[SFDXA] How To Tell If Ten Is Open...

[Bill]

An Interesting viewpoint from another list before the Ten Meter RTTY Test.
(Personally I'd call CQ or just tune and listen...but if your shy)


There are a couple of ways to determine IF the 10m band is open and
perhaps where.

First way is the North California DX Foundation (NCDXF) Beacon
system.   There is a good bit of information at

  http://www.ncdxf.org/pages/beacons.html

which might be help to you to determine what is open.

Secondly, you can actually have instant gratification (or
disappointment)  with the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), by going
on 10m CW and calling CQ DE YourCall, 3 or 4 times times.  Then
point your browser to  http://www.reversebeacon.net/srch.php and
enter your call, click the "search" bottom.  This will return those
RBN/Skimmers that may have heard your signal and if there is one
that does then it will give a report of your CW speed and your signal
strength as a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).  I often use this leading up
to a contest.

I just tried it while point my beam to NE (Europe) and only one RBN
(WA7LNW) returned a reported on my signal.  I tried it beaming to NW
and the same RBN report but with a stronger SNR signal.  So it
appears to me at this moment that 10m may have some sporadic E
activity, but very little.

But I just looked at the DXCluster spots and see that H44MS, Solomon
Islands is very loud.  So go figure.

Now if you happen to be up in the middle of the night, you could try the
same experiment and see if the band is open somewhere.  BTW, most
RBN skimmer don't sleep but they may often be on another target
band for the appropriate propagation that may exist at the time that
you try it.

Now one last thing there is an Skimmer/RBN for RTTY, but I don't
really have any first hand experience with it, so I am not sure what it
has to offer.  So, you might look around the internet and see what may
or may not be there.

Hope this helps.

Jim/KC4HW