Some signs of the 10m magic starting to happen on The Cloud G/SP-015 this morning.
Things didn’t start too well. Although I could hear plenty of 10m activity on four modes (CW, FT8, FT4, SSB), it was nearly an hour of operating (trying all four of those modes) before I got my first one in the log. Maybe before 0800 is not currently optimal for a QRP portable station!
I ended up with 26 QSOs. 6 on CW, 8 on FT4 and 12 on FT8. I tried extensively on SSB but couldn’t buy a contact.
Signs of 10m magic? Well, China, South Korea and Australia (VK8) were all in the log this morning.
On Wednesday afternoon, I did an “on-the-way-home-from-work” activation, also on The Cloud G/SP-015. That one yielded 20 QSOs: 6 on FT4, 1 on FT8, 8 on CW and 5 on SSB. DX included 7 USA contacts, 1 into Kosovo (not DX, but interesting), Canary Islands and two SSB QSOs into South Africa.
Recently I’ve been running WSPR on 10m from home at times from before dawn until evening and comparing the paths with the live MUF map, I noticed a strong correlation with daylight. It seems one needs to have a path in daylight to get very far on 10m. I bet the MUF was rising rapidly after 0800 [dawn in the UK] so that may explain your later success.
This is from 1115utc. I plan to be on G/LD-046 at ~1445utc today with 10W CW hoping for 10m action.
I’ve not been awake early enough to watch it rise in the morning recently. In the evenings it fades fast. Sunset here’s about 16:45. By 18:00 yesterday ten metres had pretty much faded away, at least on CW paths from the west. Long path is dead, even where much of it would be in daylight. The skips in darkness kill it.
I could hear USA stations up to nearly 1900 then it went quiet. The correlation with daylight will be weaker in the summer when the band may be open 24 hours a day.
Hear them - me too, but working them that late with UK MUFs much less than 28MHz - QRP or otherwise - is another story. The EU-NA 10m window will widen in the coming months giving us more flexibility. But doesn’t 10m propaganda tail off in the summer? Let’s make the best of it while we can.
In mid-summer F2 propagation may drop off but that is the time when sporadic E is in full cry, including multi-hop propagation, so that is the time when we in the UK can not just work EU but even across the pond and into Asia by Es. In May and June Es can continue all night on ten, but there will also be days when nothing is happening. It has been said that Es is not as good at sunspot maximum, I haven’t noticed this but it will be interesting to see what happens!
By about 1800 I was only hearing some of the stronger chasers on CW, and not a hint of activators. I do have a lousy take-off in the direction of the US, mind…
Nice DX today including an S2S from GW/SW-013 to @W6NEA on W6/SC-369 at 15:45 at 53 both ways
I was running 30W to a flowerpot antenna from the FT-817+amplifier
Another good 10m CW activation from G/LD-046 this afternoon between 1449 and 1503 utc with 10 US contacts (from west to east coast) and 1 EU. Everyone was being very nice by matching my sending speed. Thank you to all chasers.
Yes. Using a 7300 I won 6m VHF FD (restricted) and was 2nd on 4m VHF FD (restricted) with my co-contester Mike GM4IGS. That’s lots of time sat in front operating or logging with it going full tilt. Never noticed objectionable relay or fan noise.
In the evenings it fades fast. Sunset here’s about 16:45. By 18:00 yesterday ten metres had pretty much faded away, at least on CW paths from the west. Long path is dead, even where much of it would be in daylight. The skips in darkness kill it.
