TenX DX News March 1, 2024
Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Welcome to the Spring season of the DX News. The Sun is still producing Sun spots that keep the Solar flux high and maybe a maximum high for Cycle 25 may occur in 2024 or 2025! DX Propagation into Europe and Asia this past quarter has been better which may have given us a record Winter QSO Party event the first weekend of February. I counted 100+ logs received by Dan KZ3T #41015 who has posted the results on the 10-10 website where I came in 9th place.
I write about DX’ers that have helped us over the years to put 10-10 into our logs. Here is a recent member who is now SK. He was an outstanding DX op, a first class DX organizer and a big help to our hobby for 65 years as a ham:
He was Bob Allphin K4UEE #75256.
Bob and his DXpedition members have given out several new 10-10 countries. He has organized rare DXpeditions that have gone to the most wanted places on our planet.
Bob passed on February 10, 2024 at the age of 79.
Bob grew up in a military family with his father going to foreign assignments and he got his ham license at the age of 14. Teenagers have a way of being good CW ops and that was his preferred mode. He retired early in life and his passion for DXpedition became his new hobby. He has visited 131 DXCC entities and operated from 85, plus a few world records and WRTC events to his credit. RIP Bob.
http://hamgallery.com/W1JR/The big ARRL 10 Meter contest last December had a good showing with several big contest stations making over 3000 contacts! My station only had a few hundred with my vertical but I did log several 10-10 friends that weekend.
Update on the replacement of the Win1010 program.
Jeff N7YG #65084, started re-writing the program several months ago and there are a few Beta testers helping. I was a Beta tester for Jim K4HAV/SK. So I am helping with Beta testing on the replacement program. My 10-10 log contains 44 years of history so I am using that data to help debug the new program. My log has over 17000 members, a lot of DX countries, OM/XYL teams, VP numbers, counties and prefixes. I still have a few awards that I did not apply for in the old program so I am hoping to make progress with a few new awards. I expect testing will take several more weeks to get the final version ready for release in 2024.
OK its time now to talk DX, the winter months have been better for Ten meter skip and I have listed two rare 10-10 sites below. The CQWW SSB contest had a good start to the fall DX season with over 100 countries worked on Ten by friends in Texas. When you work a DXCC in the Ten Meter contest in 48 hours, you have good antennas and skip was open for you to log over one hundred countries!
Many USA east coast stations have been talking into Europe for several hours each day this past Winter. The
Winter QSO Party results are posted in this issue and the 10-10 Website. The ARRL Ten Meter contest gave me over 200 contacts with a dozen new 10-10 members in my log!
I hope some of you worked a new 10-10 country in Africa this past winter as Mike V51MA #64688 has been active many times this past winter on the 10-10 Daily net.
One of our members Joe W1JR #17912 has been writing a general summary of yearly DX activity for the past 21 years. His DX reports at: http://hamgallery.com/W1JR/ .
This year is the 62nd anniversary for 10-10, so try to find a members with a 62 in their 10-10 number and log them. Last year 2023, I found 11 members with the anniversary date.
Countries Award: There were no Countries Award applications submitted this past quarter. So I worked on my 10-10 log data and found more OM/XYL teams for another award for 275 Teams #1. Thanks Marcus KM5EH.
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General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:
4L Georgia. Alex K6VHF #77458 was in Georgia in February as 4L/K6VHG for a week. Alex was there in November 2022 for a longer stay and operated on Ten.
4U United Nations. The UN station 4U1UN #55555, in the New York, was heard in Dec/Jan/Feb on CW and in Oct/Nov 2023 on SSB. The beacon is on 28200 MHZ.
5A Libya. Abubaker 5A1A #69222 is using a new call 5A1AL in Libya, this callsign is not a 10-10 member and does not use LoTW! He was on CW in February.
6Y Jamaica. Rob VE4GV #8852 was using VE4GV/6Y from February 10-24th.
A3 Tonga. Al K7AR #2736 was on Tonga for a CW contest with a friend. He used call A31DL until Feb 27th.
CE0Z Juan Fernandez Isl. A DXpedition to the island was from February 10-23rd using CB0ZA by seven ops. Members: Ramon NP4G #36218 and Hal W8HC #12502. JuanF Island is a rare 10-10 DX location!
DU Philippines. Tim N4GN has a new DX call 4G1G and he may build a new station in DU later this year.
ET Ethiopia. Ken K4ZW #18573 was back at the club station ET3AA no 10-10, helping club members operate in December. Ken and two friends operated from January 11- 20th. Ken likes CW so good luck for a new one.
FJ St. Barthelemy. Phil K2LIO #7746 now lives on St. Bart using call FJ4WEB. He returns to New York for visits when he is not on St. Barthelemy. Good luck.
H40 Temotu. A DX group of 8 ops were on Temotu from February 22 to March 7, 2024 using call H40WA. The only member was Paul N6PSE #68859.
https://Swains2023.com..K US. The Battleship Iowa NI6BB #77115 was on in February when I worked the ship berthed in San Pedro CA.
OA Peru. Ed OA4SS #10802 was back on Ten on CW with his rig an dipole on 28017 Mhz in February.
P4 Aruba. John W2GD #14109 was back in Aruba for another visit operating as P44W in February.
PJ7 St. Maarten. Ed N2HX #25435 was on for the ARRL Ten meter contest using call PJ7PL. He was on St. Kitts with a new DX call V49R last October.
Gary KC9EE #16977 started operating on February 21st and will leave on March 6th. Gary likes CW & SSB contest.
TF Iceland. Chuck KC4KQE #64759 was in Iceland from February 17-26th on SSB and FT8. Call TF/KC4KQE.
TX Clipperton Island. A big DXpedition to Clipperton in January used call TX5S. Members: Gene K5GW #15119, Paul N6PSE #68859 and Nodir EY8MM #52767.
V2 Antigua. Chuck KG9N #17038 used call V26CV from Antigua mostly CW mode until February 20th..
V3 Belize. Uwe DL8UD #70315, was expected to be active until March 6th as V31KO and V3O in contest.
V4 St. Kitts & Nevis. Jeff K1ZN #60508 used call V44/K1ZN from February 25 to March 4th.
V5 Namibia. Mike V51MA #64688, we have talked several times this year on SSB and he is the only DX net control operator that helps the 10-10 daily net on 28380 MHZ at 1800 UTC except Sundays when there is no net.
VP2M Montserrat. Thaire W2APF #50022 was on Montserrat from January 11th to April 11th as VP2MDX.
VP6 Pitcairn Island. Miralda VP6MW #50434, is back on the air after fixing a problem at her station. She likes FT4 on 28180 or SSB 28555 Mhz recently.
VP9 Bermuda. Darrell AB2E #9753 was mostly on CW and FT8 as AB2E/VP9 and VP9I for contest in February.
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Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:
7P Lesotho. A big group of DX ops are going to Lesotho Africa from March 20-29th. The only 10-10 members are Thos EI2JD #73610 and Declan EI9HQ #71019 using callsign 7P8EI. They hope to setup eight stations for CW, SSB & Digi. Don’t miss this rare 10-10 location!
CE0Y Easter Isl. Jorge CE0YHF #39382, maybe on Easter Island while helping at a hospital.
CY9C St.Paul Isl. A DXpedition for August 26th to Sept 25th may take place by ops that were on Sable Isl recently. More info will be coming soon. Good luck for a new one.
FO Austral Isl. Haru JA1XGI #55571 will be using call TX5G from March 25 to April 3, 2024 on Austral Island.
PJ2 Curacao. Andreas DK5ON #54260 will be on the island from March 11-27th as PJ2/DK5ON on all bands CW, SSB and Digi. LoTW.
VP9 Bermuda. Les N1SV #71546 will be on Bermuda for the ARRL DX SSB contest the first weekend of March using call VP9I and VP9/N1SV outside the contest.
YJ Vanuatu. A group of four ops will activate YJ0VK from March 29th to April 11. The only 10-10 member is Matt K0BBC #76064. The DX ops are from Australia.
ZF Cayman Isl. Scott K7ZO #55678 and two friends, will use call ZF1A during the DX SSB contest March 2-3rd.
Miscellaneous Items & Notes:
TenTen Website: http://www.Ten-Ten.org .
Propagation forecast: http://www.solen.info/solar/ ,
www.SolarHam.net and http://ARRL.org/Propagation .
More propagation: http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/ .
DX Calendar: http://www.dxwatch.com/ .
DX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4dJcK-WVRw.Https://Secure.Clublog.org/mostwanted.phphttp://ebarc.org/pdf/dx-entity-history.pdf
Ham Lookup various ways:
https://Haminfo.tetranz.com/map .
Ham LoTW users: http://www.hb9bza.net/lotw-users-list .
NEW: WM7D Solar Values: https://www.wm7d.net/hamradio/solar/ .
FT8 Fox/Hound Video: https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=GcbtTKSRkus .
Propagation: I expect the solar flux to range from 132-212 this Spring. The spring equinox is March 21st it’s the day of the year that has the equal day/night times in both hemispheres. The Sun is over the equator giving an equal amounts of sunshine to both hemispheres. Remember,
Cycle 25 started on November 17, 2019 almost five years ago but six more to go! This quarter saw a lot of sunspots visible with M and X class flares that increased the solar flux. Sunspots are found by looking at the Sun and the flux is measured at 2.8 GHz.
The 2023 monthly max solar flux: Jan 234, Feb 215, Mar 188, April 176, May 180, June 180, July 179, Aug 176, Sept 176, Oct 166, Nov 194 and Dec 195. Average 188.
The 2023 monthly min solar flux: Jan 136, Feb 134, Mar 129, April 125, May 134, June 144, July 154, Aug 139, Sept 131, Oct 119, Nov 118 and Dec 126. Average 132.
On March 1st, the solar flux was 164, the A index was 4 and K index was 2. There have been more sunspots on the Sun over the past three years with increased solar flux up 25-60 points. This cycle 25 hit a high value of 208 on February 12th. The average flux for the past 6 months was 154.8. The previous solar peaks were in 2014, 2001, 1989 and 1979. The USAF forecast for March 1st to April 14th has a range of 155-180 with avg flux 169, which is up 19 points from the Dec 2023 quarter forecast.
My Prediction: Over the next four months, the best conditions on Ten could be: March 29-April 5th; April 29-31st, May 23-26th & June 19-23rd. For the USA, expect a 50% chance of DX to Europe, Asia, S. America or Pacific. Use the beacons 28.175-28.300 MHZ to find if the band is open and if it’s closed for SSB, use FT8 on 28074 for a Q.
New DX member that in December to February 2024: Lawrence VA7LTX #78237, Henry VE3GRX #78251, Jim M0HDX #78263 & Denise VE7QYR #78294 was the last calls issued. Rick KG5CYA #78305 was the last member in February and about 125 members joined this past quarter.
Thanks to the Daily DX by Bernie W3UR #25731 and the ARRL DX Bulletins. This 10-10 DX News edition is my number 130th of DXing reports for the past 32 years.
DX news to: Mike Davidson, 26274 Whispering Pines Ave, Denham Springs LA 70726 USA Email: N5MT@aol.com.
DX IS! 73 Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Copyright © 2024 by N5MT
