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TenX DX News Dec. 1, 2024
Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Welcome to the Winter DX season of the 10-10 News. Solar Cycle 25 is producing big sun spots giving us high solar flux levels. The highest flux this year was August 8th at 336 but last year on Feb 17th it was 343 which may be the record high for Cycle 25! These two big flux numbers may indicate a twin peak for Cycle 25. The high solar flux this year gave us some bad propagation during two QSO Parties. There are twenty-three DX reports below that you can check and see if you made it into your log and three future DX events for you to chase. Good luck hunting the DX. Happy Holidays.
The ARRL website hack on May 15th required professional help to fix damaged computer systems. Servers were hit and the DXCC awards function was broken. The LoTW login was back on-line by July 1st and all data were ok. However, the processing of DXCC awards began in late October. The info on their website said 3000 applications were waiting to be processed. I found an old list of DXCC applications from July 2023 to May 2024 by callsigns. I counted about 15,000 DXCC apps for this 11 month period. This info was available on their website in November.
The winter DX season is the best period for the USA to hear into Europe and the Pacific areas to get more DX into your logs. http://hamgallery.com/W1JR/The ARRL 10 Meter contest on December 14-15th is by far the most popular contest. So, turn on your HF radio and find a new country and some new 10-10 members that second weekend of December.
USA east coast stations have been talking with Europe this past Fall. The Digi and CW QSO Parties were a poor 10-10 event due to disrupted propagation and results are posted on the 10-10 Website. Congratulation to Walt WB7UOF #29034 for his first place score in the October CW QSO Party. Thanks to Dan KZ3T #41015 for scoring and sending out the certificates for the QSO Parties. Remember, this is the 62nd anniversary for 10-10, so try to find members with a 62 in their 10-10 number and log them.
The fall months have been above average for Ten meter skip. You should have a goal to find new members on Ten and log them. Each week I read DX email articles and look for 10-10 members going places. But the past months, I have seen fewer members going places, maybe because of the heat and flu. I have found only a few 10-10 members going to DX sites, so watch for them on the dates given and hunt for the new DX you may need. In the October 26-27th CQWW DX SSB contest, I talked with a few old 10-10 members on the air. https://cqww.com/rules.htmFinding new 10-10 members to log is harder for me here in Louisiana since my vertical antenna is not as good as the 4-element beam I had at my previous station in Texas.
Countries Awards and 10-10 History: I am still collecting history on the past 10-10 presidents. There were no Countries Award applications submitted this past quarter.
General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:
3D Rotuma Island. A DXpedition from November 15th to December 4th used callsign 3D2Z. Hal W8HC #12502 had to cancel his trip. They had 3 stations and 2 remote Ribs operated by young ham ops but no 10-10 by anyone.
4U United Nations NY. The UN station 4U1UN #55555, in New York city, was heard once in November on CW and once on SSB in September. The beacon is always on 28200 MHz and the UN is the closest DX country for US hams!
4U Geneva. The UN in Geneva Switzerland, 4U1ITU #11111 was using FT4 on 10 Meters in late November.
I Italy. Elvira IV3FSG #54292 was back home in September on Digi. She went DXing to TL the Central Africa Republic in late November, see below.
5A Libya. Abubaker 5A1A #69222 used his new call 5A1AL for Libya only on FT8 this past quarter. His new call is not a 10-10 member so ask him for his old call and number if you talk to him.
CY9 St.Paul Island. A DXpedition to St.Paul was from August 26th to September 5th used callsign CY9C. The 10-10 members were: Mike K9NW #29804, Dan W4DKS #5395, and Larry W0PR #31559. Web: www.CY9C.net .
ET Ethiopia. Ken K4ZW #18573 was last at the club station in May. The club call ET3AA is not a member. So you must find Ken K4ZW when he visits back at the club.
FW Wallis & Futuna Isl. Al K7AR #2736 and W7AYQ were DXing on the island from November 16-29th. They then went to Figi for two more days of DXing as 3D2NB and started operating on December 1st.
K USA. Andy AA5JF #46516 was on Dauphin Island in late August and September 1st but I found no 10 meter reports and all were mostly CW.
KH0 Mariana Isl. Tom KC0W #67688 has used his new call KH0W from the island where he has been for five years. Reports for him in Oct/Nov were on CW. He hopes to erect a better hexbeam on the island.
KH8 American Samoa. A DXpedition to Am. Samoa by three ops was from September 2-16th using call KH8T. Don N5DD #32255 was the only 10-10 member, they setup two stations operating on CW, SSB and FT8.
LA Norway. Several ops using call LN8W in the CQWW CW contest and Tom LA9GX #25949 was the only member.
J6 St. Lucia. A big group of ops were at J62K in the CQ WW SSB October 24-27th. The 10-10 members: Bill K9HZ #2618, Dan W0CN #27026, Kyle WA4PGM #50763, and Steve W0ZB #37921. LoTW.
OA Peru. Ed OA4SS #10802 was last on Ten in May when he was on CW, around 28030-28018 MHz.
TL Central Africa Republic. A DXpedition into Africa by Elvira IV3FSG #54292 started on November 26th for 14 days using call TL8ES. No 10-10 members live in this country, so consider this a rare 10-10 DX country! LoTW.
UN Kazakhstan. Uwe DL8UD #70315 was on from September 11th to 13th using call UN/DL8UD. He was reported on 28385-390 MHz. Another rare 10-10!
V3 Belize. Scott K5PS #52535 used call V31CO from November 23-30th and he was in the CQWW contest.
V5 Namibia. Mike V51MA #64688, continues to help the 10-10 daily net on Thursdays, when he has propagation from Africa on 28380 MHz at 1800 UTC, except Sunday’s. He is sometimes on CW 28025 MHz after 1900 UTC other days.
VP5 Turks & Caicos Is. Several ops using VP5M were in the CQWW CW contest. Two members were: Dennis K2SX #9023 and Vernon AC0W #71644 from November 23-24th.
VP6 Pitcairn Island. Miralda VP6MW #50434, was active this fall on FT4 28180 and some SSB around 28555.
XT Burkina Faso. A group of 14 ops were on from October 31st to November 10th as XT2MD. Two members were: Peter DL2LAM #54293 & James KB2FMH #77506. There were openings from Africa for several hours during their stay in Burkina Faso with lots of contacts. This was a rare 10-10 DX site on SSB.
Z6 Kosovo. Rene DL2JRM #69623 used callsigns Z68XX and Z66BCC in November, from eastern Kosovo. In the CQ WW DX CW Rene used call Z66BCC. Rene has more than 55+ countries to his DX credit so good luck on a new one. I have no idea how many times he may have used his 10-10 during his travels. He does not use LoTW. Good luck.
ZL7 Chatham Islands. Holger ZL3IO #22401, who lives in New Zealand, worked a lot at the ZL7DX Chatham contest station in October. Chatham Island is 550 miles east of New Zealand. He wanted to improve the existing antennas at the site, and the power needed for the amps and radios. He was able too op during the CQ SSB contest in late October. His goal is to be ready for all DX contests but his first priority was for the CQWW DX CW contest on November 23-24th. Holger’s daughter Xenia ZL4YL #77857, joined him for a week at the improved Chatham station. Xenia’s call was used during that CW contest. Holger had to improve the power at the station so they can run two stations during contests. The old battery system runs for 12 hours. I suspect his goal for the new station is to have a 50 percent increase in scores for all contests in the DX winter season. Note: Chatham had 10-10 activity in 1990 by Miki ZL0ADN/HA8XX/SK #39935. But you must consider this a rare 10-10 location as there is not a 10-10 member living on Chatham! when he was on CW, around 28030-28018 MHz.
TL Central Africa Republic. A DXpedition into Africa by Elvira IV3FSG #54292 started on November 26th for 14 days using call TL8ES. No 10-10 members live in this country, so consider this a rare 10-10 DX country! LoTW.
Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:
3D2 Figi. Al K7AR #2736 and Bob W7YAQ will DX from Figi on December 1-2nd, then come home. They just came from FW Wallis Island from a 15 day DX operation.
FJ St. Barthelemy. Phil K2LIO #7746 is now using call FJ4WEB but he has been off the island for a few months.
Last year he came back to the island in November for his Winter and Phil is the only 10-10 member on St. Bart.
N USA. The Battleship IOWA will be on the air from December 7-8th using a special call NEPM. They will be working split frequency out of the ham bands and not using their NI6BB #77115 callsign! No info if they will be on 10?
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 about 170-300 this Fall. The sun moved across the equator on September 22nd for the autumnal Equinox, and the Winter Solstice starts winter on December 21st for our shortest day of the year. Cycle 25 eleven-year cycle started five years ago on November 17, 2019 and sunspots are counted by looking at the Sun but the solar flux is measured at 2.8 GHz.
The monthly max solar flux was: Jan 196, Feb 208, Mar 209, April 227, May 233, June 203, July 242 and August 336, Sept 262, Oct 312 and Nov 260. Average 244.
The monthly min solar flux was: Jan 126, Feb 137, Mar 127, April 112, May 135, June 165, July 164 and August 204, Sept 154, Oct 162, and Nov 140. Average 148.
On December 1st, the solar flux was 204, the A index 11 and K index 1. There were many sunspots on the Sun over the past year to boost the solar flux higher. So far: Cycle 25 hit a high flux value of 343 on February 17, 2023.
The previous solar peaks were in 2014, 2001, 1989 & 1979. The USAF forecast for December 1st to Jan 14th has a range of 190-220 with average flux 210, which is down 47 points from the last quarterly forecast. The flux graph is showing no growth in the curve of the flux numbers the past three months, which may indicate a peak of cycle 25 has past.
My Prediction: Over the next four months, the best propagation on Ten could be: December 7-11th;
January 2025 2-5th, February 1-4th, & March 1-4th.
The ARRL Ten meter contest is on December 14-15th , just a few days after my projected high for December 2024.
For the USA, expect a 20-50% chance of DX to Europe, Asia, South America or Pacific areas. Use the beacons on 28.175-28.300 MHz to tell if the band is open. If the band is closed for SSB, try using FT8 on 28074 for a QSO.
There were only two new DX members who joined in Sept to November: Guyle VA6VA #78361 & Robert VA7RLS #78364 are the last two DX members that joined. David KC1TLF #78371 was the last USA member to join.
Thanks to the Daily DX by Bernie W3UR #25731 and the ARRL DX Bulletins. This 10-10 DX News edition is my number 132nd of DXing reports for the past 33 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
