[AMRadio] Contesters Everywhere on 10 Meters!

[Kim Elmore]

I guess I'm abnormal because I like contests. This one is interesting 
because all of 10 m, including even FM, has lit up! It's fun to play 
with slope detection on FM -- it sounds surprisingly good. 
Historically, that's how the Allies figured out how to listen to 
German FM tactical comms in WWII.

I, too, hear signals above 29.7, but they are all some sort of 
digital mode, not ham stuff. Knowing that when 10 m is open almost 
any RF squeak can be heard, I suspect that any ham stuff I hear above 
29.7 is spurious. If the station is running 1 KW, a spur down 30 dB 
(pretty bad engineering) is 1 W. Down 40 db (still not good) is 100 
mW and down 50 dB (mediocre engineering) is 10 mW. 10 m signals can 
make it a long way on 10 mW, especially off of a good beam, so I'm 
not too quick to accuse anyone I hear above 29.7 MHz to be there 
intentionally. The trick then is finding where they *really* are...

Kim N5OP