On 20th April, a small group of us are taking to high ground on 10m FM. Probably kicking off around midday in the hope of bringing some activity to bands & modes which are underutilised.
We’re calling it “Ten on 10 FM”. Essentially the challenge is to work 10 stations (or as many as you can) on 10m FM.
So far we have around 5-6 people who have confirmed that they will be putting on a station for us, most of whom are towards the South of England & around the Midlands. I’m hoping that more stations will be confirmed over the coming weeks.
We will all be working vertically polarised in the hope of working both local & DX, which should make for an interesting mix.
Obviously the more people we have on air, the better it’s going to work & I figured this could tie in nicely with the 10m SOTA challenge this year
I’m hoping that we can entice a few SOTA ops across Europe & the UK to take to the hills and join us in an attempt to stimulate a bit of activity on 10m FM.
This date coincides with the next Trans-Atlantic S2S event, so there could be an opportunity to get some 10m FM contacts across the pond. Is a centre of activity frequency proposed?
The “core” hours for the S2S event are 1300 - 1700z, but some people are active before and after that time slot.
Hi James,
This sounds like a great idea, but don’t forget that the skip distance on 10 metres is a lot more than on 20 or 40m. Looking at what I can hear from down here in the South of Germany, the “black hole” appears to be in the order of 750 miles radius.
So don’t plan on many local (i.e. within the UK) contacts - those will only be a few ground wave contacts).
Often down here, I can hear US stations at S9+ while I can’t hear the stations from England or Wales that are being worked (Scotland and Ireland are far enough away to also be pounding in strong signals).
It’s primarily intended to be a local event with a number of stations on hill tops relatively close together working ground wave, but we’re hoping for some DX too.
Oh, you’ll be surprised by the amount of DX stations you’ll hear (and hopefully work) on 10 metres if the conditions stay as they are! Just working into the EU countries may be difficult.
Yep, kicking off 1pm local (12:00 UTC for those of you outside the UK).
Take the finish time as a bit of a guide. If there’s activity on the band I will carry on past that. If it goes quiet then some of us might pull the plug after an hour or so.
Either way, if people take to the hills at around 1pm the following stations should be on air:-
29.100 Chris (2E0UKH) 29.110 29.120 Stu (G5STU) 29.130 Callum (M0XXT) 29.140 29.150 James (M0GQC) 29.160 29.170 Jonathan (M0JSX) 29.180 Kevan (2E0WQH) 29.190 Isle Of Wight Radio Society (G3SKY)
Most (if not all) of these stations will be running verticals and are located towards the south of England or around the midlands, so if you are on a decent hilltop in that region you should be able to work at least some of them on ground wave…if propagation plays nice we are also hoping for some skip.
The hope is that a few other people will join in and start calling CQ off their own back, giving a few more stations to work.
Would be nice to hear a few SOTA stations joining in (subtle hint)!
Most activity will be around 29.100MHz-29.200MHz, with the possibility of some people electing to use the “all mode” portion of the band (29.000-29.100) which as available on a non-interference basis.
There is also an FM calling channel in the middle of the repeater section of the band on 29.600 where some people might call CQ.
Don’t forget that 10m FM uses 10Khz channel spacing. In most cases you will need to set your radio to “narrow” so that you don’t bleed onto the adjacent channels!
We’re labelling this “Ten on 10 FM” because we are challenging people to work 10 stations on 10m FM. Having said that, we’re not taking it too seriously & it certainly isn’t a competition.
Basically get on 10m FM, make a few contacts & have some fun!
I’ve been advised by the Isle Of Wight Radio Society that some of their members live abroad & plan to participate using their own stations outside of the UK.
I don’t know which country said operators are in but if the skip is right that may mean some skywave contacts are in order.
As it happens I hope to be on GW/SW-004 at around noon UTC on Saturday. At nearly 770m it has unimpeded paths across the whole SE sector.
Possible problems are that my radio is apparently deaf on 10m ssb and I have never tried it on 10m FM. I will attempt to participate - as MW0JLA/P.
I think folding up my 40m HWEF and having it as a 5m sloper might work as the ATU seems able to tune almost anything.
73,
Rod
Obviously I won’t be posting a spot for it or mentioning the fact that I’m on a SOTA summit in my CQ call, so in theory it shouldn’t be possible for anybody to make that mistake. It will be very easy to spot if anyone does try it on!
Sorry James. Nothing heard so I think the radio is completely deaf on 10m. I tried a breif call on 29.600 so apologies to anyone who might have replied.
Hope the rest of the activity went well.
73,
Rod
