Ten X DX News
Sept. 5, 2003
In my last article I gave you a list of 10-10 countries worked. In preparing for
the DX Forum at the 10-10 Convention, I discovered that the old deleted Germany
occurred before our 10-10 countries award was available. So there cannot be any
DL Germany cards before 1975 that can be counted for country credit. Therefore,
all the numbers are off by one. At the Convention, I submitted the following
first country QSL’s: VK9YL Lord Howe Island by June VK4SJ #63451 was worked
in September 2002. 3C2MV Equatorial Guinea by Vitaly VE6JO #35994 was worked
n November 2002. TX4PG Marquesas Island by Andrea IK1PMR #62272 was worked in
May 2003. Twenty-nine countries remain that have not had any 10-10 activity
as of August 2003. The 10-10 country count is 312 countries, a new record!
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Propagation into Europe has not returned for us in the USA as of the first
week of September. Those of you that are complaining about propagation will
have to wait another month before signals start to come out of Europe on Ten.
Last year we heard Europe the third week of August, so the lower Solar flux has
affected propagation.
I found one report of a member operating from Iraq recently but not on ten
meters. A friend received a QSL card for a casual SSB contact on 15 meters
from Craig YI/AB8DY #64849, who is in the Army Signal Corp. He was in Mosul,
Iraq, running an FT817 with five watts to an extended double zepp antenna!
It's amazing what you can do with very modest power and antennas, especially
if you have a rare prefix! I have a report that the club station YI1BGD #38353,
had all the radio equipment removed and the tower and antennas were all cut down.
Both Peter ON6TT #51565, and Mark ON4WW #49103 are not in Iraq at this time.
Ed 4L4FN #72722, is now in D2 Angola waiting on his equipment to catch up to him.
General 10-10 DX worked in the past quarter:
E4 Palestine. Achim E4/DF3EC #25919, was reported operating from Ramallah for
a few days. No one has been on from Palestine since November 2001. Achim is
President of the European DX Foundation, was only using CW. Unfortunately, he has
only been on 40-12M. He left August 11th. Achim doubts there will be any more E4
licenses given out this year. QSL via DF3EC.
7P Lesotho. Frosty K5LBU/7P8CF #51322, and Tom WW5L/7P8TA #41485 were
active July 18-25th. Poor propagation resulted in only a few contacts on Ten.
7Q Malawi. Ely IN3VZE #31856, was using the call 7Q7CE from September 4-
21st. He operated from a resort on the shore of Lake Malawi. Ely was in Malawi
back in 1992. His equipment is a Kenwood TS-50, Icom 735 and an amplifier to a
two-element quad up 25 meters.
CY9 St. Paul Island. CY9A was active July 24th to August 2nd by Vance N5VL
#63352, Joe KO4RR #46176 and others. Last year, I worked them using a backscatter
signal but nothing this year on Ten. QSL via N5VL.
VP2 Montserrat. Members of the Florida DXpedition Group were Bill W4WX #62600,
William N2WB and Bob K9MDO #24292 using callsign VP2MHX from July 22-29th. They
plan to go to HK0 San Andres in October.
ZA1B Albania. Carsten DL6LAU #58930 was one of many operators signing ZA1B in
July.
4U1ITU GENEVA. Patrick F6BLQ #66013, was operating from the club station in
July.
8Q Maldives. Uwe DJ9HX #22877, was active as 8Q7HX from Lhaviyani Atoll,
IOTA (AS-013), until August 16th. QSL to his home callsign.
EA6 Balearic Islands. Lorenzo IK6PTH #62288, operated from Mallorca (EU-004)
from August 18-24th.
TZ Mali. TZ6RD was the callsign used by several operators from August 12-20st.
10-10 members were Louis XE1L #18056, and Doug N6TQS #72301. The QSL Manager is
EA4URE, and the online logs will be available on the WEB page: http://www.pagus.it/tz6rd .
Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:
A6 UAE. Don N1DG #27629, is heading back to the United Arab Emirates from
October 6-11th. He'll be traveling to Dubai and plans to be active in his spare
time from the station of his friend Saeed A61AD #42084. Don will use RTTY, CW
and SSB and send the QSL to N1DG.
BQ9P Pratas Island. A multinational group of operators will be set up on this
remote island from October 9-16th. Only one operator is a 10-10 member Falk DK7YY
#23467, so you will have to find him for his number.
VK9C & VK9X, Cocos-Keeling & Christmas Island. The YL’s who operated VK9YL and
ZK1XYL last year, namely Gwen VK3DYL, June VK4SJ #63451 and Elizabeth VE7YL #50488
who was the main CW op, will now operate from Christmas Island (OC-002) as VK9XYL,
October 13-27th, and from Cocos Keeling (OC-003) as VK9CYL, October 27th to November 10th.
T33 Banaba. An upcoming trip in April 2004 will include the following: Bill AK0A
#13996, Flo F5CWU #71812, Bob N4CD #20902, Tom GM4FDM #31864, Doug N6TQS #72301,
Willem K6ND #60944, and Andrea IK1PMR #62272.
3B9 Rodriguez Island. Robert 3B9FR #61550, was active on 20/17 CW in July so
look for him on ten soon.
3D Fiji. Paul A35RK, is now signing 3D2RK from the station of Jytte 3D2AJ #14041,
from July 13-21st.
3V Tunisia. A large group using the call TS7N will be on Kerkennah Islands (AF-073),
Tunisia from November 19th to December 1st. They plan to have five active stations
on 6 through 160 meters. You must find the only member Falk DK7YY #23467. Their web
page: http://www.qsl.net/ts7n .
C5 Gambia. Holger DL5XAT #64618, and Matt DL5OB #61570, will be on from October
21st -November 2nd including the CQWW DX SSB contest in October. They will use
mostly CW when not in the SSB contest.
C9 Mozambique. Andre ZS6WPX #73604, will be active as C91Z in September until
the end of the year. QSL to PO Box 2845, Middleberg, South Africa 1050.
CT3 Madeira. Carlos CT1AHU #23426 will operate as CQ3U from Porto Santo (AF-014)
from August 30th to September 9th. Website: http://ct1end.netpower.pt/cq3u.
HV Vatican. Stefano IK0OER #62293 was active from the Vatican as HV5PUL last
year. This call only transmits twice a year for a few days in May and November.
JX Jan Mayen. Ove LA2IJ/JX2IJ #21977, was scheduled to go to the island in July
but had to cancel due to thick fog conditions. He may reschedule his trip to
March/April 2004. JX remains one of the unconfirmed 10-10 Countries, and VERY
RARE 10-10 DX!
P40W Aruba. John W2GD #14109, will be there in October. He will move to St.
Kitts, using the callsign V47KP with another operator W2OX. QSL via N2MM.
T32 E. Kiribati. From November 23rd to December 7th, Gregory W0ZA #15171, and
others will operate. His T32 callsign has not been received yet. QSL to his callsign.
T8 Palau and V6 Micronesia. Tom K7ZZ #71378, and Tom W7UG, will operate as T88ZX
from Palau (OC-009) starting October 1st for one week. Then they will move to Yap (OC-012),
Micronesia as V63ZT for another week. Look for them on 10-80. QSL to K7ZZ.
V2 Antigua. Doug W3CF #55779, and Sigmond KM9M #29243 will be at V26DX as an entry in the
CQWW phone, from October 19th to November 1st. QSL via KU9C.
VP5 Turks/Caicos. John N2VW #1476 and others, will be active October 21st to 28th from
Judy’s VP5JM #52729, under a VP5T callsign or VP5/xxx and their home calls.
XE Mexico. Ray N6KZ #26126 will be the only member operating XF1K from Todos Santos
Islands (NA-162) September 4 - 7th. QSL via N6AWD.
ZK1 South Cook Islands. Dave W6AQ #13883 and Don K6IPV are going there the end of
October. Mark K9ZO/ZK1ZOO #6142, operated with others from Rarotonga from August 18-27th.
QSL to WA4WTG.
Propagation: In the USA, the Fall months, give us a change of season as we approach the
better winter DX period. The six-month prediction is for the Solar Flux to range from
85-135 for the end of 2003 and beginning of 2004. In Phase 3 we have lower flux readings
and fewer DX openings to Europe until the cycle ends in late 2006.
Cycle 23 is now 6.2 years old. The flux continues to stay moderately low and some good
DX will be seen this coming Winter 2003, but just not as good as last year. On September
6th, the Solar Flux was 108 the A index 14 and K index 4, which is the same flux we had
three months ago but the average flux continues to fall.
Expect the best conditions on September 6-11, October 3-5, November 2-4 and December
1-3, 2003. USA stations, expect a 35% chance of DX to Asia, Europe or Africa and a 60%
chance into S. America in the mid-afternoon. The beacons from 28.175-28.300 will tell
you what is open, especially 28.200. Good luck.
IOTA: North America: KP4 Puerto Rico by Carlos WP4U #28321 July 24-28th. Montserrat
Island. Bob N2OO #12732 VP2MWB July 24-29th. Canada. Debbie VY1/N7FL #61262, and
Ralph N7KGA, were on Herschel Island (NA-193) in July.
Oceania: KH9, Wake Island. Jake N6XIV/KH9 #54767, was active from Wake Island in
July/August.
Europe: DL Germany by Andreas NX1S/DL4OK/p #18412 (EU-042) from July 15-29th. Jacques
F6HMJ #52711was active as TM3OR (EU-070) from Ile d’or in June. CT1 Portugal, EU-145.
CS5C was used by Jacques F6HMJ #52711, and others in July.
New DX members June to Sept. 2003: 73619 YC9WZJ, 73838 NH6RR update call, 73897 KH2RU.
Note: Information on IRCs/US$s needed for postage to the USA is at:
http://www.qsl.net/w9ol/ircchart.txt .
QSL help is at: http://files.billnjudy.com/ .
The Solar Forecast: www.sel.noaa.gov/forecast.html.
The 28555 DX Net on Sunday at 1400utc will start on October 12, 2003 this DX season.
Silent Keys: We had two DX members pass away this summer. My good friend Joe Pusch DJ4BE
#49153 was always chasing DX and held the second most 10-10 countries worked award of any
member with 208 credits! It had been a number of years since he submitted for an upgrade,
so I wonder what his final count would have been. The other SK was one of our oldest,
Lucien Aubry F8TM #20004 died on August 17th at the age of 97. He was first licensed
in 1926. God, keep Lucien and Joe safe.
Countries Award: There are now 600 basic certificates issued, I processed five basic
certificates, thirteen upgrades and three rejected applications this past quarter.
I can email a list of your country credits for the asking. ARRL DXCC announced the
following: East Timor 4W will have its name changed to Timor Leste. All country credits
remain for 4W. Likewise, 10-10 recognizes Timor Leste and all credits for East Timor
become credits for Timor Leste.
Thanks to the on-line DX List, The Daily DX by W3UR #25731, QRZ-DX, Lee KH6BZF #8888
& Ohio/Penn DX Bulletins. Send photos/info to Mike Davidson, 3518 Bellefontaine,
Houston, TX 77025 USA
Email: N5MT@aol.com DX IS!
73 Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Copyright © 2003 by N5MT