Andrei wrote:
"Missed 10 meters completely; where people saw the stations on 10 meters?"
Signals on ten meters were moderate to strong early and then later after 0000Z.
My first contact on ten was with Dean KE0WO at
1812Z. He was CQ'ing. Two minutes later I moved to 28087 and called CQ. I
was answered by Ted W4ZE in FL, W8BAR Tom in MA, K1FWE
John in NH, W4UEF Rick in NC, N4IG Dave in FL, K0HW Jim in SD. But that was it
and I left the band at 1830Z because the rate was
too low. At 1954Z, I checked ten again and worked W2QO in NJ. I called CQ for
five minutes, then put that radio back on 20M.
At 2300Z I went back to ten and there were signals there so I called CQ. I
worked AA2NA in NY, KK5OQ in MS (ground wave and weak),
K3GEO in OH, then went back to 40 on that radio at 2320Z. So I wasted a lot of
time on ten meters. The band was open but no one
was there. I kept checking back and at 0001Z there were lots of signals. I
worked AA3B in PA. I then called CQ and was answered
by W3KB, WA3AAN & WA3KVN all in PA. I was also called by WB8JUI in OH, W2RTY
in NY, K0JJR in MN, N9AG in OH, N2MLP in PA, K5ZD in
MA, W3/NH7C in MD, W0BR in PA and VA3SS in ON. But the rate was again slow so
I went back to 20M at 0035Z.
It was weird in that I had one radio on 40 meters and the other on 10 meters at
the same time. I don't recall working that
combination but there wasn't any interference between the radios. Again, I
felt I'd wasted time on ten meters. That's a whole hour
on ten meters where I worked only 16 stations on that radio. I'm not so sure
it was worth the multipliers. Again, the band was
open but the activity wasn't there.
I checked ten again at 0100Z and worked NF6A, K6MM, and W6TQG all in CA and
KE0L in MN, N2WK in NY, and K0FX in CO. So this time
the band was open to the west, east and north, but little activity. I didn't
waste much time and left ten for good at 0110Z. I
don't think I checked ten again the rest of the contest. I was way behind on
rate and tried to catch up but 40 and 80 were flat
despite have low QRN.
I was shocked not to make 600 Q's and 100k points and I'm sure it has to do
with the time I wasted on ten meters. I think the trick
is to check 10 meters every 30 minutes, work who's there and then leave to go
back to a more productive band. If the rate is good,
then you stay. But the rate wasn't good (this contest anyway). Soon it will
be good, but the big question is "when?".
73, Don AA5AU
http://www.aa5au.com
http://www.rttycontesting.com
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