TenX DX News  December 2020

Mike Davidson N5MT, #24949  Download article in PDF format

I hope all of our 10-10 members have followed their various health   rules to be safe this past quarter.    Just as the Fall contest season is starting at the end of October, there has been new Ten meter activity on the radio, with the Sun blooming many new Sun spots that have generated a much higher Solar flux, better Ten meter propagation and Cycle 25 has started!    Several members have reported making SSB and FT8 contacts into Europe and Asia the past two months!

The ARRL Ten Meter contest is in twelve days and this contest could give you a better score than previous years and some new DX that you have not heard in a long time.    Contest rules do not require you to ware a mask to operate the Ten Meter contest, so good luck with finding a few 10-10 members friends on the 12th and 13th of December.

The fall months are now over and the winter DX season has started in the USA.    Solar Cycle 25 has officially started with a bang and the Sun is now sending out more ionization for better propagation.    In one to two years from now, the Sun could be generating enough daily energy to let our Ten meter signals skip across the oceans on a daily basis! One solar prediction for Cycle 25, has put this one in the top ten of all previous cycles, so we will see what happens.

It has been four plus years since I have heard a new 10-10 country on Ten due to the closing years of Cycle 24.    As a result of the present pandemic virus, poor propagation, and a lot of DX ops not traveling far to operate, this situation has made for a lot less info to be reported in my DX article.    Any true DX’er will tell you it’s all in the chase of finding a new countries as the chase is the best fun in finding a new one!    There are several DX’ers that are 10-10 members that have talked with more countries that myself.    But I may be the only member that has taken the extra effort to swap numbers and put them in the log for future 10-10 paper work.    As for my 10-10 country collecting, I still need 37 countries.    For my ARRL countries list, I still need 10 more to complete all countries on Ten Meters.    I have chased countries on Ten for 42 years but I may not get the chance to work then all, due to propagation!    DX IS!

Please remember to submit your QSO logs to the free LoTW database at the ARRL website.    You can upload your logbook into the LoTW database after you are approved by the ARRL for an account, and yes there is security involved and rules.    The only cost is when you apply for an ARRL award using your LoTW contacts for DXCC or WAS.

The US Post Office is not accepting Airmail for about forty countries as of the end of November.    To send an airmail QSL, it can cost several US dollars to get a DX QSL card.    There is NO charge for a 10-10 award at the present time, which is one of your membership perks 

and 10-10 does not require a QSL card, unlike the ARRL system.      The 10-10 Countries Award Manager does follow most of the ARRL rule awards.    But you must have swapped your Callsign, Name, State and 10-10 number over the air on Ten, to record that members information on any 10-10 award application.

So the honor system has applied for your award contacts for several years for all 10-10 awards.   

I have talked with 10-10 members that use WSJT and FT8 that can swap their 10-10 info using the TX5 macro in FT8.    All you need to do is setup the TX5 tab to send the maximum 13 characters with the info you have saved in TX5.    So type into the TX5 macro: a 4 character name, a space, your five digit ten-ten number, a space and your two character state abbreviation that you will send during a FT8 QSO.    If you name is longer, either use a short nickname or you will have to make two TX5 messages to transmit your info to complete the 10-10 contact, so the shorter the name the better.    See the 10-10 website for a help video on FT8.

As you may know I am the 10-10 Countries Award manager and I keep a lot of DX records of who has worked what countries.    As of now, December 2020, there remains 22 countries that have never been worked for 10-10 country credit.    They are    as follows: 5R Madagascar, 9N Nepal, 9X Rwanda, 4O Montenegro, A7 Qatar, AP Pakistan, BS7 Scarborough Reef, EP Iran, FR/R Reunion,    FR/G Glorioso, FR/W Crozet, HV Vatican, JX Jan Mayen, R1FJ Franz Josef Land, TN Congo, SY Mt Athos, VK0H Heard Isl., VK0M Macquarie Isl., VP8/S So.Shetland Isl., VU7A Andaman Isl., VU7L Laccadive Isl., and XU Cambodia.

I predict there will never be a 10-10 member in some of these rare DX countries!    Places like Scarborough Reef, the Vatican, and Mount Athos, may never be 10-10 active.    Scarborough Reef BS7, is in the South China Sea and ownership of the reef is disputed.    The Vatican club station HV0A in Rome, is not a 10-10 member.    The only ham operator at Mt. Athos is not a 10-10 member.    The French islands are a mix of military restrictions, and permission to operate ham radio is not easy to get.    But a 10-10 member of a French group could get permission to operate, which would be a rare event.    However you can go to Reunion island and get a license and operate as a 10-10 visitor.    The other islands are tough as they have travel restriction, some have no airport and others only have access by ship, like the islands off India, Heard Island, Mellish Reef and South Shetland Islands.    The islands off India have no resident ops and a DXpedition is infrequent but possible for a member to travel to and operate in the future.

I am glad that 2020 is almost over so we can start 2021 with maybe a solid C-19 virus preventative.    All of us are ready for new defensive measures and we are hoping for a better 2021 year, especially fewer hurricanes in LA.    I promise to keep reporting any DX news I find from my sources.    Please do not forgot that 

the ARRL Ten Meter contest is coming on December 12-13 and send in your log.    We are now in Cycle 25, so use your station to find something new and log it.    Best of luck this Christmas season and stay safe in 2021.

Countries Award:    There were no Countries Award applications submitted this quarter.    A DXCC Most Wanted list has not changed in months and it can be found at: Https://Secure.Clublog.org/mostwanted.php .

General 10-10 DX reported in the past quarter:

      4U United Nations.    The remote ham radio station 4U1UN #55555, in the UN building in New York was last on Ten using FT8 on July 8th and little activity was posted for the station this past quarter.    Look for the UN beacon on 28200 to tell if you can hear their signal on Ten.    I do not know if they will be in the ARRL Ten Meter contest.

     

      HP Panama.    Steve HP9SAM #75838, lived in Louisiana in the past and is a member of the LA Pelican net.    He tries to check-in to the net on Saturday at 1610 UTC when he has propagation from Panama.    We talked on Nov 28th and he    told me that all DX Incoming mail is blocked and is being returned by Panama.    So do not try to send him a QSL, just wait until they resume accepting mail.    NO LoTW.   

    K USA.    The Texas DX Society celebrated 50 years of club activity with the callsign K5DX/50 #76334 from September 14th to October 13th.    I gave out the K5DX/50 call and    number during the 10-10 Sprint on October 10th.

Website: Https://K5DX-50.TDXS.net .

      KH0 Mariana Islands.    Tom KC0W #67688, has a new club call KH0W for the Saipan CW Club. The club call does not have a 10-10 number.    So you have to find Tom for his number.    Unknown if he will operate the Ten Meter contest.

      J2 Djibouti.    Rene DL2JRM #69623, was issued call J28XX from Djibouti.    I have no reports of activity for him the past six months.    This is a rare location so good luck.

      P4 Aruba.    John W2GD #14109, was back on Aruba from November 23rd to December 1st using the call P40W.    He was active in the CW DX contest the weekend of the 28th. LoTW.

      V7 Marshall Isl. / Kwajalein.    Randy KX4QD #58874, has been on the air for about a year from his home station where he operates low power with FT8 as V7/KX4QD.    At the club station, call V73AX #8239, there is KW amp and big antennas.    Randy was reported on FT8 once in October on Ten.    He is a TV broadcast engineer bringing US TV to the island.    Randy uses LoTW and the club uses Club Log.

      The Kwajalein atoll is controlled by the US Army for rocket testing.    There are no personal autos allowed on 

the island so bicycles are used to ride around the island.    The island and the large lagoon, were formed by a volcano and the ocean is good for scuba diving as there are several WW2 ship wrecks, that can be explored offshore.

Upcoming DX & New 10-10 Activity:

      4Z Israel.    Ros 4Z5LA #42000 and Yuli 4X6HP #72709, will be operating with a group of nine ops on Christmas Dec 25-26th,    using a special call 4X7T.    They will operate from a UNESCO World Heritage site, more info at website: https://www.biblewalks.com/telbeersheba .

      CE Chile.    Update: Jorge CE3HFI #39382 is now CE0YHF and I have worked him twice on Ten in November. Jorge is using CE0YHF/CE3 on FT8 with a weak signal.   

      DP1 Antarctica.    Felix DL5XL #55519, is going back to Antarctica with a group from the German Polar Institute. The only hams are Felix and Theresa DC1TH who is not a 10-10 member.    The club callsign DP0GVN will be used by both so ask who is the operator to find Felix!    LoTW.

      FP St. Pierre & Miquelon Islands.    Eric KV1J #31247, hopes to reschedule for June 29 to July 13, 2021.    Website: http://www.KV1J.com/fp/July20.html .

Miscellaneous Items & Notes:

Propagation forecast: http://www.solen.info/solar/ , www.SolarHam.net  ,  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.

Propagation:      I expect the solar flux to range from 75-115 during the Winter which will be a record high for the new cycle!    The Winter Solstice is on Monday December 21st.    Winter starts in the Northern Hemisphere that day and the Sun is below the equator giving us shorter daylight days thru the end of 2020.

There have been twenty-five solar cycles recorded since the year 1755 when records began.    Our Solar Cycle 25, is brand new as the Sun has been very active for the start of this new cycle as we had a record solar flux of 107 for the first time in November.    Cycle 25 officially started in October 2019.    The old method that is used to determine the start of a solar cycle is a thirteen month running mean of the observed sunspot numbers, which means the 2019 date was verified this year    by NOAA.    Sunspot numbers are counted by observation the sun, where-as solar flux is measured by radio at 2.8 GHz.

The monthly maximum solar flux in 2020:    Jan 72, Feb 71, March 70, April 70, May 69, June 73, July 73, Aug 75, Sept 69, Oct 88, and Nov 107.

The monthly minimum flux in 2020:    Jan 70, Feb 70, March 69, April 69, May 66, June 67, July 68, Aug 69, Sept 67, Oct 71 and Nov 77.

On December 1st, the solar flux was 102, the A index was x8 and K index was x3.     The solar flux numbers continue to indicate new sunspots producing much higher solar flux numbers for Cycle 25!    The USAF solar flux forecast for December 1st to January 15th is 75 to 102!

My Prediction:    Over the next three months, the best conditions on Ten could be: December 13th, 25th - January 4th,    January xx-xx, February xx-xx and March xx-xx.    For the USA, expect a 40% chance of DX to Europe or Asia with a 75% chance of DX to South America or to the S. Pacific.    Listen for the CW beacons from 28.175-28.300 to see if the band is open and use FT8 for all weak/low propagation QSO’s.

There were no new 10-10 DX members join from September to November 2020.      This DX News edition is my number 122nd which equals to a lot of DXing reports.

Thanks to the Daily DX by Bernie W3UR    #25731 and the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletins.    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 © 2020 by N5MT

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