[UK-CONTEST] ARRL 10 Mtr Contest.

[Darrell G0HVQ]

Report from G0HVQ, small chance of some evening Es and maybe some MS, but 
I've had enough of listening  to white noise for this weekend :-)

Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts  Cty
    28  CW     124     496   41
    28  USB     20      40   13
 Total  Both   144     536   54
Score: 28,944

Condx on 10m this weekend felt very much like 6m at the peak of the solar 
cycle: you could spend ages listening to white noise, then some juicy DX 
would pop up out of nowhere. The phrase "you have to be in it to win in" was 
very apt: condx were so up and down that a little and often was the key, 
keep checking the band as condx could go from nothing to super-strength 
signals in minutes. At least we had some sunspots and F2 propagation: last 
year's contest was all Sporadic E QSOs, this year there were none.

Saturday was the better day, with propagation to S.Asia just after dawn, 
some good runs into Russia and the Ukraine around 1000z, and a nice opening 
to North America 1300-1530, with some strong signals near the end. Sunday 
was a bit of a washout, although the VKs were there after dawn and the band 
opened briefly into the Caribbean and Central America around 1300z. A few 
North American signals were heard, but very weak compared to Sat. Highlight 
was calling CQ on a dead band, about 15 mins after working the VP5, and 
getting called by HK3O who was a real solid signal.

Bset DX:

Saturday: VK6IR, VK6AJ, HS0ZGQ, XU7FMZ, CW5W
Sunday: VU2DSI, ZS6BRZ, Z21DXI, VP5CW, WP3C, HK3O, HI3TEJ

Equipment:

Icom IC7400 + amp (300W), 4 ele Sirio yagi (modified CB aerial) at 25ft


...and thanks for all the calls from local Gs, these QSOs did count despite 
some appearing to think that they didn't.

73
Darrell G0HVQ