Today, we all found out what ten meters can do when it’s wide open. Remember how it was at the peak of the last cycle? There was no SOTA back then, so this is new territory, especially to those who weren’t active in the great 1957-58 peak. Five watts on that band can get you 12,000 miles with at least a 559 signal report, which some of us proved today.
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My motive for the request is this…on the West Coast of the North America, SOTA contacts with Europe are exceedingly rare. Even the sharp ears of NS7P have yielded only two. This is our big chance. Have a daily look at the propagation box in DXsummit.fi or QRZ.com. If the solar flux is moderately high and the A and K indices are down…like 4 and 1…and the MUF is higher than 28 Mhz, have a listen to 10 meters (in the absence of a geomag storm). If those conditions exist for two consecutive days, the second day will knock your socks off.
For the West, we hear 10 meters starting around 1500. The 28.030 used by DC7CCC/P today was fine. We listen more often at 28.060, though. See you there … you’ll love it, and we left coasters will qualify for the gold something-or-other SOTA award.
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Elliott, K6ILM
Shameless Beseecher
In reply to K6ILM:
Elliott, Sorry for not getting back to you after 5PM. I was not monitoring SOTAWatch from the summit and it was 2 hours after my Alert so I would not have been spotted with Eric’s amazing spotting system.
I called CQ for quite a while on 28.060 and didn’t hear a thing. Someone tuned up but did not attempted to conatact me.
There were quite a few big pileups on 10 this afternoon which I had no chance of breaking but as I was tuning around heard a station calling CQ and just for kicks replied. Turned out to be DS3HWS, Son from South Korea. I was amazed to have worked over 8000 miles running 10 watts on my KX3. This was my first activation with the KX3 and that was also my first SOTA QSO outside of North America from a summit.
So overall a great day. Thanks for the QSO and spot.
Not a problem, Adrian, as I’m no longer going for points…just unique summits. I did think about re-alerting you, since I didn’t know where you might go. Then it occurred to me that KU6J extended the post-alert time to 3 hours, a good move IMO.
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Great on the 10 meter contact. For attracting non-chasers, I wonder if moving lower in freq might be better for that band only. We can experiment, assuming there are more wide-open days like today.
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Elliott, K6ILM
We (M0XSD & M6EPW) have started doing a few activations with a 10m FM handheld (a modified Intek H-520plus) in the hope of catching some good DX, so keep a look out for alerts and spots for us between 29.110 & 29.180MHz or you might hear us calling CQ on the calling channel.
My favorite band (when its open that is!). QRP can get great results on 10m. Been listening this morning in IO93. Lots of VK on earlier. Now (1000 utc) the band is full of Russians with a few JAs and quite a few Middle East booming in. May go up G/SP-001 later if I get my jobs done.
In reply to K6ILM:
Came home from work yesterday and noticed a lot of spots for 10m on the DX cluster, in a couple of minutes worked CP8MW (CW)and N6JW (SSB)in California with 100 watts and a doublet.
In reply to MW0IDX:
The New York repeater KQ2H on 29.62MHz (29.52MHz in with a 146.2Hz CTCSS tone) is booming in here at the moment, so things are looking up:).
In reply to M0XSD:
You were spot on, Colin. Several of us on the West Coast just now worked DL3SBA on 10SSB and he is 5-7. He broke the S-meter of N1EU.
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Elliott, K6ILM
Happy Camper
In reply to M0XSD:
You were spot on, Colin. Several of us on the West Coast just now
worked DL3SBA on 10SSB and he is 5-7. He broke the S-meter of N1EU.
Yup, I just worked him. Yeeee-hawwwwww!!!
{that is American slang for being very happy}
73,
Eric KU6J
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Free SOTA Spot Monitor Software: http://www.ku6j.com
Superb band when it is open, & we do seem to be enjoying good conditions at the moment. Great to hear the SSB portion full of US stations & very nice to be able to ragchew across the pond with 30 Watts of AM. Not so sure my neighbours will be too happy though Hi!
Neglect the 15m band at your peril. No problem working Stateside and what must be a fairly rare 4K6 for a SOTA activation from G/SP-004 on Thursday. Also much more civilised than the 10m mad house.
thank’s for the QSO from DM/NW-185 Ziegenhelle today. These are my first QSO to the West Coast of NA from a SOTA summit! I have used about 60W power from my TS-480SAT into a new build inv. V linked dipole antenna 12m up, which I have fine tuned for 80 to 10m on the summit. There are superb conditions on 10m today, I believe that my old antenna with only 7m up would have done the job too.
Thank’s again and I hope to meet the Hams from the West Coast and Canada again soon!
And 12m is probably worth a go, I certainly have a much lower noise floor on 12m compared to 10m when they are both open. I worked the Azores and an EA9 station yesterday (neither were SOTA unfortunately) on 12m, the EA9 was my first ever contact into the African Continent:)
I’ve mislaid my EFHW matchbox so I’m without 10m/12m capabilities right now. On top of Black Hill today I had a number of intrigued walkers, all ladies, all posh and all rather glamorous. The sound of Morse had brought them over. If I wasn’t such a sucker for a pretty face I’d have just said hello and given then a quick description of SOTA and continued operating. As it was I ended up talking for sometime about radio. I told one the contact I’d just had was out Wyoming or Idaho way, I wasn’t sure and flipped the 817 to around 28.5MHz. She was impressed hearing a ZS1 (59+++++) talking to a KB8 in Dayton, Ohio. Not as impressed as I was as I tuned about to hear wall to wall W6s all 59+++++. I need to get QRV on 12 and 10m again.
It turns out KG7E is in Idaho and he may now be my all time SOTA ODX and that was on 15m. I’m sure that if I’d have been on 10m then I’d have completed with many more West coast SOTA chasers. 3W and 11ft6 of wire and I can get to mid-Idaho. You just have to love radio propagation. 40 years of playing with radios and it’s still as much fun as it was when I first started tuning about all those years ago.
The fun on 15m yesterday was great. When over 75% of your calls are answered by North Americans, and you’re running 5w and a very simple homemade wire antenna, then it is, well, fun.
One of them was indeed the aforementioned KG7E. I suspect one of the VKs I worked from G/SP-015 remains my SOTA ODX though! (And my all-time ODX for that matter).
Mickey - my log tells me I’ve worked Azerbaijan 3 times from SOTA activations - all 20m CW with 4K4K.
Thanks for the QSOs guys. All of my SOTA contacts are made with a single 40 meter ground plane vertical that is only resonant on 40 meters. It is mounted at the lowest point in the valley completely surround by 11,000 - 12,000 foot mountains (I call it the “soup bowl”). My only saving grace is the super-low noise levels that allows me to hear just about anything (because I live so far out in the middle of the boonies). I’m surprised the west coast guys with big beams on hilltops are not fighting over you on 15 meters. It is great fun hearing and working EU SOTA with your tiny power levels and antennas. Jim - KG7E
Today would have been the time for a hurredly lashed-up dipole on 10, Andy. I was staring at the screen waiting for it to spot you on that band, as the INK-man on SP-001 was Q-5 on 28.635…Imagine if he was on CW with 3 watts.
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Elliott, K6ILM
Hmmmmm. The WX forecast is for fog here in the UK tomorrow, Elliott. If it clears up, I may chuck a few qrp Watts across the pond on the 15m band from a SOTA summit, working with a combination of the kite antenna and M6MMM/P
