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Just how crazy is 10 Meters right now? This crazy:
14 November 2013 | by 
Fleets Cove Beach
Yesterday, on a day off from work, I had to head up to the Huntington Village post office to pick up a kit I ordered from China. Why my post office is a 15 minute drive (in traffic) from my home when there’s a beautiful, brand new post office, with a large self-service lobby half a mile from me is a story for another day. As-is the reason why my postal carrier is too lazy to actually leave me notices that I have a package, or ring the bell and ask for a signature. I retrieved the kit, and decided that since I was a few minutes from the North Shore, I would try for some 10 Meter mobile contacts from the beach. I headed to Fleets Cove Beach.
I plunked the mag mount to the old Buick, and plugged in my HTX-10. The band was busy, as it has been lately, but to the point where my 25 watts wasn’t getting through a lot of the pileups. One operator heard me and I logged that contact with Croatia. Not bad, but still disappointing, considering how busy it was. I was beginning to get discouraged, and thinking about calling it a day when I twirled the dial up to the AM portion of the band (29 MHz). Now, keep in mind that my HTX-10 only puts out about 7 Watts AM, and my antenna is tuned for 28.4. I had a nice QSO with M5AFD in Shropshire England. He was surprised at how well I was coming in, but there were a few deep fades. He also complimented me on the audio on the old mobile, and suggested that it would be close to optimal with a punchier mic. I may do just that.
England. AM. 7 Watts. WOW
–Neil W2NDG
4 Responses to “Just how crazy is 10 Meters right now? This crazy:”
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10 Meters has been great over in Huntington by us. I worked Corsica with the same rig and same wattage the other day from my truck on the other side of the village. I didn’t forget about your offer for next time I go out to Kings Park. We should try and hook up one day. I’ve been wanting to get up to Jaynes Hill and try and make some 10 meter contacts.
I usually go to the west side, at the parking lot on Highhold Drive. There’s actually a lot of RF noise right at Jaynes Hill with all of the radio towers. The parking lot is only about 30 feet lower. A few weeks ago I had a QSO with LY1G in Lithuania on 12M from there, with my Xiegu X1M. I may be up there again Sunday, weather permitting, or possibly back at the beach. Not sure yet.
Yeah the Highhold Dr lot by the campsite is where I usually would try to go. I know what you mean about the actual Jaynes Hill. If I’m free Sunday maybe I will take a ride up there.
Ten is wonderful right now. I have the same radio and was able to get Santa Maria Island Portugal from west central Minnesota on my lunch break the other day. I was far from the most powerful signal that was trying to reach the fellow calling, but conditions fell in my favor and I was able to punch throught the pile up and have a very short qso. Even from the Red River Valley, I have been having a fair amount of success on ten and I hope it stays open for a while.