10 Meter propagation

In the past days,the 10M band is very wide open.

Some weeks ago we had also one day with openings,but the day after it was gone.

Most of the propagation we have on 10M is to Africa or South America.

But in the past 2 weeks the openings changed...

On the 23th of March i managed to work my first station from NA on CW on thje 10M band.

It was N4BP..he was the only one i could hear from NA as well.

During the CQ WW WPX contest i did manage to work also ZS,PY,LU,D4,CE in SSB.

Thoose are the usual DXCC's we get with the 10M openings.

But during the contest i could also work OD,JY and VK6.

At the 29th of March i saw that NH7O (Hawaii) was working EU via Long Path on 10M.

I did put my beam towards 170 degrees and i could hear him very well.

After calling him several times and repeating my callsign,the QSO was made!!!!

My first QSO on ther 10M band with Hawaii was done.What a good propagation...

The same day and the days after i also could get in the log:

BD1EFO (CW) , S21YZ (SSB) , VU2DK (SSB) , VP5/W1CW (CW) , YI9NS (CW) ,

5M2TT (SSB+CW) , 9N&AN (SSB) , ZL1BYZ (CW) , KH2/N2NL (CW) ,

EL2GB (SSB) , P4/W1HEO (CW) , SU1SK (CW) .

Today i got another big new one worked on the 10M...XV1X Vietnam on CW.

I was very happy that Eddy,the op of XV1X,took the time to get me and my callsign correct.

Two days ago i worked also Nand,VU2NKS,with only 5 Watts output on RTTY on the 10M.

For me this good propagation gives me alot of new DXCC's on the band.

Also in the different modes...as i try to work as many DXCC's in as many modes possible for me.

One week ago i also had WSPR running on the 10M band.

I was seen also in NA with only 2 watts.Also i was seen in VQ9...

Propagation is very good and i hope it stays like this and even will get better.

I like the 10M band very much....it's a band that sometimes you hear nothing....

Few minutes later it's wide open.....

10 Meters open!!

The 10 meter band was wide open in the past 5 days.
Maybe it had to do with the new sunspots or sporadic E openings...
But we are very happy with this.
Worked on 23 Okt the following stations:

Z21BC,LY1PM,ZD7FT,4X4DZ,E21EIC,4Z4DX,PD1DL,CU2AF,CN8SG,CU2KI,
A41MX,CT9/DL6LB,V51AS,JY4CI,4X/K2LS,UN7AB,5B4AHY.

We where hoping that also during the big CQ WW Contest the prop was like this....

Propagation and 10M open !!

Yesterday started very well for me.

Propagation was in the morning very good to Hawaii and Alaska over the Northpole.

Could work KL8DX on CW,new one on this mode,and KH6MB on RTTY,also new in RTTY mode.

I was very happy to made this QSO's as it's not easy with 25W to make it in the pile up's.

Around 10:00 i did see and hear that the 10M was open as well.

My first QSO was made with 5F1ROM at 10:22.

After this i made several QSO's with I,EA,F and CT.

Sometimes with real good signals to 5/9++,good to see that 10M opens up.

I like this band alot,as it's not the easiest band to make DX/QSO's.

Propagation is not very good yet,but stil alot of nice QSO's and good DX can be made.

My counter of DXCC's for 2009 of worked stations is now 185.

Propagation and DXCC's

We would be going into Cycle 24...but still we are hanging inbetween.Propagation in 2009 is one from ups and downs.Still some very nice openings on long distance are possible.
Also we are in the start of the sporadic E season,so also bands like 20M stays open longer.Also the effect of the longer hours of daylight causes this.
Now we hope that the 10M will open up as well.For me,as a Novice HAM,this would mean 1 extra band to work at,as we are just allowed on 10 , 20 and 40M.

Still with this low sunspots...or better moslty no spots at all,i am able to work some nice DX and also new DXCC's as well.Worked in the weekend AH0BT (Mariana Islands OC-086) and yesterday TL0A (Central Africa).This brings my worked DXCC's now at 253 in all modes.
I am actice in phone,but also digimodes.Also i try to work CW via my computer.Can't make a QSO then,but workes ok for quick reports and also for contesting.

Every year i try to work again all DXCC's.This year the counter stands already on 169 DXCC's in all modes.On modes and bands is it:
10m - 7 DXCC's all modes
20M - 162 DXCC's all modes
40M - 64 DXCC's all modes
SSB - 115 DXCC's
CW - 77 DXCC's
Digi - 114 DXCC's (RTTY,PSK,HELL,etc)

Still looking out for VK9LA (Lord Howe Isl.),but till now i only had a small signal from them on RTTY,almost one week ago.I think that they are having a bad path to Western Europe,from the place where they are.If i think back at VP9DWX (Willes Isl.),i could hear them every day and also managed to work them.But still few days to go for VK9LA,so we keep our eyes and ears open :)
Also VK9GMW (Mellish Reef) started,after some delay due bad weather.

BARTG RTTY and RDXC

The past weekend was again one with many Contests.
I was active in 2 of them,but due not too much time,didn't get many in my log.

I started with the BARTG RTTY Contest.
This is a 48's hours event,started at 02:00 UTC on Saterday the 21th.I was active mostly on 20 meters and worked a few on 40 meters as well.There wasn't much RTTY above 7050,because of the RDXC Contest.
Still got to work some very nice DXCC's again in this mode.
Got in my log: JA6ZPR,J5UAP,YV5AAX,LT0H,JH7XGN,E21YDP,ZS2EZ,J88DR,YB4IR,9M6XRO and PR7AR.
These are the more exotic callsigns...some you don't get every days i mean :)
Nice to see that the propagation is getting longer,20 meters is longer open as for 1 month ago.
Maybe this is a sign of the Sporadic E season to begin.

In the RDXC i did work 125 stations.For me,digital modes and CW work better,just working with 25 watts.Worked in the RDXC in mixed mode,most in CW.
Nice DXCC's worked are:
JA7DLE,YW4D,6W1SJ,YE1ZAT,VQ9JC and V47NT.

Hope the propagation will be good the next weekend as well,while the CQ WW WPX contest will be taken.Hope to work then as much as last year.

Propagation Difference

You all know that Holland is just a very small and flat Country.

But still we have alot of differences in the Propagation inside this small area.

Years ago we had this already on 11M.In the South part of Holland they could work Country's we didn't even hear here in the North part.The distance between myself and the other stations is just 150-200KM.

In 2006 i did pass my Novice Licence...

Thought that this difference was maybe only on the 11M band.

But now i notice that this is also on other bands.

I did notice this also on the 20M band.Some stations in the South part of Holland,did work a DX expedition...i couldn't even hear a sound from them here.

It seems that the propagation goes from South to North.

The stations in the South first hear the station and if the band is open long enought,we can hear them here in the North part as well.

We also see this with other Country's.For example Italy has mostly better propagation to all corners as we here in Western Europe.

My antenne setup in Schoonoord JO32IU

For me is also the country's to the North difficult.

So did i hear JD1BMM just one day with sometimes 4/3....but that was it.

Also from ZL7T i didn't hear a thing.I was lucky to have worked and confirmed ZL7/DL2AH.That time i was at my old QTH with better sight to the North.

Antenne setup in my old QTH, JO32KX

Also my antenne setup here isn't very well yet.The FB33 tribander is too low,not even hight enought to look over the roof here.Later this year,we will change this.The beam will be around 10 meters hight from the ground then.Also will change the FB33 from Fritzel and put there then my old Swan TB-3HA.This is also a tribander (10-15-20) and has the elements much longer.Also i think that the F/B is better from this one.

Also i will put first my PKW 40M rotary dipole in the tower.

For now i have the FD3 from Fritzel and a 2x 10M home made wire dipole for the 40M.

The PKW rotary dipole is much better.Did work VP6DX with it on my old QTH.

In time,the rotary dipole from PKW will be changed into a two elm.

PKW MHF1e40 40M Rotary Dipole

PKW MHF2e40ss 2elm 40M

K5D Desecheo 2009 DXpedition

For almost one week K5D is active on the bands.
Before they started,they asked that OM's that have already worked K5D before,not to call in the first week.But.....i think they said it to deaf OM's.
As also many try to work them on all slots...
Some are even 2 times or more in the log on one band !!!!
This way,the OM's that don't have much power or big antenna systems,aren't able to work them.It's a shame that in the HAM world,the real world reflects as well.Just think about yourself and not about your fellow HAM in this case.
There's still one week to go before K5D will stop,so still some changes to work them.

But the propagation isn't the same all days as well.Like yesterday K5D wasn't strong here at all on 20M.Most of the time not even so strong to work them.I just hope that all OM's will have a fair change to work them and to give them also the BIG new DXCC in their list.

Thanks anyway to the OM's and Sponsors that make K5D happen.It's for sure one of the nicest DXCC's that will be active in 2009.

Link: http://www.kp5.us/