This weekend is my favorite event of the year, the ARRL 10M Contest.  It’s the perfect one for us and our meager antennas.  I know, I know, I have indeed put up a yagi for the weekend, but you don’t need a super antenna for 10 meters given our place in the sunspot cycle right now.  It’s not at peak (hopefully), but good enough so that the fabled “window screen” antenna can allow you to work much of the world on that band.

It starts tonight at 7P local, and goes for 48 hours.  Remember, 10M is primarily a daytime band, so figure on working people from sunup (a little past 7A), until a couple of hours past sundown, so until about 8P.  The first night keeps people up later than that, but it’s rough going.  If you’ve got limited time, the best schedule would have you look to Europe from daybreak until maybe 11 or 12, then get a good dose of the USA, until later in the afternoon when South America, or even Asia, may be workable.

The contest is CW and SSB.  You can enter one or the other, or Mixed; QRP, Low Power (100W), or High.  There’s even a Limited Antennas category, for which verticals or dipoles are welcomed.  Our exchange is 59(9)FL, and we expect to receive their state if domestic (DC counts), province if Canada, or a serial number for DX.  Mexicans send their state too, a three-letter abbreviation.  Each is considered a multiplier.  You can work ‘em on SSB and CW, but CW contacts are worth double.

I encourage you to also sign up for contestonlinescore.com and be sure to indicate The Villages Amateur Radio Club.  We’ll then be able to see all of our scores in real-time and in one place as the contest goes on, and it’s fun to watch it.

Hope to work all of you on both modes, but I’ll spend most of the time on CW.  Afternoons are most likely for SSB, looking for stateside multipliers, since CW and SSB have their own mult counts.

Good luck and make lots of Qs!

73, Pete, K2PS