ARRL 10-Meter Contest: 0000Z, Dec 10 to 2400Z, Dec 11

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mtindor

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Hey folks,

The ARRL 10-Meter Contest is this weekend. I'm not sure what the propagation predictions look like, but overall 10m activity has been very high over the past 1.5 months. I would anticipate a LOT of activity on 10m. Everyone who has been waiting for things to warm up after the last solar minimum is going to be on 10m playing this coming weekend.

Summary Info: http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/weeklycont.php#3604
ARRL Website: http://www.arrl.org/10-meter
A great logging app (for PCs): http://www.n1mm.com

This is an SSB and CW contest. Any ham, anywhere, works any ham, anywhere. All contacts count for points, and [if you care to log it and turn in a log] there are all kinds of multipliers.

If you have a license and a radio capable of operating on 10 meters, jump on from sunrise to sunset (and perhaps a little before and after). Don't be looking for much if any activity once you are in darkness, and especially if both you and the DX are in darkness.

For nearly the past month and a half 10m has been open to europe from sunrise into EU and has been open to somewhere during all daylight hours. I've worked over 80 new countries on 10m in the past month and a half with 100w and a horizontal dipole up anywhere between 20-40 feet. With the same setup, I worked a RTTY contest on 10m this past week and worked all over EU, many states and Canadian provinces, down into Central / South America, Cyprus, Guam, and New Zealand as well as Niue. A very simple setup will make you a lot of contacts in a big contest like this.

Get on the air. Don't be shy. Read the rules. Either play casually and don't keep a log, or keep a log and send it in as a checklog, or keep a log and submitted as a valid log for the contest. Jump on for half an hour or 48 hours [minus the periods of inactivity during most of the darkness]. You'll really have a blast if you're a new ham and haven't witnessed what kind of propagation is possible on 10m when the sun cooperates.

Disclaimer: I don't control the sun. It is entirely possible [although improbable] that 10m will be closed completely [no propagation at all for US stations]. So if you plan to jump on and you hear nothing, don't cry to me. On the other hand, if you decide not to check out 10m this weekend based upon my disclaimer and then you read here after the contest that everyone and their mother was on the air and making hundreds or 1000+ contacts, don't cry to me.

It's winter [at least here in the US], it's cold [at least here in the midwest], and those are great reasons to turn on the radio this weekend and have some fun!

Mike

PS: I hear mobile stations on 10m working DX almost daily. If you only have a mobile 10m radio, make some contacts on it. You'd be very surprised what you can work mobile -- pretty much anythign I can work with my wire you can work from the mobile if you get in the clear [high up, away from close local obstructions, etc].
 

k8wtf

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I am looking forward to a little activity this weekend. I won't be marathon contesting, but will operate for a few hours and submit a log. Mainly looking to add a few states and countries to my list.
 

mtindor

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This contest starts in less than 9 hours. 7 PM Eastern, 4 PM Pacific, and for anyone else 0000Z :)

I won't count on hearing much at the start of this one given that I will have already been in darkness for two hours and most of the DX I would work is European [which will have been in darkness even longer].

However, that doesn't mean you might not get lucky. Of course, if you are on the West Coast you will still be in daylight as the contest starts and the Pacific DX that you might work will also still be in daylight. So the west coast wins this evening. But, come tomorrow morning East Coast will get first dibs on some DX.

Have fun everyone. I'm never "in it to win it" since I have a lousy antenna system. But I'm always in it to have fun. I'll probably run in the Multi-Op Single-Transmitter (MOST) category so that I can also access the packet cluster/skimmers and have a full bandmap. I want to increase my DXCC totals.

Mike
 

SCPD

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What is the procedure when you are having a QSO and a RUDE contester comes on the frequency and tells you to get off the frequency that it is in use,I had it happen Thanksgiving,I know I am a new Ham but doesn't the rules say to check before transmitting,he apparently didn't and tried to talk right over my station.
 

mtindor

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What is the procedure when you are having a QSO and a RUDE contester comes on the frequency and tells you to get off the frequency that it is in use,I had it happen Thanksgiving,I know I am a new Ham but doesn't the rules say to check before transmitting,he apparently didn't and tried to talk right over my station.

Confront the contester. When you present your story here, you're giving one side of the story -- yours. I wouldn't begin to speculate as to what occurred. If somebody was rude to you in person, you'd call them out, wouldn't you? Well, that's what you should do if it happens on the air.

Mike
 

SCPD

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I Have not kept a log the last 2 days activity, I will say though that I have been hearing more contacts being made than I did during Thanksgiving with more traffic being heard above 28.500 than I have ever have in the past.I also have made several more contacts myself during this time.
 

mtindor

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I Have not kept a log the last 2 days activity, I will say though that I have been hearing more contacts being made than I did during Thanksgiving with more traffic being heard above 28.500 than I have ever have in the past.I also have made several more contacts myself during this time.

I kept a log, but I don't have the results in front of me. Doesn't matter though, it was nothing to brag about. I had a good time, although I was disappointed that propagation wasn't as good as I expected. I heard a lot of stations, but I didn't hear many strong stations. I worked about 98% CW with a smattering of SSB at the end. From noon onward today I was spending time with the family, so the contest is over for me. Looking back, I wish I would have operated more SSB.

I didn't hear a peep out of many US states that normally are booming in here. ND, KS, AR, IA, FL, GA, LA to name a few. Of course, most people with gain antennas had them pointing to EU or PAC/ASIA.

Sounds like you had a good time. That's all that counts!

Mike
 

JnglMassiv

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Thanks to the heads up provided by this thread, I participated in the contest.

I played around for a couple hours on Saturday afternoon. I have a QRP station so every contact is tough going but worth the effort.
I had 13 SSB QSO's from 4 states (CA, WA, OR, ID) and 5 countries (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Cuba & Argentina) over the course of a bit over two hours. I tried and tried to get one of the two Chilean stations I heard loud & clear but the pileups were overwhelming. I'm pretty sure I could have worked them if we had the channels to ourselves.
One particularly rewarding contact was with another QRP station in Washington state.

One thing that has me scratching my head is how ALL my domestic hits were to the west coast. I'm using a wire dipole antenna with tips pointing due east & west from here in Chicago. It is made of 30ft salvaged Cat5 wire strung up in the rafters of my attic. I'd have thought these 7's would be in my nulls. Since I had the South and Central American contacts, I know I'm getting out there, too but I can't explain this signal pattern.

Anyway, I had a great time. The enthusiasm of the other operators was clearly discernible and really infectious. I've said here before (probably several times) that I'm amazed again and again that my low power radio (stock Yaesu FT-817 @5watts + LDG autotuner) and lousy antenna could reach 6000 miles + to Chulbut, Argentina (LU7WW). When you think about how little of my 5 watts (Max!) is hitting his antenna...if I didn't know better, I'd say magic was involved :)
 

kayn1n32008

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I went out to my clubs station for an hour yesterday, conditions were amazing to say the least. Worked 6 or 7 contacts, all off continent save for a VE8 station who I worked off the side of the beam. In Edmonton it was solid signals from 28.3-28.7 busted a few pileups with only 100w even with the US stations 60db over (gotta love the 1.5Kw stations:) ) only pile up I could not bust was a FD4? Can't remember the call sign, nor did goole bring any useful info except for IOTA web site, so it might have been a really rare call sign. Had fun and all just wish I had a home station.
 

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only pile up I could not bust was a FD4? Can't remember the call sign, nor did goole bring any useful info except for IOTA web site, so it might have been a really rare call sign. Had fun and all just wish I had a home station.

That FD4 station was in France. Apparently, conditions were just right for him to boom into the East Coast of the USA. Likewise, I was hearing stations down in Australia and Peru. One station in California was talking to a JA3 station in Japan, but I was unable to hear him. Conditions lately on 10 meters have been outstanding to say the least.
 
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Arizona_Scanner

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What is the procedure when you are having a QSO and a RUDE contester comes on the frequency and tells you to get off the frequency that it is in use,I had it happen Thanksgiving,I know I am a new Ham but doesn't the rules say to check before transmitting,he apparently didn't and tried to talk right over my station.

You should tell him that you know karate and will be him up if he doesn't stop. I know a guy who has a modified CB that has the same problem with people trying to tell him to get off the frequency, but he is running enough power to shut down a substation and can usually get out over everyone else.
 

SCPD

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You should tell him that you know karate and will be him up if he doesn't stop. I know a guy who has a modified CB that has the same problem with people trying to tell him to get off the frequency, but he is running enough power to shut down a substation and can usually get out over everyone else.

Maybe I should but several of the RR readers think you need to be banned also but it seems they do not have the guts to do it,I will be the one to get banned for saying it though.
 

SCPD

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The reason I say this Arizona_Scanner has been following me making comments on other discussions on RR repeatedly and when you say anything toward him you thread gets locked.
 
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