#28MHz ARRL 10m @PE4BAS and neighbourstations

Well, this is my contest review for 2016. The 10m ARRL contest is not over yet but after sunset the band is completely dead. So it ends for now.

There were hours I only heard noise and then suddenly a CW or SSB signal came up. The propagation was not too good this morning, I only worked some Dutch and German stations via groundwave. PI4DX managed to have a 57 signal here which is strong for a station about 300km away. See the map here from DXmaps.com. A busy 10m band? Well at that time only noise could be heard at my QTH.




Of course I had limited time and missed a opening to scandinavia. But suddenly V55DX came up from Namibia and I managed to make a QSO. Same for FY5KE, he was spotted on the DX cluster but I couldn't hear him. I just listened on his frequency a while, propagation lifted for a minute, I called I worked him and he faded away into the noise.

Later on I worked Peter PA4O  he told me CX Uruquay was on and I worked 2 of them both on USB as CW. The last station I worked was VP5CW before I had to go. Unfortenately missed the opening to the USA. If I had unlimited time for this hobby....


Here a visual map:


I think it's amazing considering the 10m band was not really open. Remember I work with a 2 element HB9CV on only 6m above the ground. In the direction of French Guyana it even got the house between in. This kind of DX only happens at a populair contest like the ARRL 10m. I don't care for the points actually but I care about the amazing DX worked on a almost "dead" band. It's difficult and most of the time you listen to noise, the magic happens when a voice or some beeps are reaching your ears. You try to decode a call and you hope the opposite station can decode yours. When the QSO happens you feel great afterwards especially when the station was only audible for a short time. I think this is what DXing is, this is what a DXer likes. This kind of propagation needs operating practise and experience. And afterwards you feel that you earned every single QSO.

Antenna PG0DX

What did others do? My neighbourstations (same provence). I took a close look at PG0DX Henry. Henry has a great DX station with a big antenna on 18m heigth. I contacted Henry to find out what he worked. Last time I heard him he gave progressive number 71. So I guess he worked a couple more as I have seen a lot of cluster spots afterwards. He wrote me at least some DXCC he worked, it's not the complete list:

Austrialia, Thailand, Guatemala, Israel, Namibia, Reunion, USA, Ireland, Crete, Cyprus, Honduras, Venezuela, EU Russia, Kuwait, RSA, Argentina, Brazil,Uruquay, Morocco, Canary Isl, Madagascar, Puerto Rico, England, Germany, France, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Austria, Italy, Slovakia

I contacted PA4O as well, Peter is using a FB33 at 18m height. He did send me his log. A visual map: (click on it for a bigger one)


Like always I had fun, especially with this contest as 10m is my favorite band. Next year it will be even worse I expect but I think I will have a better antenna and at least twice the height. Hopefully that helps to have even more fun on 10.