TenX DX March 2012 by Mike N5MT DX Editor

[N5MT]

TenX DX News March 15, 2012
Mike Davidson N5MT, #24949

The search for DX during the past three months has been slow. The amount of solar flux available to move our ten meter signals across the country and ocean has been minimal during 2012. The Ten Meter contest in Dec 2011 produced the most activity in eight years with many new logs. But since the beginning of the year, the flux has not increased as expected and there have been weeks when the flux had gone back under the 110 mark.
During the winter months, the operators look forward to the best DX paths up to the northeast into Europe from the USA. Then the summer DX season returns and the DX paths change to the south for the USA.
Several have asked about the Deleted 1010 Countries. You can submit 1010 contacts back as far as January 1, 1975 so the number of deleted countries is fixed at eight. Canal Zone KZ5 before Sep 30, 1979, German Dem Rep Y2 before Oct 2, 1990, Czechoslovakia OK before Jan 1, 1993, Southern Sudan ST0 before Jan1, 1995, Penguin Island ZS0 before March 1, 1994, Walvis Bay ZS9 before March 1, 1994, Neth Antilles/Bonaire PJ2 before Oct 11, 2010 and St. Marteen/Saba PJ5 before Oct 11, 2010. The ARRL DXCC has put R1MV Island into DELETED status in February and the current count of DXCC countries is now 340. No 1010 member has ever reported any 1010 activity from MV Island.
Yugoslavia has broken up into six new countries: Serbia YU, Macedonia Z3, Montenegro 4O, Bosnia T9/E7, Slovenia S5 and Croatia 9A. Then seventeen new countries have evolved from around the world as follows: East Timor 4W, Conway 3D2/c, Rotuma 3D2/r, Palestine E4, St Bart FJ, Austral FO0/a, Marquesas FO0/m, Chesterfield FK/C, Temotu H4, Swains KH8, Slovakia OM, Ducie Isl VP6/d, Curacao PJ2, Sint Maarten PJ7, Bonaire PJ4, Saba PJ6/7 and the new Rep of South Sudan Z8 last year. Several of these new countries have never had a 1010 member operate from there!

Countries Award: There were ten upgrades and one basic award issued this past quarter as a lot of your are taking advantage of the new rule for NO QSL cards required for awards. IF you apply for any award, you must use a form from the 10-10 website OR submit the application from software like Win1010. Be sure to include an ID cover sheet. Please no repeat forms.
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General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:

3A Monaco. Claude 3A2LF #36994 likes to use only CW, PSK and RTTY. Due to the high mountains north of his country, his signal is very weak into the USA. Claude is the only 1010 member in this small country located on the Med where France and Italy border.

3DA0 Swaziland. John G3OLU/EA5ARC, #31825 and Phil G3SWH, were at the Hawane Resort in Swaziland from February 21-29th. David GI4FUM #21599 will be in Swaziland in late March. Website: www.3DA0SS.net .

4U1 ITU Geneva. The club station 4U1WRC is the same as 4U1ITU #11111 for DXCC purposes. They started January 23rd and ended February 17, 2012.

8P Barbados. Carl K9CS #40531 will be with friends on Barbados from February 14-22nd using call 8P9CS. Bob AA1M/8P9CK #17930 and Mike W1USN/8P9CI #51238, were in Barbados from February 23rd - March 8th.

9M2 W. Malaysia. Rich PA0RRS #24343, was using call sign 9M2MRS from January 1st to February 13th on CW, PSK and RTTY from Penang Island. LoTW.

A3 Tonga. Craig KI0SO/A35CT #39172, has moved back to the USA in December 2011. Holger ZL3IO #22401 was in Tonga as A31IO in late January.

A7 Qatar and A6 UAE. Don, N1DG #27629, was in Qatar on a business trip so he did very little radio activity in January as A71A.

C6 Bahamas. Bob N4BP/C6AKQ #3268 and Brian K7RE/C6ALK #15581 were on the Island from January to February 19th.

DP Antarctica. Felix DL5XL/DP1POL #55519 has departed Antarctica on February 27th.

ET Ethiopia. David K3LP #13394, Paul N6PSE #68859 and friends, were in Ethiopia from December 8-13th at the ET3AA University club station. Paul used ET3SID on HF. Web: www.k3lp.com/et3aa_december_2011.htm .

GW Wales. Steve GW4BLE #7058, used call sign GW7X in the ARRL 10M contest with friends. They recorded their QSOs and saved them on the Internet at
http://gw4ble.dxlist.co.uk/index.php?sr ... gedAs=GW7X .

HK0 Malpelo. A nice DXpedition to Malpelo Island with call sign HK0NA happened in January. Pedro HK3JJH #47437 and Gary K9SG #62951 were the 1010 members.

HR Honduras. Gérard F2JD #63443, has been using call sign HR5/F2JD from Copan. He will be there from February 2nd to May 6th. Web: http://lesnouvellesdx.fr/voirlogs.php .

KG4 Gitmo Bay. Bill KG4WV/W4WV #26180, was at the base from February 6-20th on SSB, PSK, RTTY, and CW. Gary KG4DL/WB4DNL #32075, was at there from February 6-14th . Stu KG4SS/K4MIL #66937, is now at the base until March 27th. LoTW.

J6 St Lucia. Steve WF2S #45134, was at J6 from December 4-14th. He operated CW, PSK, RTTY and SSB.

KH0 Mariana Islands. Joe NH0Z/JA1LZR #26947 and Hal W1MM were in the Mariana Islands for several days at the end of January. They were to leave on February 4th.

KH3 Johnson Island. Susan W7KFI #72973, had plans to sail to Johnston Island in late January. Problems with the boat have delayed her sailing to Johnson and any operating.

PJ4 Bonaire. Jean-Paul F8BJI #71704 and friends were on Bonaire from January 12-23rd, 2012.

PJ7 Sint Maarten. Paolo PJ7/IK2QPR #63455 was on Sint Maarten from January 8-16th. QSL via IK2QPR.

T32 Eastern Kiribati. Lee N8LJ #61088 and Stan AC8W #62885, were on Christmas Island in the Eastern Kiribati group from January 17th to February 2nd. Lee’s call sign is T32LJ and Stan’s is T32WW all modes and bands. Website at: www.T32Kiritimati2012.com .

TI Costa Rica. Kyle TI5/WA4PGM #50763, Roy TI5/WK4Y #60893, were active as TI5N during the SSB Contest on March 3-4th. David K3LP #13394 and Kamal TI5/N3KS #11541, were in Costa Rica in February.

V2 Antigua. Dan K6IF #27705, was using call sign V25R from Antigua from December 9-11th.

V3 Belize. Jeff K0UU #68974, was active as V31SG from St. George's Island from February 15-20th. LoTW.

YS El Salvador. Mario YS1MAE #9079, Rene DL2JRM #69623 and friends, used call sign HU2DX from January 29th to February 10th. They had several stations on from a sunny beach location. Web site: http://www.hu2dx.de.

ZK Niue. Uwe DJ9HX #22977 used call sign ZK2C from February 3-17th. Web: http://zk2c.hkmann.de/ .

ZL New Zealand. Carl AI6V #14974, used ZM2V in New Zealand in December 2011 on CW and some SSB.

Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:

A2 Botswana. Frosty K5LBU/A25CF #51322 and Joel N5JR/A25JR, will be in Botswana from March 18th to 28th. They hope to be in the CQWW WPX Contest with the A25HQ call sign. They will be using a Tennadyne T6 log periodic at 35 feet, a Cushcraft R7 vertical, and a Butternut HF2V.

6Y Jamaica. Allen N2KW #14114, is now in Jamaica March 5-23rd using call sign 6Y0A. He likes to operate mostly CW like 28010 at 1400 UTC.

CY0 Sable Island. Randy N0TG #12990, will try to be back on Sable Island in July 2012. Sable is 300 km southeast of Halifax, Canada and is renowned for its wild horses and shipwrecks. Randy has to fly to Sable and landing is only on the sand beach when the sea is calm.

KH7 Hawaii. John KL7JR #43374 and Claire WL7MY will again be active from Hawaii in late March to mid-April and using the call sign NH7DX.

J5 Guinea Bissau. A DXpedition will be on the air between March 24th and April 6th from Guinea Bissau. The team will operate as J52HF from Cumura by team leader Lucio I3LDP #45838, and friends. The Web site at: http://www.ari.verona.it/veronadxteam/en/index.htm .

P4 Aruba. John W2GD #14109, will be active from Aruba as P40W from March 20-27th, including the CQ WPX SSB Contest. QSL via N2MM.

PJ2 Curacao. Andreas PJ2/DK5ON #54260 will be on Curacao from March 12-30th, 2012.
John K4BAI #45389, Eric W4DXX #10290 and friends, are going to Bonaire for the CQ WPX SSB Contest. They arrive March 20th to 27th operating as PJ4/home calls. There will be activity on SSB, CW and RTTY.

T6 Afghanistan. Eric K9GY #22330, is active from Afghanistan until April 2013 with his T6MO call. Best time to listen for him, 7-900 UTC and 12-1330 UTC.

TG Guatemala. Bill W0OR #23875, has received his call sign TG8/W0OR for Guatemala. He has been operating since February 7th and will leave March 27th. His setup is wire antennas and a K3 radio mostly on CW but some RTTY and SSB. Look on 28020 at 2330 UTC.

TI Costa Rica. Terry N0TW #36547 and Bob N6OPR #45715 will use call sign TI5/K6MQ #71487 from Costa Rica. They will be there from August 1-8th, and plan to participate in the Summer QSO Party. QSL via N0TW.

TT Chad. Elvira IV3FSG #54292 is active as TT8ES from N'Djamena until March 18th. Activity started March 12th on the HF bands using SSB and digital modes.

VC Canada. Gregg VE3ZZ #38480, will operate as VC2G during the WPX SSB contest March 24-25th.

V5 Namibia. Dave GI4FUM #21599, might be in Namibia during March 2012 for ten days.

VP2M Montserrat. Budd W3FF/VP2MFF #40140, Guy N7UN/VP2MUN #65724, Paul KB9AVO/VP2MVO #51946 and Larry W7DGP/VP2MLR #4225, will be on the air from April 8-16th from Montserrat all using low power.

VP5 Turks & Caicos. Dave W5CW #6506, is going back to the Turks and Caicos Islands where he will use call sign VP5/W5CW from March 20th to April 11th. Special call VP52V will be used during the CQ WPX Phone contest.

Miscellaneous Items & Notes:

Propagation forecast: http://www.solen.info/solar/ .
DX Calendar: http://www.dxwatch.com/ .
More propagation: http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/ .

Propagation: Propagation in 2012 has not been as good as in Nov-Dec 2011. The solar flux has been flat the past three months. The record 180 solar flux in October 2011 has not been repeated in 2012. Expect the daily solar flux to range from 115-165 this next quarter as solar cycle 24 continues to improve. NASA predicts the peak of this cycle to be in the summer to winter time period of 2013.
On March 15th the solar flux was 119, the A index was 8 and K index 6. Look for the best conditions: March 12-15th, April 7-10th, May 4-7th, & June 1-5th. Over the next three months, for USA stations, expect a 40% chance of DX in the mornings to Europe or Africa and a 40% chance into Asia, South America or the Pacific in the late afternoon. To see what DX paths are open, listen for the beacons from 28.175-28.300 (especially 28.200).

New DX members’ January to February 2012:
Jan: none; Feb: 76359 ZL2WL, 76376 KP4CI;

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 © 2012 by N5MT