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My 5 el HB monobander below my 20M HB Moxon Rectangle. |
Shortly after I fired up, I received a call from Maine -- we have a 2nd home there and the Ice Storm took out the power. I had to abort the contest to drive up to Maine, get the generator in place, and keep the place safe.
I'm bringing up a new station there -- maybe next year I will try this from Maine!
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taken shortly after the contest |
I used the same 100 ft. long wire antenna taped to the house on 10M that had served well in the ARRL 160M contest. I live in a C C & R no outside antenna neighborhood and this was a stealth 160M antenna. I was lazy and had not gotten around to taking it down. It loaded up on 10M and I could hear on it. I ran QRP to avoid getting RFI into the XYL's PC. Could it make QRP contacts on 10? Yes and then some. I could work almost stations heard on Es and even a few on meteors if I timed my calls on over-dense bursts.
There was a nice Es opening Saturday evening to Florida. Great to say "Hi" to K1TO. Had
operated the WW CW with him from HC8N. Sunday big time Es began at 1500 UTC to northeast, with
K1ZZ CT starting things off. Later Es to Atlantic seaboard and southeastern states.
Best DX was PJ2T and LU1HF! I suspect PJ2T via double hop Es and LU1HF was an Es to F2 link.
There was strong Es to LA and Florida the same time they were in. I almost logged
PY3MHZ, he heard me but faded as he gave his exchange. Thanks to XE2S and
XE2/N7DD for Mexico. Very loud Es to Colorado right at the end of the contest. K0FX,
K0MF, W0ETT, etc 599 + 60! Ran off 11 Colorado Qs in 5 minutes. Like shooting
fish in a barrel for a flea power station. Picked up KD0S SD and K0PK MN in
the last few minutes for new mults. A lot of radio fun for 5 watts and a $4 wire
antenna.
Primary Es paths on 10 Meters Sunday morning around 1600 UTC. |
10 Meter Es paths Sunday afternoon at 2330 UTC. Very intense short Es to Colorado. |
My pug mix "Lucas," me and the wire antenna used in the contest. Have trouble seeing it... ? That's the idea! |
P40K/K6KO |
Didn’t operate Friday evening as it conflicted with the Aruba Radio Club’s Christmas party and dinner. A really nice event with 25 in attendance at the home of Yvonne and Joop, P43JB.
Conditions were better than 2007 but very spotty. A good Saturday opening along the East Coast, W8/9 and VE2/3 at 15Z-16Z hours. The Mississippi River seemed the boundary both days with only a handful of stations worked to the west.
Log has been loaded to LOTW. If you need a QSL, please send direct or to the bureau to WM6A.
Kay, P40K/K6KO
Had a great time. Got a jump on my New Year’s resolution of “More CW” but then I had no choice…most of the activity was CW.
Propagation was a wee bit better than last year (not hard to do) with a nice opening to the east coast.
Since propagation was poor I didn't use the amp...and enjoyed it!
The dogs, sensing I was using CW, were quite.
I’m not sure why I like 10M so much. When the band is marginal, it’s like someone playing with the antenna connection and the RF gain.
At least I added CA on 10CW to my LoTW WAS count.
I read that 2008 had the lowest Solar output since 1900…2009 HAS got to be better.
Forward to the NAQP See ya there
Conditions were imho terrible with almost nothing outside of the EU and very little from within. It is difficult to say whether this due only to the lack of propagation or if activity over here was also poor. Only 53 QSOs during the whole of Saturday working as SINGLE-OP 10M HIGH SSB with a KT-34 and 2 x 5 elements stacked says it all. Sunday morning I woke up with a terrible flu, so I decided to stay in bed.
It's nice to see the results varied from the many others who posted (I forgot to post this last weekend), perhaps QSO count is related to latitude and ability to miss ice & snow storms that seem prominent in the US this December.
Other than Field Day the 10m event continues to be one of my favorite events and after many years of trying it mixed mode I finally went only SSB 8 years ago - I am not much of a high speed CW op - and have had much more fun at it. Since that time of course conditions have cratered taking me from almost 1000 Qs in the Dec 2000 event to 311 in 05, 200(running W0IBM single op here in Rochester MN 2006), 87 last year and only 68 this year. I run a IC746 with a SB220 to a TA33 @ 40 feet, modest but good enough for fun if 10 opens.
Which it did not at all on Saturday 1500-2100z when we had to QRT for a holiday event. Sunday was a little better up here in the northwoods with a little eskip taking us from CT to NM, but barely a FL and only 3 DX: 2 Caribbean and 1 Argentina (I think it's been 4 years now since we worked CA on this contest). Let's hope next year we get back up to 2-3X this QSO count, I'd do handstands just to hear Western Europe or JAs at this point.
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Spencer
Dear Santa, Please bring some sunspots for me and my friends!
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