Usually I don’t focus on the ARRL 10 Meter contest, especially when the solar activity has been so low. However, band conditions have really picked up and 10 Meters is alive and kicking. We have quite a few new Technicians that are discovering the wonder of worldwide HF propagation with even a modest station.
I decided to operate from our cabin up in the mountains. I haven’t been happy with the performance of my trap dipole on 10 Meters, so I wanted to try something different. I pulled a twinlead J-pole antenna out of the basement and strung it up in a tall pine tree. This basically gave me a 1/2-wave vertical on 10 Meters and I was pleased with the performance.
I had a great time with the 10 Meter contest, operating for part of Saturday and Sunday.
You’ve got to like a contest that has:
– Only one band, so no fretting about which bands to focus on
– CW or SSB, take your pick or do both
– Lots of DX
– Work anybody anywhere
– You can sleep at night and not miss anything
I mostly searched and pounced around but did manage a few runs with my mighty wire antenna. Not being a real CW operator, I did decide that I would push myself to make 10 CW contacts. Most of those guys are going way too fast for me, but I got it done.
ARRL10M Score Summary Sheet
Start Date : 2011-12-10
Band Mode QSOs Pts Cty
28 CW 10 40 8
28 USB 254 508 72
Total 264 548 80
Score : 43,840
73, Bob K0NR
Great job. I made one contact. Was on for one minute. de WVØH
Great job on 10M using both CW and phone. I only managed one contact as CO of W9YB (Purdue Amateur Radio Club) due to antenna problems. Found your site via your Twitter page. 73s KC9UWQ
Thanks for the comments. I was pretty happy with my score but the more serious HF operators around here had scores 10x to 20x higher.
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Good job!
WV0H is the real CW op!