[10m] 10 meters, CW and Activity

[Barry Sherwood]

I too have been inactive on 10 for sometime now. Most of my activity was mobile with a rat shack htx100, 100 watt amp, & 1/4 SS whip which worked very well. I am currently in the market for another htx100 or similar rig. when I locate one I plan on installing it in the car to accompany me on those 45 minute rides to & from work.
   
  Barry
  KF5GC

Jim Crofutt <crokc at cableone.net> wrote:
  Hi to all on the list. I have been off of 10 meters for sometime now,mostly concentrating on Qrp and the other bands for the last few years but have got the bug back and look forward to getting back on 10 and trying to keep the band alive. 10 meters in the low sun spot cycle usually must rely on other forms of probagation as usually F-2 is rather sparse and still will be for some time. Where you live in reference to the equator and day to day
activity really do have a lot to do with how well you will do on this band, and of course the better the antenna the better off you are regardless of how expensive a radio you own. 10 is much like 6 meters at these low periods and if you know how to take advantage of the many types of probagation on VHF like Scatter, Tropo, experimenting with different polarizations and even dabble in to the very weak signal digital modes you will make a lot of contacts even at this low time of the sun spot cycle. CW is a super vaulable tool as running just 5 watts is the equal to running 100 watts on SSB when you compare the signal to noise ratio and the ability to work extremely weak signals with PSK even being better. Even though it is no longer required to ever use CW, I would encourage you to still learn it, not only is it important for working very weak signals, what a lot of ham do not realize is how many DX stations in the world still use CW as their primary mode of communicatons.
 Those who dwell in the very low bands such as 160, and 80 meters and to some extent 40 know this well. You can listen to 20 just about any day and listen in to DX nets and spend hours working SSB, competing with the big guns to try and find a few new ones here and there and also have some third party direct you, or switch to CW and hunt yourself and you will work 10 times the DX in the same amout of time the controlled Net SSB guys do. I love CW but I also love 10 meter Voice modes as well, SSB and AM, even FM can be fun. What I don't like on 10 meters is lack of use,-- no activity--- except for a contest here and there, funny how the band just opens up when the RF is flying. Too many hams leave 10 just as soon as the contest is over and think it's not worth messing with until the sun spots pick up, this is shame as 10 is open somewhere almost every day even if only for a short time. Monitoring is fine but you can not make contacts if you don't call once in awhile. I have
 spent over 32 years in ham radio and have a lot of time on 10, 6, and 2 meter SSB/CW, I look forward to maybe hearing from some of you guys and swapping ideas, gettting and giving advice and your thoughts on 10 meters.
My 10-10 number is 39191 and 10 meters has always been my favorite band.
73 Jim N0XE
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