New Technician here, cannot get contacts on 10 meter.

[rf_patriot200]

I don’t know if this has any bearing on anything, but I have a touch lamp in my room that turns on every time I modulate.

Mine does that too, worse on 6 meters. Order some ferrite beads to put on the cord to your lamp and at your balun, that should help with the stray Rf in your shack ! R&L Electronics has 4 pc. Ferrite bead kits for about $20

 

[KQ4OFQ]

Mine does that too, worse on 6 meters. Order some ferrite beads to put on the cord to your lamp and at your balun, that should help with the stray Rf in your shack ! R&L Electronics has 4 pc. Ferrite bead kits for about $20

HA I put a couple of beads on the lamp and it cured the issue, many thanks for the tip.

 

[rf_patriot200]

HA I put a couple of beads on the lamp and it cured the issue, many thanks for the tip.

Great ! I'm glad it helped !

 

[krokus]

Which modes were you trying? USB is going to be most common for any DX.

Have you tried a 10m repeater on FM?

Did you make sure you turned up TX power, more than a 1/4 turn off the stop?

Did you double check if you have an offset enabled?

Have you tried another antenna? Most current CB antennas will cover 10m & 12m.

 

[R0am3r]

Mine does that too, worse on 6 meters. Order some ferrite beads to put on the cord to your lamp and at your balun, that should help with the stray Rf in your shack ! R&L Electronics has 4 pc. Ferrite bead kits for about $20

I wonder if that homebrew antenna really has a balun inside the PVC. I am betting it is nothing but an electrical connection from the SO-239 to the dipole legs. That would also explain why the OP has RF in the shack.

 

[sallen07]

Which modes were you trying? USB is going to be most common for any DX.

Have you tried a 10m repeater on FM?

Did you double check if you have an offset enabled?

The OP stated they were a Technician, so they don't have FM privileges on 10m.

 

[R0am3r]

Have you tried a 10m repeater on FM?

TL;DR what @sallen07 said. Great minds think alike, and we posted the same thing.

@krokus - The OP has a Technician license and cannot legally transmit FM on the 10m band. Also note - the 10m repeater frequencies are outside of the Technician band.

 

[krokus]

I see frequency restrictions on Technician, not modulation.

Edit: Just looked it up. I had not paid attention to that restriction. (Never had gear that did HF, when I was a Tech class.)

 

[bill4long]

I see frequency restrictions on Technician, not modulation.

Edit: Just looked it up. I had not paid attention to that restriction. (Never had gear that did HF, when I was a Tech class.)

I think the FCC was going for "ham radio lite" with the tech allocation on 10m.
GMRS without a test has become that in effect.
(Not that I care. Humorous thing is that 75% if the QSOs on the Midwest GMRS Network are licensed hams. Go figger. I listen pretty much all day)

 

[Boombox]

Maybe try CW? A lot of weak signal work there.