ARRL10M – one of my favourite contests! Nothing big to be expected during sunspot minimum, of course, nevertheless always fun and a nice opportunity for some propagation studies. 😎
Time I could spend last weekend was limited to a few hours in the late mornings and afternoons due to other commitments in the evenings. Had an enjoyable time nevertheless and besides 35% locals (i.e. groundwave and troposcatter contacts) and a (small) number of Sporadic-E as well as Meteor Scatter contacts (with the Geminids meteor shower approaching) even some DX could be worked.
Besides the typical one hop DX like CU and EA8 and the usual suspects from Africa (5T, S0, TZ, V5, ZS) and very few South Americans (only a few PYs and CEs wkd, no LUs this time) even some juicy mults on the east-west path made it into the log: FY5KE, NP2X, P4/DL6RAI, NP3A, KP2M and KP4/K7GM were nice surprises on Saturday afternoon.
Sunday afternoon saw an unexpected opening between Western Europe (CT, EA, F, PA, G) and the U.S. It finally opened overhere for 10 minutes, too, although only into Florida. Probably an ES + F2 link or maybe more likely 3 x ES hops as condx would probably not allow any F2 propagation on 10 m currently. But you never know … 😉 Managed to work 4 stations from FL and heard 3 more but they were busy working locals or simply not hearing well enough. VP5CW was a nice catch, too, and could be heard a little bit longer. EI2CN was a nice signal all the time confirming my ES link theory …
ARRL 10-Meter Contest Call: DH8BQA Class: SO Mixed Unlimited HP QTH: JO73ce Operating Time (hrs): 13 Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- CW: 86 36 SSB: 17 7 ------------------- Total: 103 43 Total Score = 16,254 Comments: Elecraft K3, KPA500 + 6 ele OWA Yagi @ 60 ft.