TenX DX Sept 2008 by Mike N5MT

[N5MT]

TenX DX News September 11, 2008

Mike Davidson N5MT, #24949

The summer DX season has been a disappointment for all of us this year. During the month of August 2008, the sun went through its quietest period of no sunspots the entire month. It’s been one hundred years – nine cycles – since the sun has missed 50+ days without any sun spots. The Cycle 23 solar graph has produced a new pattern that is showing up as a very small double bottom. If you look at the graph of Cycle 23, you will see a double peak a few years ago. So it’s appropriate that Cycle 23 is now producing a double bottom in 2008! But everyone reading this keeps asking for the sun to start making spots so we can start talking DX with Cycle 24.

I wanted to make a few comments about my friend Steve N0WY #68684 who died in late July. We met for the first time in Oakridge, TN at the 10-10 convention in June 1999. We had a few things in common, plus Steve was the new Editor for the 10-10 News and my new boss. When it came to deadlines, he was always understanding. For example, the ARRL Ten Meter Contest is always very close to our December deadline date for articles. I always put the latest DX news about this contest in my article. So there were years that Steve would wait for my article to get finished after the deadline date. But he worked with it and the 10-10 News came out on schedule. So he gets my gold star award for being the best 10-10 Editor I have worked with over the past twenty years. Steve also did a great job in organizing the QSO Party scoring and scoring the results. Steve loved to work the DX as he had submitted for his 55 Countries award in late 2002. I am sure he had a few more countries that never got submitted. Steve will be missed and I will remember the smile he always had for us. Thanks OM. Great job. 73.

Countries Award: The total number of basic certificates issued is 621. I had one basic certificate and six upgrades this past quarter. Please, copy your QSL cards instead of sending the originals to save postage and use the website before you send an application or email any questions to me.

I want to say congratulations to Charlie W5NMX #45835 who just submitted for his 10-10 Countries Award and four upgrades all in one mailing. Anyone submitting for this award can always send in more than the basic 25 QSL cards and get credit. It may take a few extra days to get all the details into the 10-10 country award database but it reduces the postage cost and the amount of work is slightly reduced. Charlie submitted the original QSL cards but it is safer to copy the cards to remove the risk of them being lost as they transit the mail system.

Charlie had some nice contacts in the sixty-five QSL cards that he submitted and I did enjoyed looking through all the DX cards. 10-10 follows the same rules that are used by the ARRL DXCC program except we require the swapping of the 10-10 information, etc. ______________________________________________

General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:

3DA Swaziland. Doc WB6OJB #70675, was in Swaziland from September 3-8th using callsign 3DA0JK. Doc was heard on 20 and 40 SSB, worked on 17 by N1API #25468 but nothing yet on 10.
3W Vietnam. Stan 3W9JR/OK1JR #20103, has left Hanoi and he is now back home. QSL via OK1JN.
C9 Mozambique. Frosty K5LBU/C91CF and Bob K0OK/C91BN #11984, were with a group of operators from July 16-30th. They used two stations, one for CW
and one for SSB. Web site: http://www.tdxs.net/C9.html.
F France. Moudar F5CWU #71812, was active in the IOTA Contest as TM7C from Noirmoutier Island.
GI Ireland. Declan EI9HQ #71019 and four friends, were on Rathlin Island during the IOTA Contest. They operated as GI0MPG.
HS Thailand. Karl K4YT #37347, went back to Bangkok, Thailand on July 9th. Karl used HS0ZDY during the IARU HF World Championship July 12-13th.
OZ Denmark. Rene DL2JRM #69623 and a friend Netti DO6XX were active from July 26th to August 9th.
PJ2 Netherlands Antilles. Goose W8AV #25365 was on Curacao for a few days until September 10th. He had trouble with his equipment and did not operate much.
V3 Belize and HK0 San Andres . Dennis K7BV #5414, was on Belize as V36M from June 20-26th and San Andres as 5J0M from June 29th to July 8th. Dennis said that band conditions were the poorest seen in years.
VY0 Canada. Bruce KD6WW/VY0 #13040 and Mike K9AJ, operated from Hearn Island from July 25-28th.
VK9X Christmas Island. From July 14-25th, a group of operators including Marq VK9XWW/CT1BWW #64689, were on the island but did not operate on ten meters due to poor propagation conditions.
VP5 Turks & Caicos Islands. Joe W8GEX #41393, was active as VP5/W8GEX until June 28th.
VP9 Bermuda. Ralph K9ZO/VP9 #6142, was using Ed’s VP9GE #3822 QTH, from July 9-16th.
W USA. A group of ops using call N5I were active from Grand Isle, Louisiana from July 25-27th. Bob N5ET #20396, Buzz N5UR #9466 Max K5PP #11849 and Mike W5ZPA #17249 made about 2000 contacts.
W USA. Randy WS4C #12498 and a friend, were active with their own call sign from Middle Hooper Island, Maryland from June 26-29th

ZD8 Ascension Island. Bob VP8LP #8854 used call ZD8LP starting August 14th and expects to leave about September 14th.
ZF Cayman Islands. Mario K2ZD #7826 was active as ZF2ZD, until July 6th. QSL to home call.

Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:

3DA Swaziland. David GI4FUM (EI4DJ) #21599, will be operating from Swaziland as 3DA0DJ on October 17-27th. He will be joined by Daniel, ZS6JR to operate as 3DA0JOTA for the annual Jamboree On The Air on October 18-19th.
C6 Bahamas Islands. Ed K3IXD #8566, Dallas W3PP #37430 and a friend operated all bands as C6APR from July 25-28th on Crooked Island. C6APR will be on in the CQWW SSB contest from October 23-27th and call C6AXD will be used outside the contest and on RTTY.
CT Portugal. Marq CT1BWW #64689, will use call CQ4IPY from November 1-7th for the International Polar Year. Web site: http://cq4ipy.bravehost.com.
E5 South Cook Islands. Bill N7OU #69318, will be operating on CW only from Rarotonga, South Cook as E51NOU from September 15th to October 11th. He will be low power and can only operate during his spare time.
FJ St. Barthelemy. Look for Joe W8GEX #41393 and Jim K0RH #69471 to be with a team of ops going to St. Barthelemy from October 16-28th. They will be in the CQ World Wide SSB DX Contest. The team now has a Web site: http://to5dx.homestead.com/index.html.
FR/G Glorioso Island. The DXpedition scheduled for 2008 has been delayed due to work on the weather station on the island. The present team is Chris 5U5U #45817 ex. 6W1QV, Flo F5CWU #71812, and six others. The Glorioso 2008 web site is: http://glorieuses2008.free.fr.
G England. Berkin TA3J #74303 and Nilay TA3YJ #74304, will be on the air from September 10-17th in London, England as M/homecalls. QSL via Nilay TA3YJ.
J6 St. Lucia. Fred K9VV #8707, will be on St. Lucia for the CQWW CW November 29-30th. QSL via K5WW.
SV Greece. Paul DH9VA #61508, and six Greek friends were to be active from Lemnos Island from September 6-13th. Website at: http://www.svdxgroup.com.
T8 Palau. Sadayuki JH1UUT #32970 will be active as T88DB in the All Asian DX contest on SSB.
V4 St. Kitts. Dave AH6HY #33750, will be on St. Kitts as V4/AH6HY from September 26th to October 3rd. He'll be on SSB only. QSL either direct or via the bureau.
VP5 Turks & Caicos Islands. John N2VW #31476 and friends will use VP5T during the CQWW DX SSB contest from October 25-26th. Other times VP5/homecall.
YN/H7 Nicaragua. Eric K9GY #22330, will be back in Nicaragua in November for the CQWW CW DX Contest. Eric will be using low power and hopefully with a H7 callsign from November 22nd for ten days.

Miscellaneous Items & Notes:

Large QSL site. A collection of 6000 QSL cards are located at the Les Nouvelles DX's web site. The site has cards from the Ten Most Wanted DXCC Entities, the 58 Deleted DXCC entities, obsolete prefixes, stations from Magrebh from 1947 to 1962, Antarctic bases & TAAF, the various French DXCC island Entities in the Pacific Ocean & the Indian Ocean, pre-1945 countries, French Depts and USA, plus a gallery for cards not accepted by DXCC. Web site at: http://LesNouvellesdx.fr.
QSL ROUTES. Patrice #36197, has info going back to 1987 at his Web site: http://f6gcp.free.fr/qslinfos.htm.
Here's a simple daily report of sunspots & a propagation
forecast: http://www.dxlc.com/solar/.
You can see the solar progress and graphs at the NOAA website: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/.
Solar Forecast: http://www.sel.noaa.gov/forecast.html. Information on IRCs/US$ needed for postage to the USA is at: http://www.qsl.net/w9ol/ircchart.txt.
QSL help: http://files.billnjudy.com/.
DX Calendar: An interactive DX Calendar based on 425 DX News is available at http://www.dxwatch.com/.

Propagation: Propagation continues to be poor this past quarter in the US with few Sporadic E openings observed here in Texas. The last good opening was during the Ten Meter Contest in December 2007.
Expect the daily solar flux to range from 66-89 the next quarter and the monthly flux will stay below 94 until Solar Cycle 24 isfirmly established by NOAA. The flux remains in its lowest range with 52 days of NO sunspots as of September 10th. On September 10th the solar flux was 67 the A index 6 and K index 1 which is about the same as three months ago. X-ray emissions from the sun have not improved and the flux remains at a minimum with a small chance of a storm or flare from the sun.
Expect the best conditions on Sept. 4-7th, Oct. 1-4th, Nov. 1- 4th & 28- 30th, and December 27-30th. Over the next four months, for USA stations, expect a 15% chance of DX in the mornings to Asia, Europe or Africa and a 25% chance into South America or the Pacific in the afternoon. To tell what DX paths are open, use the beacons from 28.175-28.300 (especially 28.200).

New DX members’ June to August 2008: June: 74988 DL6CL, 75015 IZ2AMS, 75019 VE3KKP; July: 75045 VE3VCF; August: 75180 VA3NU, 75242 VE3TU, 75246 VA1SEA, 75250 VE3OX, 75252 VE3CXB, 75270 DG2FFI.

Thanks to the DXNL, 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 © 2008 by N5MT