2008 ARRL 10 Meter Contest

W1DYJ -- Jun 12, 2009 20:46 ET

My 5 el HB monobander below my 20M HB Moxon Rectangle.

Well... The Ice Storm did me in. Actually, I had no problems with my station in Massachusetts -- my 5 El HB yagi at 30 feet and TS-2000 were working fine. In fact, I have "taken" the EMA SO, Phone, Low Power award in 2007, 2005, and 2004.

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! -- W1DYJ

K4ZJ -- Mar 27, 2009 10:57 ET

I decided to try Single Op QRP CW only not knowing if I could make any Q's at all. What a pleasant surprise! It first sounded like the Florida QSO Party, but the band finally stretched out to the Midwest. The only Northeast station I heard (and worked) was K1ZZ. I worked many stations on the first call. The station this year was an Icom IC-706MKIIG with a Hustler 6-BTV vertical. I will be back next year with a rebuilt Hy-Gain DX-88 vertical with a better radial field and hopefully will have up phased and switchable ground planes. The Icom sure runs cool at 5 watts! -- K4ZJ

VK4TJF -- Feb 28, 2009 06:50 ET

taken shortly after the contest

well to start off with I found that no one was entering the category of mixed mode low power here in Australia, so my strategy was to casually contest during the weekend have some fun and possibly luck out and be the only entry in the category. this was my fist at home contest that I seriously dedicated myself to. the only hiccup was when testing equipment a day before the contest I found my microphone on my headset/mic wasn't working. So I rushed to Andy one of my mentors/elmers and he fixed the wiring and gave me a lots of helpful hints for general contesting. I had a lot of Japanese contacts on CW. those JA ops are always so professional and nice to work. The only real distracting part with the sporadic E season here is the nice warm weather, I just had to take a break on Sunday for the obligatory BBQ and beer. -- KC8CAM

N0JK -- Jan 12, 2009 21:33 ET

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. -- N0JK

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 -- Jan 10, 2009 00:57 ET

P40K/K6KO

Once again I was able to operate from the great station of Andy AE6Y/P49Y and John W6LD/P40L. Equipment used was ICOM 756PRO III and Alpha 86 amp at 1KW. Antennas consisted of a Force12 monobander at 50 feet and a Force12 C31XR at 40 feet.

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 -- K6KO

KI6VC -- Jan 5, 2009 11:12 ET

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 -- KI6VC

DD5FZ -- Jan 1, 2009 06:32 ET

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. -- DD5FZ

K0VH -- Dec 21, 2008 18:39 ET

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. -- K0VH

N8AP -- Dec 21, 2008 14:53 ET

Well you may think this is how I keep legal for QRP and that may be true. But its also the best way to use the maximum QRP power and not a fraction less in order to get the most out of our poor sunspotless 10 meter band. Every year’s band condition is different from the one before and this is no exception. This year the beam heading really meant something whereas last year everything was with a beam heading south even if the station was north. This years pipeline was SE from Michigan unlike last years SW. In fact, I believe I worked only one Texas and nothing else from the SW. The east was a bit better but I think most of the east coast must have moved to RI, I’ve never heard so many. Here’s hoping for some real DX next year.

Spencer -- N8AP

AB4SF -- Dec 18, 2008 22:27 ET

Dear Santa, Please bring some sunspots for me and my friends! -- AB4SF

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