[3830] ARRL 10 K4LY SO Mixed LP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: K4LY
Operator(s): K4LY
Station: K4LY

Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: SC EM85wb
Operating Time (hrs): 7

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:   80    35
  SSB:   70    27
-------------------
Total:  150    62  Total Score = 28,520

Club: Carolina DX Assn

Comments:

As a weak signal VHFer, I always find propagation on 10 meters very interesting.
 Like 6M, there is a little bit of everything, and I have looked at my 150
contacts and attempted to sort out the propagation mode for each.

The propagation modes detected were 1) skywave which is 4/3rds LOS from my
hilltop or about 40 miles in favored directions; 2) tropo scatter which is the
principal mode used in VHF and above and good out to about 500 miles for
stations with high ERP and good receive; 3) ionospheric foward scatter out to
about 1200 miles and better on 10 meters than the VHF frequencies; 4) E-skip
out to about 1400 miles for single hop.  E-skip or sporadic E has a MUF like F
skip and is more common on 10M than VHF and  is more common here in the
northern hemisphere May- August and in the southern hemisphere November-
February  5) F skip, about 1500-2500 miles with multiple hops often occuring.
The contacts from the states to southern South America are almost always F
skip.  6) Back scatter which can occur from the E layer or F layer ionizations.
7) aurora which was not noted here in SC during the 10M test, and 8) meteor
scatter which was especially present because the contest occured during the
peak of the Geminids meteor shower.  

Long range tropo scatter and especially E-skip and ionosheric forward scatter
were enhanced by meteor scatter bursts and also probably by the residual
ionization occuring because of frequent meteor scatter ionization bursts. 

I was busy most of the weekend and was able to get to the shack Friday evening,
occasionally for short periods on Saturday, and for the last 90 minutes of the
test.  I ran 100 watts to a small 3 el tribander at 70' on a hilltop 200' HAAT.
 I had about 4 or 5 skywave 4/3rds LOS contacts, about 34 tropo scatter contacts
out to 250+ miles with N1LN in NC at 175 miles quite strong, S8 here, when our
beams were turned toward each other.  Several contacts in the 300-500 mile
range were probably meteor scatter enhanced tropo scatter.  Friday night and
Saturday morning  there was no Es observed here, but I could copy many New
England and other 600-1200 mile distant stations Q5 on meteor enhanced
ionospheric forward scatter.  Some of the high power stations were at least S2
at all times rising as high as S9 or more on meteor scatter bursts.  A few
could detect my calls without a burst, but none could copy me wthout a burst
even though they were Q5. I worked about 18 stations on forward ionoscatter. 
Around 1840 on Saturday we began too get a little Es, at first spotlighted on
VT.  Later when Es was more widespread, I worked a couple of FL stations on
back scatter.  They were stronger beaming north than direct path. On Sunday
evening I think I worked some AL stations on back scatter.  They were working
Texas and probably had their beams west as I did.  In all, I probably worked 5
stations on backscatter.  I worked 26 stations in southern South America, all
F2.  I worked a few stations in cental America and the northern Carribean which
were probably Es. Contacts to AZ and the far west were probably multi hop Es.  I
was called by KH7T which may have been F2 or multihop Es.
Here's the rundown, all approximate-

sky wave LOS-  5
troposcatter-   34
iono forward scatter-  17
Es-   62
F2-  27
unknown- the HI contact, a few of the back scatter contacts, and ,with some
uncertainty, the west coast (mainly AZ) and central American/northern Carribean
contacts which were very likely multi hop Es.  
Meteor scatter enhanced-  all of the forward ionoscatter and most of the Es.

Now that was fun!
Doug


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