Not sure how the contest will pan out this year, 10m has not been in good shape for a good couple of months now and the propagation numbers certainly don't give me any hope to celebrate.
My antennas seem to be in good shape, so we will forge ahead and see what we can do.
Rules and other information can be found HERE.
Not much has been going on in the VE3FI shack for the past few weeks. The Ford Ranger that I have travelled about in for the past 9 years has been sold, and a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan has been bought to replace it.
So far so good, the ride is comfortable and the gas mileage seems to be far better than the old Ranger. The only issue seems to be interference from the on board computers with my Icom 2m rig I have had installed. The only way I can comfortably operate is with the squelch turned full on, otherwise the constant noise drives me insane.
How was the band?
ReplyDeleteMike, in a word "crap". There was no east-west propagation at all, what we had was a very small north-south opening, but of the most part, here in Eastern Ontario, we heard very little on 10m. Quite disappointing really.
DeleteWell, at least I don't feel bad now... LOL. I didn't hear a damn thing. I recently went full QRP - probably the worst timing ever - and I'm not exactly filling the logbook lately.
ReplyDeleteMike, I think very few operators are filling their logbooks. I haven't seen propagation this bad for a long, long, time. Hopefully it will improve.......it can't get much worse :-)
DeleteYeah. I've been off the air for two years, so it's nice to be back, and fully portable, but I remember most guys were 100W with QRP guys among the mix; now, it seems most guys are running amps and the average TX power is 4-500W.
ReplyDeleteHopefully things improve, but I need to figure out a good and quick & easy portable antenna... without breaking the bank. LOL