TenX DX News December 1, 2021
Mike Davidson N5MT #24949 Download Article in PDF.
Welcome to the Winter DX season of the 10-10 DX News.
I want all to know we have seven new 10-10 members from Hawaii join the past six months. New DX members get listed at the bottom of this news, so read on for more info.
Well I see several Europeans hams are traveling for DX. I just missed 3A3A from Monaco, the call was used by five ops who were in the CQWW SSB contest at the end of October. The 10-10 member that was in the group was Dmitri UA9USU #54234. Dmitri reports on QRZ.com that he has been to 119 countries and you can see a list of his call signs under his UA9USU callsign details. Dmitri might operate from the south pacific ocean area in Nov/December. There is only one 10-10 member living in Monaco, he is Claude 3A2LF #36994 who likes to operate low power. We have made several QSOs on the radio, just not on Ten. Claude likes CW over SSB and the large mountain west of his station hampers his weak signal, so good luck in talking to Claude in Monaco.
I survived hurricane Ida with one tree blown down and no damage to the house or antennas. We were without power for 70 hours but I had a generator that kept my food cold during the power outage. I cut up the tree and stacked the limbs out at the street for pickup so the yard is now clean.
Ida was a Cat 4 storm when it went through my hometown in Terrebonne parish which is 70 miles from where I now live. Ida slowed down its path and reduced its winds to a Cat 1 storm when it reached the Baton Rouge area. The hurricane eye came about 20 miles east of my house and we had a big gust of wind, estimated at 80 mph, bring down trees. The higher winds for this hurricane were much worse this year, as compared to weaker storms last year! Ida’s winds easily brought down trees, and damaged roofs and power lines. I read that an estimated million trees were blown down by Ida. New Orleans lost all power when their main power line feed going across the Mississippi river came down and it took ten days to hook up a temporary replacement. Ida was not a flooding hurricane like 2005 Katrina but the damage was bad.
OK now for better ham propagation news.
We are seeing increased sun spots appearing on the Sun. This is increasing the solar flux that is available and the new flux has helped cycle 25 to give us better skip conditions on Ten. The 10-10 Day Sprint is over for my station and I was able to talk into Europe about six times during the Sprint. I was having trouble with my vertical antenna due to a lightning strike. My backup antenna was a dipole mounted about 12 ft off the ground for most of the Sprint on Oct 10th. The east coast of the USA and South America have been talking into Europe the past three months, so good luck.
continue to hope all who are reading this can feel safer from the Covid virus by having been vaccinated. At the end of November 2021, we are seeing good relief with hospital admissions and critical equipment usage. We also see people that avoided vaccination earlier or now waiting in line to get covered and there is now another recently discovered mutation. Even some of us that were vaccinated have come down with mild cases so its still a problem and no one knows how Covid will react this winter for us and in 2022.
Remember, its also Flu season so get your Flu shot as well and Covid mutated just like the Flu has, so we probably have not seen the end of Covid mutations. The Covid virus is not going to be gone until 80-90 percent of us get vaccinated. Please listen to the medical science instead of the rumors so get protected and stay safe.
The 15-17-20-30 meter bands were the best DX bands this fall so keep looking for winter DX, when Ten is not open.
Stay on the radio and call CQ to see where you can talk. When propagation is poor on Ten, use FT8 and you might find stations to work when you think the band is closed. Here in Louisiana, the FT8 QSO’s were better than SSB and a lot of QSO’s were put in the log.
I see more reports of an increase in DX traveling this winter season as less travel restrictions have allowed air travel to increase. I do not expect a new 10-10 country to show up on Ten for a few years. Because of the pandemic, weak propagation, and many DX ops staying home, the amount of news reporting is still reduced. Keep using your station to find DX that may be calling CQ on a band besides Ten.
Use our 10-10 website for all award rules and if you are a paid up dues member, you qualify for all 10-10 awards, you can print out the 10-10 award form on the website and send it to the 10-10 awards person as listed on the form at no cost. And no QSL cards are required for all of our awards.
As the 10-10 Countries Award Manager, I follow most all of the ARRL DXCC award rules. But you must have exchanged your Callsign, Name, State and 10-10 number over the air only on Ten, and record that members information on your award application. The honor system does apply for all contacts on 10-10 awards. I keep the 10-10 DX records with my job as the DX Countries Award manager. As of December 2021, there remains 22 countries that have not been worked for 10-10 country credit as published in the March 10-10 News.
Congratulations to VE3XN Garry #10120, has been inducted into the Canadian Amateur Radio Hall of Fame by Radio Canada. Garry has been a ham for 55 years and was a geography teacher when he got into
DXing and his love of collecting QSL’s.
Countries Award: There were no Countries Award application submitted this past quarter.
NOTE: There has been no legitimate EZ Turkmenistan
radio activity since August 2006 for DXCC. The rumors of 8P Barbados being a new DXCC entity are just rumors. Nothing has changed in its DXCC status.
You can download the DX’ers Handbook written by Bryce Anderson K7UA, at website: www.K7UA.com.
General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:
C9 Mozambique Island. My friend Elvira IV3FSG #54292, was in Mozambique until November 30th using SSB and digital with callsign C92R. No reports.
4U United Nations. The remote ham radio station 4U1UN #55555, in the New York UN building, has been on the air but only from its radio beacon on 28200 MHZ. So watch DXSummit for QSO reports and hope for a band opening.
8Q Maldives. Tom WV6E #61526 was using call 8Q7JT in November but no reports of Ten meter QSOs.
DP0 Antarctica. Felix DL5XL #55519, is in Antarctica at the German Polar Institute station callsign DP0GVN.
EY Tajikistan. Ken K4ZW #18573, was in Tajikistan for a short visit as EY/K4ZW during early October.
HC8 Galapagos. Gerard F2JD #63443 and Flo F5CWU #71813, were on Galapagos from October 26th to November 7th with a DX group using call HD8R.
HP Panama. Steve HP9SAM #75838, likes to operate on Ten when the band is open on Saturday mornings. We talked several times in November as he tries to be on the LA Pelican net on 28450 MHZ at 1510 UTC Saturdays.
HR Honduras. Dennis W1UE #10948 was on Rotan Island at the end of November using call HQ9X or W1UE/HR9.
J6 St. Lucia. Bill K9HZ #2618 was back in St. Lucia from October to November 2nd using call J68HZ on CW, SSB and FT8.
KL7 Alaska. George KF2T #66749 and James K6ZH #40118 were using call KL7RA during the CQWW CW.
LX Luxembourg. Andy LX1DA #50458, was using the callsign LX40DA in October on FT8 and will be using the special call until December 31st.
P4 Aruba. John W2GD #14109 was operating as P40W from October 26-31st. He was on SSB for the
CQ WW DX contest but in November for the CW contest, the call was P44W.
YN Nicaragua. Rob DM4AO #23450, was on the air for CQWW CW on November 27-28th as YN5AO.
Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:
HR Honduras. Gerard F2JD #63443, will be on from Copan from December 8th to April 5, 2022 on CW, SSB and digital modes on HF. Call HR5/F2JD. LoTW.
V4 St. Kitts and Nevis. Charles KG9N #17038, will be using call V4/KG9N on the islands from February 8th to March 1, 2022.
Miscellaneous Items & Notes:
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.
DXCC Most Wanted at: https://Secure.Clublog.org/mostwanted.php .
History of ARRL DXCC program: http://ebarc.org/pdf/dx-entity-history.pdf .
NEW-> Ham Lookup various ways: https://Haminfo.tetranz.com/map .
NEW-> Ham website for LoTW users: http://www.hb9bza.net/lotw-users-list .
Propagation: I expect the solar flux to range from 78-114 during the Winter which means the flux continues to rise as we get more spots on the sun for cycle 25.
The 2021 Winter Solstice is on December 21st. Winter starts in the northern hemisphere and the Sun is below the equator giving the US its longest night times and shortest day of the year. In the southern hemisphere, summer starts on this day. Cycle 25, started on November 17, 2019. The Sun was really active a year ago in December 2020 but now has quieted down with a slow rising flux. A solar flux maximum of 125 has been forecast by NOAA for the winter of 2024. Sunspots are counted by looking at the Sun but Solar flux is measured by radio at 2.8 GHz.
The 2021 monthly maximum flux was: Jan 79, Feb 79, March 79, April 85, May 81, June 94, July 95, Aug 90, Sept 102, October 112 and November 100. Average 90.5.
The 2021 monthly minimum flux was: Jan 70, Feb 67, March 72, April 71, May 70, June 69, July 73, Aug 71, Sept 75, October 76 and November 78. Average 72.0.
On December 1st, the solar flux was 89, the A index was 11 and K index was 4. There were several good sunspot regions on the Sun the past month and this helped increase the solar flux the past months. The USAF solar flux forecast for December 1st to January
15th is from a high of 94 to a low of 78 with most days ranging from 79 to 85.
My Prediction: Over the next three months, the best conditions on Ten could be: Christmas - December 25-29th, January 2022: 19-24th , February 15-19th and March 13-16th. For the USA, expect a 40% chance of DX to Europe or Asia with a 75% chance of DX to South America or into the Pacific. Listen for the CW beacons from 28.175-28.300 to see if Ten Meters is open and always use WSJT-X FT8 for all weak/low propagation QSO’s.
There were four new 10-10 DX members joining from September to November 2021. September: none; October: DG3WN 77915, WH6GPG 77919, NH6ET 77920; and November: WH6WAV 77927.
Thanks to the Daily DX by Bernie W3UR #25731 and the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletins. This DX News edition is my number 125th of DXing reports. DX Info to: Mike Davidson, 26274 Whispering Pines Ave, Denham Springs LA 70726 USA and Email: N5MT@aol.com .
DX IS! 73 Mike Davidson N5MT #24949
Copyright © 2021 by N5MT
