SP-006 as it’s only about 15 minutes drive from my house. I’ve recently built a 10m RockMite and low pass filter but I’d not tried it on air.
I started first on 15m with my 9v PP3 powered home brew RockMite. It was a struggle but I eventually got 5 QSOs after about an hour of trying. Having got the 9V battery qualification out of the way, it was then time to try the 10m RockMite][.
I initially hooked up the RockMite][ 10m with my little home brew amp. The gain really falls off up at 28MHz so for 350mW in, I get around 1.7 watts out. I am intending to swap to an IRF510 and different biasing along with higher supply voltage for a future scheme. Within not much time at all, I had 7 QSOs in the log, including PY2VM! During the Transatlantic S2S party I’d used my amp throughout and was disappointed that I’d not tried a barefoot QSO, so I disconnected the amp and called CQ. I managed another 4 transatlantic QSOs, including one with @ND0C, at just under 4000 miles, thats about 11,000 miles per watt!
My combined 10m QSO map -
Really enjoyable activation.
73, Colin
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Hi all
I’ve had a slow start to 2024 due to catching every virus followed by a throat infection …
Today the weather wasn’t great but I did my first 2 activations of the year on the Clee hills G/WB-002 and G/WB-004 on 10M SSB, with 5W from the FT-817 and the 10M flowerpot antenna that I made last year but never used.
Highlights were DX contacts to the USA and South Africa, and I qualified comfortably on both hills.
I also hit a record for accidentally bumping into other SOTA activators with 4 in the day : Mike @G7HEM, Dave @M0JKS and finally Gillian and Phil @M0OVW and @G4HQB
Cheers
Rick
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It was nice to meet you , Gilian and Phil on Tittertone Clee Hill today Rik. On Saturday I also met up with Peter (MW0PJE) to do a join activation of the Clywydian range - so it’s been a great weekend for putting faces to names and callsigns.
Regards
Dave
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Hi Colin, at that time I happened to be on a small hill near my home which is about 18 miles NW of White Hill G/SP-006. I was doing a Rx-only 10m test with my 40/30/20 EFHW (and KX2) to see if it was as lively on the 10m band as the 40/20/10 EFHW I used on two recent 10m activations. Your signal was as strong (~559) as most of the EU stations (the N/A ones were mostly ~539).
I would have thought we were too far apart to hear you on ground wave and also inside your 10m skip zone. Strange. If I had taken my paddles, I probably could have worked you.
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