[HCRA] ARRL 10 Meter Contest is just around the corner!

[Jim Mullen]

Hey gang, are you ready to have fun next weekend (December 10th - 12th)?
Once again, like clockwork, the annual ARRL 10 Meter Contest returns to the
airwaves. And just as usual HCRA will be mounting a club effort to win our
section (WMA) in the club competition. We had a lot of entrants last year
and are hoping even more of you will find some time over the weekend to put
down the shopping cart or credit card and work some DX instead. Once again
this year HCRA will be offering nice certificates for participation. Learn
more about the contest and see how we have done in past by pointing your
browser to http://www.hcra.org/tutorial.htm.

What's different this year? Well for starters Matt, W1MSW has volunteered to
coordinate our club effort in the contest. See his latest article in the
December ZB and lets all get behind a great HCRA participation again this
year. Even more exciting (but Matt can be exciting too) is we actually have
SUNSPOTS!!! No more calling CQ on an empty band, only getting responses from
ground wave stations in the next county. Actual DX is out there and
workable, how cool is that? Take a look at what Sean, KX9X from ARRL has to
say about expected conditions next weekend:

*Soar High in the ARRL 10 Meter Contest
*

*The highest of the HF bands will be the central operating focus of many
amateurs in the ARRL 10 Meter Contest <http://www.arrl.org/10-meter>,
December 11-12. During the event, many propagation modes will be available:
Sporadic-E will help you work stateside stations, a touch of meteor scatter
in the morning will give you split-second chances to work stations -- you’d
better be quick, though! -- and DX stations could find their way into the
log, thanks to some recent signs of life from the F-layer.*

*“Ten meters was open from the United States to Africa, Europe and South
America during the CQ World Wide DX CW contest on the weekend of November
27,” said ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X. “Let’s see if those
conditions remain for the second weekend in December.”*

*Single Operator entrants can use CW only, SSB only -- or a mixture of both.
They can choose between High Power, Low Power (150 W or less) or QRP (5 W or
less). Want to share the fun with your friends? Invite them over and enter
in the Multioperator category.*

*US Novice and Technician class operators can get in on the fun, too. Both
classes are permitted SSB operation between 28.3-28.5 MHz with 150 W. No
antenna for 10 meters? A dipole for 28.4 MHz is about 16.5 feet long --
build it and get it up in the air as high as you possibly can. Kutzko said
that it’s an easy construction project and you **will work stations!*

*This year also introduces a new element to the contest: The addition of 32
Mexican states as multipliers. For a list of the Mexican states, download a
free map provided by Grupo DXXE
here<http://www.dxxe.org/concurso/xe-mults.pdf>.
“This will no doubt add a new excitement to this long-standing ARRL
contest,” Kutzko said.*

*The ARRL 10 Meter Contest runs from 0000 UTC Saturday, December 11 through
2359 UTC Sunday, December 12. Logs must be e-mailed <10meter at arrl.org> or
postmarked no later than 0000 UTC Wednesday, January 12, 2011. Paper logs
should be sent to ARRL 10 Meter Contest, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.*

*From the ARRL Letter, December 2, 2010*

So there you have it, sunspots, club competition, DX, NO SHOPPING - how can
you go wrong? Take a moment to read the rules, make sure your station is
ready to roll on December 10th, don't forget to put 'Hampden County Radio
Assn' in the affiliated club field of your log but most of all HAVE FUN!

'73...

Jim, KK1W