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W3WN
12-08-2011, 10:37 AM
This weekend will be the annual ARRL 10 Meter contest.

Now is a good time, with the band wide open like it hasn't been in years, to encourage those Novice & Tech ops who haven't had a taste of good DX (or any DX) on the band to get active, even if for a short time.

It should be very possible to work DXCC in just a few hours over the weekend, as quite a few did so during both legs (modes) of the CQ WW in October & November.

I plan to be on CW only. My friend Bill W3WH is also planning to be on, either mixed or CW only (he is going to be looking to finish off 10 Meter DXCC as well). Keep an ear out for us.

And... my friend and co-worker, Ben KB3ERQ, ought to be on SSB only. (He'd better; I just loaned him my TS-520, gave him a pile of coax and an AEA antenna tuner (w/ SWR bridge & switch! :-D ), and he's supposed to be borrowing the club's 10 meter Ringo tonight.) So if you hear him on, please give him a call as well.

KC2UGV
12-08-2011, 11:06 AM
I'm going to try and hop into this one, time permitting, for some 10 QSO's to add to the log. Last contest, 10 was wall-to-wall with DX in the PSK window.

KC9ECI
12-08-2011, 12:52 PM
Company Christmas party is Friday night and based on past experience, I should sober up somewhere around next week Wednesday. However, as soon as I'm able to rise from the sleep of the dead on Saturday afternoon, I'll crawl down to the shack and work as many as I can on 10M.

W3WN
12-09-2011, 12:11 AM
Oh, one small correction...

Spoke with W3WH earlier tonight. Turns out he's got some other obligations, so he's only doing a part-time effort. So he's going to run CW Only QRP, I'm going to run CW Only 100 W.

Probably won't be on until sometime on Saturday morning, though. I have a software update to do at work, and by the time I get home, I expect the band to be closed. So it goes.

KC9ECI
12-09-2011, 06:04 AM
I plan to run mixed mode QRP here.

W3WN
12-09-2011, 10:55 AM
I'll keep an ear open for you.

N8YX
12-09-2011, 11:36 AM
In before the anti-contest whiners.

WØTKX
12-09-2011, 11:59 AM
We don't have very many of those on the IOMH. Generally ignored too.

KC9ECI
12-09-2011, 12:52 PM
In before the anti-contest whiners.

I didn't know they existed outside of QRZville.

N8YX
12-09-2011, 02:18 PM
We don't have many of those on the IOMH. Generally ignored too.


I didn't know they existed outside of QRZville.

Amazing how that works, isn't it? :chin:

K7SGJ
12-09-2011, 02:44 PM
We use them for Mahi bait down at the cove.

KJ3N
12-09-2011, 04:10 PM
In before the anti-contest whiners.

Take it to the system! :rofl:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIm14Jk12nI

KJ3N
12-09-2011, 04:11 PM
We use them for Mahi bait down at the cove.

:agree: :agree:

KC9ECI
12-10-2011, 09:17 AM
I don't think I've ever heard so much EU DX on 10M this early in the day. Band conditions are too good. The EU guys are passing out serials in the 600's and are still getting enough stations calling that I can't break the pile with my 5W. Gonna go back to the sofa and detox for a while longer and try again in a couple of hours. Hopefully the flexeril will have kicked in by than and I will be able to sit in front of the radio rather than stand. (*^$@ snow shoveling.

N8YX
12-10-2011, 12:45 PM
I find two things about this contest rather interesting:

1) Jamming activity on 14.275 and 14.313 is virtually nonexistent;

2) Besides the usual Latin American activity on several of their popular hangout frequencies, the amount of "freeband" traffic (between 26.0-26.965 and 27.405-28.0 MHz) is greatly down from levels of previous weekends.

It also seems that every person in Ireland is on the air today. I've never heard so many EIs at once.

KC9ECI
12-10-2011, 01:02 PM
I find two things about this contest rather interesting:


It also seems that every person in Ireland is on the air today. I've never heard so many EIs at once.

Tell me about it. I didn't hear this many EI/GI stations when I was in Ireland.

Jeff K1NSS
12-10-2011, 02:02 PM
Buncha stints.

Last night: Strictly Northeast, worked all the NY, NJ, VT, NH, CT, MA, ME I could hear. By 9 or so, pretty much noise.

5:00ish: Northeast back with a few whispers.

6:00ish Return to find Europeans up to almost 28.9, real easy pickin's. Some even called me. I insisted there must be some mistake, but they wouldn't take "try again later OM" for an answer and bullied me into accepting their points and multipliers. Had to take a nap about 9 just to adjust to the paradigm shift.

11 abouts: Back into the teeth of the contest, convinced there'd be too much mush from the states for K1NSS to rise above. Not so. Bang. Bang. Bang. Damned 59 lies not withstanding, for the most part Qs had the snap of good copy, or maybe 10 thousand Euro radios with reverse engineered alien signal processing, whatever, it wasn't my Icom 718 and Buddipole minus its tripod, hanging 30 feet up under a branch. Hit 40/hr rate, mostly pouncing, hunting essentially by turning the dial up a little bit at a time.

Quit about 1, took the dog-faced dog for a spin, got some coffee, ate some eggs and it's now back to the bunker and hangin' in until 4. Before I quit last time, worked buncha TX, had trouble with CO and CA, though they were pretty loud themselves. Some 0s, got them. Caribbean, SA coming up again, UK Spain still ok but East Europe on the way out.

So this is what the old days were like. Huzzah!

Jeff K1NSS
12-10-2011, 02:15 PM
Oh yeah, nice to get Ceuta and Isle of Man. Had them at my old NH QTH where I tried a fair bit harder, but not here. Also love to hear the EEU oligarchs with their stacked stacked arrays running sideband excited Radio Belgrade transmitters. All these guys name Dragon who look like their bodyguards have bodyguards.

KB3LIX
12-10-2011, 06:47 PM
STILL not feeling well,
but I have been on and off most of the afternoon.
Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow, only did 110 Q's so far.

Certainly NOT a valiant effort from here.

KC9ECI
12-10-2011, 07:04 PM
Ditto LIX. I spent the whole afternoon flat out on the sofa. Finally worked my way down to the shack a bit ago. Worked a few more Canadians, a guy in SD, all on the lower portion of the band. Dialed up to the phone portion and all I can hear is a guy in Guam working them as fast as he can. I tried to break the pile for a bit but it was a futile effort. Back is starting to protest again so I'm going to pull the plug and go back upstairs and see what my bride is doing and perhaps annoy her for a bit, watch some TV. On an unrelated not, I recently discovered that the club that ran the PSK Deathmatch disbanded. Bummer, I was looking forward to doing that contest again. I've missed out on it the last couple of years, now I'm gonna miss out on it forever.

W3WN
12-10-2011, 10:30 PM
I hadn't heard that PODXS had disbanded. Real shame.

Maybe a new group can pick up the Deathmatch? Just the type of thing a bunch of misfits ought to sponsor...

I only had a few hours today, here and there; woke up with a massive headache which didn't help. Had a solid run late afternoon, picked up the west coast easily, even got one of the ZL's (well, ZM's actually). Worked my last station at about 6:18 PM, and then... nada. The band just dropped out.

I'll pick it up in the AM.

Boy, wasn't hearing EU coming in like that fun? Yes, that's just what it was like in the Good Ol Days. Great to hear again!

KC9ECI
12-10-2011, 11:40 PM
PODXS is the 070 gang. Michigan DX Association was the Deathmatch. Info on the club at http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/michigan-dx-association-1/type:club says now disbanded. I'm all for the Island of Misfit Hams Deathmatch.

K7SGJ
12-11-2011, 12:30 AM
Count me in. I'll make the koolaid.

NQ6U
12-11-2011, 02:14 AM
I'm all for the Island of Misfit Hams Deathmatch.

PSK31 is my mode of choice. I'm in for the IOMH Deathmatch and I'm working nights all this week so I should have a decent 10m antenna up by the end of the week.

WX7P
12-11-2011, 02:38 AM
Boy, wasn't hearing EU coming in like that fun? Yes, that's just what it was like in the Good Ol Days. Great to hear again!

Right on! Worked a bunch of DX yesterday with my crappy antenna. Damn, that was fun...

N7YA
12-11-2011, 07:36 AM
The hours im able to work it to any effect, i have to work or im sleeping. :( But i did get 2 all time new ones in a row on 17m...well, one for sure. The station in Egypt hung in with me for about 20 minutes as i repeatedly sent me call slowly. He was off by one letter...he thought A was P, then QRZ. A landslide of stations called him and i was lost in the mud after that. He had my call at one point, but wasnt getting the many R's i was sending. Ill send him a card for shits and giggles...im not a league member so im not chasing any awards.

KC9ECI
12-11-2011, 07:48 AM
Well, we could use the same rules as the Deathmatch, that would allow existing contest loggers such as Genlog to be used without much change if any. I'm sure there is enough IT talent on the Island that we could automate the submission and scoring of logs. While the Deathmatch awarded a sword to the winner, I'm sure participation would be what it would be regardless if the prize was a sword or just a top honors page on the web. At least to start with. I think a different name might be in order. I'm sure with a little brainstorming here we could come up with something catchy.

W3WN
12-11-2011, 04:39 PM
PODXS is the 070 gang. Michigan DX Association was the Deathmatch. Info on the club at http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/michigan-dx-association-1/type:club says now disbanded. I'm all for the Island of Misfit Hams Deathmatch.Oh? Shows what I know. My apologies to PODXS then.

W3WN
12-11-2011, 04:42 PM
The hours im able to work it to any effect, i have to work or im sleeping. :( But i did get 2 all time new ones in a row on 17m...well, one for sure. The station in Egypt hung in with me for about 20 minutes as i repeatedly sent me call slowly. He was off by one letter...he thought A was P, then QRZ. A landslide of stations called him and i was lost in the mud after that. He had my call at one point, but wasnt getting the many R's i was sending. Ill send him a card for shits and giggles...im not a league member so im not chasing any awards.Definitely, send the card. Attach a note to explain what happened, and include the call that he copied.

Either he will relent, correct his log, and send you the card... or tell you "tough". Most guys will send you the card.

N7YA
12-11-2011, 08:16 PM
Thats what im hoping. He did have the call right for a bit, but me sending all the R's saying so was what probably screwed him up. I dont hear a lot of SU's out here in the west. Ill send it.

KB3LIX
12-11-2011, 10:23 PM
The day didn't go as well as expected.
My powerline interference was back Sunday morning
before the crack of dawn and is still rockin at S-9+
at 2200 hours.

Ended up with:

cw 106 q's 53 mult
ph 81 q's 50 mult

60,358

Not anywhere NEAR what I had hoped for, but trying
to hear thru an S-9+ noise floor is virtually impossible.

N7YA
12-12-2011, 03:52 AM
Um....i got 2 qsos. Stuff i already had. Not too many dx stations heard here, unfortunately.

N8YX
12-12-2011, 04:25 AM
Um....i got 2 qsos. Stuff i already had. Not too many dx stations heard here, unfortunately.

Your antenna broke?

I couldn't swing a cat without hitting a dozen or more - everywhere I went.

Didn't work any due to some household projects but the receivers were on the entire time.

N7YA
12-12-2011, 05:38 AM
Like i said, the hours i could actually work it, ten was dead. Time factor, wish i had more. Good to see its back, though.

W3WN
12-12-2011, 11:11 AM
The day didn't go as well as expected.
My powerline interference was back Sunday morning
before the crack of dawn and is still rockin at S-9+
at 2200 hours.

Ended up with:

cw 106 q's 53 mult
ph 81 q's 50 mult

60,358

Not anywhere NEAR what I had hoped for, but trying
to hear thru an S-9+ noise floor is virtually impossible.That's not bad.

I had 150 Q's, about 53 mults, all CW. Only could put in a part-time effort, the weekend had some strange things going on...

KN4DS
12-12-2011, 05:58 PM
It was interesting how many MT, ID and WY stations were on... I worked multiples in those states, already have a couple confirmed in LoTW.

Only 152 Q's, 55 multis, all SSB. Strange, about half were DX, about half states.

N8YX
12-12-2011, 06:20 PM
What would have been nice is for some autumn Es to set up. Didn't hear anything indicative of an E opening here - most was single and double-hop F.

KN4DS
12-12-2011, 07:40 PM
What would have been nice is for some autumn Es to set up. Didn't hear anything indicative of an E opening here - most was single and double-hop F.

Yeah, most of flyover country was just that... don't think I heard anything closer to Georgia than NM.