With the solar cycle peaking this weekend’s ?ARRL 10 meter contest should offer an awesome opportunity to work DX, and experience worldwide HF propagation.

Guess what Technicians licensees can get in on the act with their SSB privileges between 28.300 to 28.500.

The contest started Friday evening at 7 pm local and runs until Sunday 6:59 pm local.

As the name implies it takes place on the ten meter band and is a dual mode contest. Meaning that both CW and SSB can be used to make contacts during the contest period.

You can work a maximum of 36 hours of the 48 hour period.

The exchange for US stations, Canadian and Mexican stations is signal report and their state or providence. DX stations will send a signal report and serial number.

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Here is a link where you can find the list of states and providences:

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A typical exchange

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CQing: CQ test de NJ1F

Answering: DM9EE

CQing: DM9EE 5nn NY

Answering: 5NN 175

Cqing: TU QRZ NJ1F

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One unique feature of this contest is that you can work the same station twice during the period, once on CW and once on SSB

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Propagation on ten meters can be wild, generally following the progress of the sun around the earth. The band will be open during daylight hours however it can offer some unusual openings in the middle of the night thanks to the current solar conditions. So expect that in the morning the signals will be coming from the east. So morning will feature an opening towards Europe and Africa. However some Caribbean and South American may be workable. As midday approaches the opening will tend to shift towards the south and then in the afternoon begin to open to the Pacific and Asisa.

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Also you don’t need to have a beam to work DX even a ham stick or retuned CB mobile antenna will work!

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A really cool live map of the current propagation is at

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As one of my long time contesting friends says: “There’s no meters like 10 meters and the solar maximum!”

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Hope you get on and enjoy the DX on ten meters this weekend.

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73

Brian

NJ1F

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