TenX DX News Sept. 1, 2024
Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Welcome to the Fall season of the DX News. Solar Cycle 25 is still producing big sun spots that make high solar flux. In August, I saw a big solar flux that may be a record high for Cycle 25! The Sun displayed a lot of sun spots this past quarter which gave us bad propagation during the Summer QSO Party. But Field Day 2024 had better propagation.
As discussed in my last article, the ARRL website was hacked on May 15th and required help by the FBI to investigate. Additional help by computer systems experts, were needed to bring servers back to normal function. The LoTW login was back on-line by July 1st and all data was ok. However, the processing of DXCC awards from LoTW has not started as one server in still unavailable. WAS and VUCC apps are being processed normally and processing ham license applications are filed ok with the FCC. This info is available on their website as of August 22, 2024.
I just read about a 10-10 member who is the ARRL Director of Emergency Management, Josh KE5MHV #75974. He wants your station and family to be ready for stuff that might affect you. You need to be ready for bad WX weather, thunderstorms, flooding or a hurricane. This September, ARRL will provide help to prepare you for an emergency. So get ready and stay tuned with your home/mobile station.
The Fall season is usually a good DX period when you can hear 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 the most popular contest all year. So, I hope you can find a new country and maybe some new 10-10 contacts this Fall.
Replacing the Win1010 program. Jeff N7YG #65084, continues to make progress with the new software. Testing all the old features is still a work in progress. The new program was tested during the Summer QSO party.
USA east coast stations have been talking with Europe this past Summer. The Summer QSO Party in August was a poor 10-10 event due to big sun spots that disrupted propagation and results are on the Website. Congratulation to Henry DL8YBM #36109 for his first place score in the Summer QSO Party. Thanks to Dan KZ3T #41015 for scoring and the certificates from the QSO Party. Remember, this is year 2024 and it is the 62nd anniversary for 10-10, so try to find members with a 62 in their 10-10 number and log them.
OK now for more DX, the hot summer months have not been good for Ten meter skip. You should have a standard 10-10 goal to find new members on Ten and log them. Each week I read several DX email articles and look for 10-10 members going places. But this past quarter, I have seen fewer members going places, maybe because of the summer heat and Covid. I have found only a few upcoming 10-10 DX locations, so
watch for them on the dates given and hunt for the new DX you may need. Note: October 26-27th is the CQ WW DX SSB contest. Web: https://cqww.com/rules .
Some 10-10 History: The November 1964 10-10 Bulletin News gave a membership of 90! Is there anyone in 10-10 that remembers all the names of our past 10-10 Presidents? In the first 18 years of the new organization the President held a term of one year, from 1962 to 1980. I was not able to find all their names, calls and tenure. Morrie W6EHM #4189, William WA6LVA #1279, George W6ENC #1774, Bob W6WPY #14949, and Howard W6QIR #4509 are SK. I am working on an article that will list the past Presidents.
Countries Award: There were no Countries Award applications submitted this past quarter.
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General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:
4U United Nations NY. The UN station 4U1UN #55555, in New York city, was heard this summer on CW, FT8, and no SSB. The beacon is always on 28200 MHZ. Remember the UN country is the closest DX country for US hams!
5U Niger. Elvira IV3FSG #54292 was in Niger as 5U5K from June 8-23rd. Web: https://www.qrz.com/db/5U5K . Her total 10 Meter Q’s were 6500 or 18% of 36316 total Q’s.
5A Libya. Abubaker 5A1A #69222 used his new call 5A1AL for Libya in July on FT8. This new call is not a 10-10 member so ask him for his old number if you talk to him.
CY9 St.Paul Island. A DXpedition to St.Paul began on August 26th to September 5th using callsign CY9C. The 10-10 members are: Mike K9NW #29804, Dan W4DKS #5395, and Larry W0PR #31559. As of September 1st, they have 74,133 contacts in the log. The northeast island station site, required two helicopters and a boat to get 7500 lbs of gear to the big rock since the old south site is no longer available for Dxpeditions. Poor propagation on Ten has hurt some logging but good WX has helped. Web: www.CY9C.net .
ET Ethiopia. Ken K4ZW #18573 was last at the club station ET3AA in May. The club call does not have a 10-10, so you must find Ken who likes CW, when back at the club.
K USA. Andy AA5JF #46516 was on Dauphin Island in late August and September 1st and maybe a trip to Ship Island. Mostly CW and some SSB. Howard K1VSJ #35318 was on Nantucket Island in late August early September.
KH0 Mariana Isl. Tom KC0W #67688 is using a new call KH0W from the island where he has been for five years. He hopes to erect a better hexbeam soon for Ten.
OA Peru. Ed OA4SS #10802 has not been on Ten since May 26th when he was on CW, around 28030-28018.
OY Faroe Islands. James WT8P #78099 was on from August 28th for a week on the island.
V5 Namibia. Mike V51MA #64688, continues to help the 10-10 daily net when he has propagation from Africa. The net is on 28380 MHZ at 1800 UTC, except Sunday’s.
VP6 Pitcairn Island. Miralda VP6MW #50434, was active this summer on FT4/8 28074 and 21074.
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3D Rotuma Island. A DXpedition set for November 15th to December 4th will use callsign 3D2Z. Hal W8HC #12502 had to cancel due to personal reasons. They will use three stations and two remote Ribs on the Island. A lot of young ham ops will be Rib operators but none are 10-10. LoTW.
FJ St. Barthelemy. Phil K2LIO #7746 is now using call FJ4WEB but I expect him to be back on the island this Fall and Winter. Phil is the only 10-10 member on the island.
K USA. Pi K1RV #12647 reports the K1USN #73371 with the SlowSpeedcontest (SST) Open is September 13th from 20-24 UTC. This is a 12-20 wpm CW event by the USS Salem ARC, give name and state for a QSO, with the purpose to help new CW ops. Website: www.K1USN.com .
KH8 American Samoa. A DXpedition to Am. Samoa by several ops will take place from September 2-16th. Team leader is Don N5DD #32255 and the only 10-10 member. They will set up two stations to operate CW, SSB and FT8.
J6 St. Lucia. A big group of ops in the CQ WW SSB October 21- 27th call J62K, will have these 10-10 members: Bill K9HZ #2618, Dan W0CN #27026, Kyle WA4PGM #50763, and Steve W0ZB #37921. LoTW and Good luck.
UN Kazakhstan. Uwe DL8UD #70315 may be on from September 10th to 19th using call UN/DL8UD. RARE!
XT Burkina Faso. A group of 14 ops will try to be on from October 31st to November 10th as XT2MD. There are two members: Peter DL2LAM #54293 & James KB2FMH #77506. The VOACAP prediction for the mid USA is 10-12 hours of a 10 Meter opening to Africa. This is another RARE 10-10 site and both members will operate SSB.
Z6 Kosovo. Rene DL2JRM #69623 will be on from November 9-10th as Z68XX from Gjilan which is located in eastern Kosovo. During the CQ WW DX CW contest Rene will use call Z66BCC. Good luck.
ZL7 Chatham Islands. Holger ZL3IO #22401, who lives in New Zealand, will be working on the ZL7DX Chatham contest station from October 15-31st. Chatham Island is more than 550 miles east of New Zealand. He wants to improve the existing antennas at the site, so his on the air time will be limited. The CQ SSB contest is in late October and hopefully the station can be ready for all DX contests. His first priority is to be ready for the CQ WWW DX CW contest coming November 23-24th. Holger’s daughter Xenia ZL4YL, #77857, will join him for a week at the improved Chatham station. Xenia’s ZL7YL call will be used during the CW contest in November. Holger hopes to improve the power at the station so that they can run two amps during some contests. The old battery system runs out in 10-12 hours. I would suspect Holger’s goal will be for the station changes to have a 35-50 percent increase in scores for all CW and SSB contests in the coming DX season.
VP6 Pitcairn Island. Miralda VP6MW #50434, was active this summer on FT4/8 28074 and 21074.
DX Note: Chatham has had 10-10 activity in the past. You must consider this a rare 10-10 QSO location as there is not a member living on Chatham!
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 190-325 this Fall. The sun crosses the equator on September 22nd for the autumnal Equinox, and the Sun will give us the same equal night and day in both hemispheres. Cycle 25 eleven-year cycle started five years ago on November 17, 2019. Sunspots get counted by looking at the Sun but the solar flux is measured by radio at 2.8 GHz. The 2024 monthly max solar flux was: Jan 196, Feb 208, Mar 209, April 227, May 233, June 203, July 242 and August 336. Average 232.
The 2024 monthly min solar flux was: Jan 126, Feb 137, Mar 127, April 112, May 135, June 165, July 164 and August 204. Average 146.
On September 1st, the solar flux was 232, the A index 26 and K index 3. There were lots of sunspots on the Sun over the past year with increased solar flux.
This Cycle 25 hit a high flux value of 336 on August 8th.
The average flux for the past eight months is 189.
The previous solar peaks were in 2014, 2001, 1989 & 1979. The USAF forecast for September 1st to Oct 15th has a range of 230-285 with average flux 257, which is up 61 points from the last quarterly forecast. The flux graph is showing a slowing growth in the top curve of the flux numbers the past 6 months, which indicates a peak of cycle 25 in August!
My Prediction: Over the next four months, the best propagation on Ten could be: September 9-13th; October 6-10th, November 3-7th, & December 1-5th. The ARRL Ten meter contest is on December 14-15th , just one week after my projected high in December. For the USA, expect a 30-45% 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 closed for SSB, use FT8 on 28074 for a QSO.
There were no new DX members join in June to August: Rainer DL8NCS #78328 and Gisela DF9NGO #78329 are the last DX that joined in May. Mike KD9YXS #78342 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
