TenX DX News December 2, 2001
Mike Davidson N5MT, #24949
North Korea on Ten! There was great joy for many
when a station signing P5/4L4FN worked me and
others on ten meters last month. His name is Ed from
the Republic of Georgia and works for the United Nations
World Food Program. He has been in North Korea for
two years and recently received verbal permission to
bring in a transceiver and operate! Written
documentation is what everyone is waiting for from the
North Korean officials so that the ARRL will allow it for
DXCC. I was the first station in the fifth call area that Ed
worked on November 11th about 2300Z just before he had
to go to work.
Ed had communicated with Bruce KK5DO #65027, to
be his QSL Manager. Bruce is a good friend and also
lives in Houston. You can get more details about this
story at Bruce's Web site at: http://www.amsatnet.com.
Look for P5 North Korea. You can hear several of us talk
to Ed via an audio file saved by Bruce on the Web site.
Ed is using an antenna cut for twenty meters so his signal
on ten is very hard to hear. A vertical antenna was sent to
Ed and he is in the process of putting it together, then
hopefully he will have a better signal.
I offered to sponsor Ed for 10-10 membership. Ed made
the required contacts without any problems, mostly from
the western USA. His manager sent me his application
which was forwarded and approved so Ed 4L4FN is
number 72722 as of the end of November. Please be
patient as 10-10 DX is brand new for Ed!
Obviously everyone is hoping for the written
permission to be forth coming. I expect all the contacts
in November 2001 will be good. As for 10-10, all
contacts as of November 30, 2001 will be considered
good as that will be the date his membership number
72722 was assigned.
Once the P5 license is submitted to the ARRL DXCC,
it should be approved. I can tell you right now, 10-10
will be accepting P5/4L4FN cards, I know he is there and
other sources have verified his existence. Therefore, I
expect 10-10 will be the first organization to accept the
P5/4L4FN North Korea QSL cards and the number
one most wanted P5 will be a new 10-10 country!

Ed is on 28580 listening up 10 split frequency at 2230Z
and QSL to KK5DO with a green stamp or IRC.

Most DXer's need to work North Korea since it is the
most wanted, so the number of people trying to talk with
Ed each day is tremendous. The pileup will get better as
more work Ed. So far Ed has made about 1,000 contacts
on ten meters and 200 on twenty meters are in the log.

Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:
FO/a Austral Island. Leo K8PYD as FO0FRY #44582
and friend Jon WB8YJF as FO0SEV, will be active from
Rurutu Is. mostly CW/RTTY from December 3 - 14th .
3W Vietnam New Country 304? There was a station
operating from Vietnam 3W2DC, from October 2 - 14th ,
the operator was Bob N4CD #20902. Only CW operation
was observed on ten where I worked him about 200Z. Bob
is now gone from Vietnam and is now operating from
Guadeloupe as FG/N4CD for the past four weeks. Good
luck on swapping a number with him. Look for him on
28003-28018 listening up 2kc. QSL via his home call
N4CD with an SASE or green stamp.
XU Cambodia New Country 305? Alan, F6BFH
#71311, has received callsign, XU7ABW, and was active
October 22nd through November 10th. This will be another
new one if there was any 10-10 activity by Alan?
YA Afghanistan. The ARRL approved DXCC credit for
YA5T which is among the top ten "most wanted"
countries. YA5T will be operated by Peter ON6TT
#51565, as well as by Mats SM7PKK, Robert S53R, and
Mark ON4WW #49103. All work for the UN World Food
Program and they will be on the air as their work
schedules allow. For more information, visit the Web site
http://www.qsl.net/ya5t/. Peter ON6TT #51565, was in
Pakistan in August operating the club station AP2ARS.
QSL via ON5NT. YA5T op Peter ON6TT on 28495 at
1236Z was worked in France on November 30, 2001.
A5 Bhutan. Two members operated the new contest
station of Bhutan Amateur Radio Club A50A in October.
Pat N0ADQ #68842 A52PC and Ken K0EN #04058
A52ED, were their callsigns outside of the contest.
JW Svalbard. I helped Tom LA7VK #72716 get his
membership recently. Tom is an airline pilot and flew to
Svalbard on November 15th where he operated as JW7VK
for two days. This was the first 10-10 activity from JW in
many years and was a new 10-10 country for me. After we
swapped numbers, we moved to 12 meters for another
contact. Tom will to be back in January 2002 and plans to
stay for two days. QSL to LA7VK with a green stamp.

A new DXCC country has been created from Ducie
Island north of VR6 Pitcairn Island. Pitcairn was
allowed to join the IARU in November. Therefore, Ducie
now qualifies by separation of water from Pitcairn to be a
new country #335 for ARRL DXCC. However, no
amateur radio activity has occurred from Ducie as yet. A
boat load of operators headed for the island had to turn
back to Pitcairn because of bad weather.

E3 Eritrea. Falk DK7YY #23467, and others were
active as E30NA from October 19th to November 2nd.
EW Belarus by Vic EW6OO was on 28435 at 1635Z
coming into Texas with a rare 10-10 number. Vic
checked into the 28555 DX net today with a 59 signal
from 1400-1545Z. Expect him to return next weekend on
the net.
F France. Gerald F8BGV #72101, and others using
TM9W as a special call until November 9th.
JA Japan by Yuu JA7DY #33678 is an avid county
hunter and calls CQ on 28432.2 about 2245Z.
KH2 Guam. Ray WH6ASW/KH2 #65818, is leaving
Guam, returning to Hawaii. His new QSL address is
Ramon E. Fabre, PO Box 1693, Aiea, Hawaii 96701,
USA.
SV9 Crete. Bill, W4WX #62600 is active now as
SV9/W4WX to December 4th.
TI Costa Rica. Bill AK0A #13996, operated between
September 25th and October 9th as TI2/AK0A.
TI Costa Rica. Phil N0KE #15182 operated QRP in
October and November as TI5X from TI5KD's station.
V3, Belize Joe K8JP #22977, is active as V31JP. He
is a CW operator and will be there until April 2002.
ZC4 British Bases on Cyprus. Steve ZC4BS #52763,
will be on all modes 10/15/20 Meters for the next year.

Propagation: Since the April 2000 peak of Solar Cycle
23 we continue to slide down the back side of this 11-year
Sunspot cycle. Levels continue to decline even though we
have had spurts of high sunspot activity which have given
us unexpected good to excellent levels of HF propagation.
Meanwhile, The Royal Observatory of Belgium, prime
keeper of Solar data, reports the mean level of smoothed
sunspot numbers are dropping. My prediction is for the
Solar flux to range from 90-210 during the first quarter of
2002 and two good winter seasons remain in this cycle.
On December 1st , the Solar flux was 226 the A index
3 and K index 1, which is again above the flux numbers
six months ago. Large M class solar flares have pushed
the flux up the past 3 months. However, the average flux
has stabilized somewhat from the highs in 2000. I foresee
a 25-point drop in the average flux during 2002 and by
December 2002, I expect a Solar flux range of 85-170.
Cycle 23 is now 4 years old. The flux continues to
stay above 100 as this phase of the cycle turns down
for two more years of good propagation during the
winter months for the USA. Multi-hop F layer skip, has
increased this fall-winter as the change of season brings
better propagation to the USA.

Expect the best conditions on Dec. 19-21, Jan. 14-16,
2002; Feb. 10-13 and March 9-11.

Stations in the Eastern USA, expect an 80% chance of DX
to the East-West path into Europe or Africa. Stations in
the Western USA, expect 50% chance of DX into Europe
and an 80% chance into Asia. All of the USA will get a
40% chance into S. America in the mid afternoon. Expect
a 5% chance of Long Path into Asia or Europe starting at
0000 UTC for central USA. The beacons from 28.175-
28.300 will tell you what is open, especially 28.200. Good
luck.

IOTA: 8P Barbados. NA-021 John K4BAI #45389, was
active on CW as 8P9HT or 8P9Z (contest) until Nov. 27.
FS French Saint Martin. NA-105 Ann W2AZK #70464
was active from the French side of Saint Martin.
GM Scotland. EU-005 Leo W3LEO #48035, was on
from Portpatrick, as MM0LEO from Oct. 14 to Nov. 17.
HC Galapagos. SA-004 Pedro HC1OT #38309 as HC8Z
from Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos. QSL via NE8Z.
J6 ST LUCIA. NA-108 by David K3LP #13394, and
Ernest J69AZ #70609, signed J6R in the October.
V6 Micronesia. OC-010 Sho JA7HMZ #30900, and a
friend were active as V63DX from Pohnpei in October.
VP5 Turk's & Caicos Is. NA-002 Jack N2VW #01476
and others used the call VP5T in October.

New Fall DX members by Carol WA8YL #29588.
September 2001: G3XVF 72702, OH3TY 72703,
ZL3TTU 72704, LU3EEC 72705, DF1RK 72706, 8R1Z
72707. October: VE3TUG 72708. November: 4X6HP
72709, VK6KBC 72710, VE7HBS 72711, DL2IAN
72712, VA3SPN 72713, PY5JO 72714, EI2IO 72715,
LA7VK 72716, DL6OCF 72717 and 4L4FN 72722.

10-10 Bar Awards: Henry DL8YBM #36109 for 5600
Bar #66; Skip VE2ERB #20112 for 4300 Bar #124; Ad
PA3ABW #24351 for 3300 Bar #224; Carl PY2DBU
#8264 for 4700 Bar #104; and Clarence KH7B #34749 for
1700 Bar #638.

Countries Award: There are 573 basic certificates
issued, I processed three new basic certificates and ten
upgrades this quarter. Email any questions and I can send
a list of your country credits by email or SASE by mail

The Sunday 28555 DX Net began in October at 1400Z
and will continue until sometime in April 2002.

Thanks to the on-line DX List, QRZ-DX, Lee KH6BZF
#8888 & Ohio/Penn DX Bulletins. Send photos to Mike
Davidson, 3518 Bellefontaine, Houston, TX 77025 USA
Email: N5MT@aol.com

DX IS! 73 Mike Davidson N5MT #24949

Copyright 2001 by N5MT

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