AmateurRadio.com

I got the chance to get on the air for a short time this afternoon. I took the opportunity to spin the dial around the 10 Meter band.  Around the 28.200 MHz neighborhood, I heard beacons from Mexico, Brazil and British Columbia in Canada.  Encouraged that the band might be open, I continued my spin.

In the CW portion of the band, I was able to work CT1IUA with 5 Watts.  He was 599 and I received a 559 in return.  After that, for the heck of it, I traveled all the way up to the SSB portion of the band.  Here, I heard CT1EHI booming into NJ.  Again, for the heck of it, I pumped up the power to 10 Watts and gave him a call.  He answered me!  When he found out that I was in New Jersey, Marco asked me if I knew where Flemington is.  Heck, it’s about 10 – 15 miles down the highway from where I work.  Marco informed me that he has some friends that live there, and in fact he’s gone to Dayton with them a few times.

I don’t do so much in the way of QRP SSB as CW has always been my first love.  It’s gratifying, though, to make a SSB contact using only 10 Watts and it’s even more gratifying when that contact is overseas.  Marco  gave me a 5X7 signal report, too – not too shabby!  You have to absolutely love 10 Meters when it’s open – pure magic!

15 Meters was also open and I had a nice “chew” with N5XE, Carl in Oklahoma who answered my CQ.  I also had a quick QSO with OX3XR, David in Greenland.  I’ve worked David twice before, once on 12 Meters and once on 20 Meters, so this was a new band for me for Greenland.

On 17 Meters (I was doing a bit of band hopping) I ran into and worked OJØH/MM again.  Last time I worked them, they were travelling the Caribbean.  I have no idea where they were located this time.  They were not as strong as they were last time; but not sure whether that was due to location or just how the propagation was.

When the bands are open and propagation is good – the most fun hobby in the world becomes even more so.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

2 Responses to “10 Meters was nice today”