TenX DX June 2009 by Mike N5MT

[N5MT]

TenX DX News June 9, 2009

Mike Davidson N5MT, #24949

The 2009 spring season was uneventful when it comes to working DX on ten meters. We have seen record low Solar Flux averages that have added extra low months to the bottom of cycle 23. We know that cycle 24 is starting because there are sun spots in the upper part of the sun just the opposite where cycle 23 spots formed. New cycle 24 sun spots have been few and far between, but recent activity in May could be an indication that cycle 24 is now starting. If the sun starts to produce more sun spots, the Solar Flux will start increasing, giving us better propagation which will allow us to work the DX.
NOAA and NASA scientists got together in May and prepared a new prediction for cycle 24. The resulting prediction is they expect the peak of cycle 24 to come in May 2013 with a decreased sun spot count. Remember, sun spots are disturbances or flares on the sun but Solar Flux is a reference number representing the ionization of the sun’s energy here on Earth.
This past May we have seen an increase in the number of days that we have had a band opening even though the number of sun spots remains almost zero. But there have been more days with spots than in the first five months of 2009 which is a positive sign for cycle 24!
The last contest in May was the CQ WPX CW event and my friend Ken G3XPO #70614 actually made twelve DX contacts from Europe to the USA. So there was unexpected multi-hop propagation for the first time in months on ten meters! On June 9th, Paul WN4AMO #73825 is hearing PSK coming out of Europe and there appears to be a sun spot no. 1020 on the sun surface today!
I predict better propagation as we get closer to our winter DX season here in the USA. Normally, the solar flux needs to be above 80-85 for the USA to hear Europe on a regular basis and this is possible if cycle 24 starts to take off. The beginning of the fall contest’s season is in October. Band conditions in October are a good benchmark to predict the winter DX season, so mark your calendar and hope for the best. The Ten Meter contest is the second weekend of December 12-13th .
Ken G3XPO #70614 had these comments: “10-10 members that I have worked in the past month include Mohamed 7X4AN #33610, Tony EA8AKN #38382, Tony T77C 25981, Nodir EY8MM #52767, Boris 9A2GA #71811, Hans EA6/DL1KBQ #70303, and Chris TL0A (ex-TZ9A and TT8DX) #45817, so there is often a good representation of 10-10 on the band here in Europe.”

Countries Award: The number of basic certificates issued remains at 622. I had no Basic certificates and no upgrades this past quarter. Please, copy your QSL cards instead of sending the originals to save postage and read the website before you send an application. Email any questions to me at N5MT@aol.com.
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General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:

A6 United Arab Emirates. A new prefix A65 is now available for foreign residents in the U.A.E. Fred G4BWP #28684 has been issued to A65BD and QSL via G5LP. There are about six new A65 prefixes issued but only one is a 10-10 member, Fred G4BWP/A65BD.
BV China. Rene DL2JRM #69623, was active from Kinmen Island using call BW9/DL2JRM until May 3rd. He operates CW only.
C6 Bahamas Islands. Fred K9VV #8707, and three friends used call sign C6AKU during the WPX CW contest at the end of May. QSL via K5WW or LoTW.
C6 Bahamas. Craig W5TSN #45694 and friends, were active as C6AWC from Nassau Bahamas from June 1-14th. During a contest they used C6AMS from three stations. Web site at: http://www.c6ams.com/ .
C9 Mozambique. Members of the Texas DX Society traveled to C9 from March 25th to April 5th using call sign C91TX. Operators: Paul W5PF #5921, Jim N4AL #21840, Bill K5WAF #73432, Cal WF5W, Madison W5MJ, and Dale KG5U.
EY Tajikistan. Nodir EY8MM #52767, Alex EY8CQ #39387 and friends were using call sign EY1WFF from a nature reserve from May 17-24th.
HH Haiti. Jan HH4/K4QD #13423 was active in Haiti between March 24th and April 4th. Jan was expected to be on CW, SSB and RTTY.
KG4 Guantanamo Bay. Dan W0CN #27026 was active as KG4CN from Guantanamo Bay from April 10- 20th. Dan operated SSB and some CW. LoTW is OK.
KP2 US Virgin Islands. Ann KP2YL #70464 and Brian KP2HC, may have gone back on St Croix from March 28th to April 7th.
KP2 US Virgin Islands. Ron W3WN #37499, Carl K9CS #40531 and others ops, were on the air from May 28th to June 2nd using call/KP2. During the CQ WPX CW Contest the group used NP2SH.
OA Peru. Rene DL2JRM #69623 and Daniel DL5YWM, went back to Peru in April. Rene used call OA4/DL2JRM mostly on CW. He hoped to take a side trip to Coast Rica and be part of the TI7 DXpedition.
PY0F Fernando de Noronha Island. Bill W9VA #2706 and Jim K9PPY, were active as PS0F March 3rd -10th using the station of Andre PY0FF.
V2 Antigua. Bob W4OWY #21678 (V25WY), and Mark W9OP #12879 (V25OP), were active from March 10th to 19th. Using LoTW.
YN Nicaragua. Eric K9GY #22330, was active as YN2GY until June 1st. Activity was on CW and SSB.

Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:

3D Swaziland. Doc WB6OJB #70675, will be in Swaziland from September 3-8th . Call sign will be 3DA0JK. He always tries 10 Meters first but propagation has been bad. Last year he made 3 QSO's on 10 Meters. He will operate on 10 to 40 all on SSB. Last year he made 1600 QSO's in four days. Good luck Doc.
C6 Bahamas. C6APR will be in the IOTA contest in July from Crooked Island, Bahamas. The team is Ed K3IXD #8566, Dallas W3PP #37430, James K4QO #74374 and Peter W2GJ. C6APR will be on the WARC bands. The team will sign C6AXD on RTTY.
CY0 Sable Island. Starting October 19- 26th a group of ops will activate this island off the east coast of Canada. Randy N0TG #12990, Ron AA4VK #12423 and Murray WA4DAN will hand out contacts. Web page at: http://www.cy0dxpedition.com .
FP St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands. Tom W8TOM #74496 and EricKV1J #31247, are planning to return to St.
Pierre and Miquelon in October. They will be active from Miquelon Island as FP/W8TOM from October 20th to 27th and they will have an amplifier to help the signal. They plan to use SSB, CW, RTTY and PSK. Web page at http://www.kv1j.com/fp/october09.html . Using LoTW.
HK0 San Andres Island. Dennis K7BV #5414 will be back at the same place he was last year in June where he will focus on 6 meters. Dennis will be there from June 18-29th with call 5J0BV on HF. He will put up a beacon on 50106.2 KHz running into an 8-element yagi. Dennis will be on HF with wire antennas in palm trees. The 5J0BV Web page is at: http://www.qth.com/k7bv/caribe2009 .
LZ Bulgaria. Gosho LZ1ZF #38328, will participate with a special call sign LZ09BR and others during 2009. Website: http://www.mustafakemalpasatrac.org/ .
OH0 Aland Islands. Marq CT1BWW #64689, will be active as OH0/CT1BWW from Aland Island from July 26th to August 6th. He will operate SSB, CW and RTTY. A trip to Market Reef might take place on August 1st. Website is: http://www.geocities.com/oh0ct1bww .
PZ Suriname. Mike AJ9C #41205, will be active from between October 22-29th. Call sign unknown at present. Mike is expected to be active on SSB, CW and RTTY.
V3 Belize. Terry W6WTG #49407 and Sharon N2OWL, will try to be on from Caye Caulker from July 22-29th. Call sign will be V31UR. Logs uploaded to LoTW. Website: http://www.w6wtg.com .
VE/VY2 Canada. Gregg VE3ZZ #38480 and friend Noel VE2BR will use call sign VY2TT from Prince Edward Island from July 15-27th. Gregg will sign VE3ZZ/VY2 when he is not in a contest.
VP2M Montserrat Island. John KB4CRT #41841, will be active as VP2MRT from Montserrat on June 11-21st. He should be on SSB, CW and PSK.

Miscellaneous Items & Notes:

9M2 Western Malaysia. Richard PA0RRS #24343, has decided to move to Western Malaysia. On May 1st his new home is Penang Island where he will sign 9M2MRS mostly CW. QSLs to Richard Smeets, Reef Apartment Building, 54-7-12 Jalan Low Yat, 11100 Batu Ferringhi,
Penang Island, Malaysia or via the 9M2 bureau.
CT Portugal. Starting June 1st, new call signs will no longer be issued to CT or CU prefixes. They will use CR/CS/CT7 CR/CS/CT8 and CR/CS/CT9. New hams will have CQ0/CS5, CQ2/CS3, CQ1/CS4. Club stations and contest calls can get CQ0,1,2/CS5,4,3. Website: http://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentI .
E5 South Cook Islands. Nigel G4KIU #36106, has moved to Rarotonga and has a new call E51SC. Nigel will operate SSB, RTTY, PSK31 and some CW. QSL direct to Nigel Peacock, PO Box 880, Rarotonga, Cook Islands via New Zealand. He uses LoTW weekly.
QSL ROUTES. Patrice F6GCP #36197, has info back to 1987 at his Website: http://f6gcp.free.fr/qslinfos.htm.
Here's a simple daily report of sunspots and propagation
forecast: http://www.solen.info/solar/.
DXTELNET Fabrizio, IK4VYX has announced that a new version of DXTelnet32 is ready for downloading at: http://golist.net/dldxt.cfm .
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/ .
Perhaps the most useful propagation page for Radio Operators can be found at http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/

Propagation: Propagation continues to be poor as the Cycle 24 strains to begin in 2009. The lowest solar flux reading was in August 2008 and we have seen many weeks of no sun spots as this trend continues into 2009.
Expect the daily solar flux to range from 71-79 the next quarter and the monthly flux will stay below 80 until solar Cycle 24 is made official by NOAA. On June 8th the solar flux was 69 the A index 4 and K index 1.
X-ray emissions from the sun have not improved and the flux remains flat with a small chance of a storm or flare.
Expect the best conditions on June 12-15th, July 9- 12th, August 5-8th and September 1-4th. Over the next four months, for USA stations, expect a 20% chance of DX in the mornings to Asia, Europe or Africa and a 20% 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’ March 2009 to May: March: 75364 DL4BO; April: 75378 DJ2ANG, 75379 DL1ALK, 75380 DG3YBS; May: 75388 DL9OC; 75395 PB5WIM.

Thanks to the QRZ-DX, DXNL, The Daily DX by W3UR #25731, Lee KH6BZF #8888 & Ohio/Penn DX Bulletins. Info to Mike Davidson, 3518 Bellefontaine, Houston, TX 77025 USA Email: N5MT@aol.com

DX IS! 73 Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Copyright © 2009 by N5MT