Tony's 10 Metre Band Report
21 December 2006

Back to the usual for Ten Metres. But let me start with my last report. I sent it off to the all powerful Editor (G4TUT) a tad sharpish after the weekend and just missed a couple of reports, so here they are now.

Tony, ZB2TY (Gibralta), heard 6 stations from Brazil, 1 from Argentina and 3XM6JR (who is a Russian national living in Boke, Guinea.). He went on to say, “I was active during the contest on Sunday and only managed to work a total of 6 stations (5 from brazil and 3XM6JR). There was no sign of any European stations and North America was also silent here on the rock. This was using an FT920 to a MA5B (Cushcraft) beam ! Oh well, there's always next time!”
I for one echo those sentiments.

Ian, ZL1OGX, worked this lot in the ARRL 10m contest, ZL2AWH 5/9, VK2AH 5/9, KH8Q 5/9, K6HNZ 5/9, ZL6QH 5/9, VK4CZ 5/9, TG0AA 5/9, VK4FHN 5/9, JA7OWD 5/9, W5YAA 5/9, JE1ZWT 5/9, JA2PAC 5/9, KD0S 5/9, JH1CML 5/9, JH1OCC 5/9, AF7DX/KH6 5/9, K5TR 5/9, K7RI 5/9. Well done, it is good to see more Japanese stations in general and most excellent to get a report from New Zealand.

And so to the past week’s DX sightings. VU7LD runs amok except on Tuesday and Thursday - time off for good behaviour I expect.

Most popular DX

Monday: VU7LD, IZ5CML, S57S, VK4II, XV1X, VK4LS, 9A1HBC, DJ4PI, F2LZ, IZ8TFG, N2KPB, RA3CQ, S58L, SV2EVS, UU2JQ, VK3SE.

Tuesday: K5PEW, UR5EK, W6BH, HJ4OBA, KP4DKE, YO3FOM, AF3L, VE3DRT, VK4HFO, W3UR, WP4NEG, YO3FOU.

Wednesday: VU7LD, KI4LXH, K0WK, KC8CSQ, VU2ZAP, XE2BC, VK2AMM, VK3FGRC, VK4JDF, VK6DU, W2FLA, W5YGR, WB9GKZ, WD4GEO, DJ4AX, IK7BPV, K0WHV, N2KNC, N2XDR, SP3E, VK3SE, VK6CJL, W6BH, W6VA, W9RPM, WP3PH, YO7HHI.

Thursday: CA5WQO, TF60IRA, K5PEW, N2IFA, IT9YAF, KC6RCM, KC8YTY, N1RPH, VE3BZW, W5VX, XE1GRR, ZL2KJ, XE2EX, K0WHV, K4BDR, K5WPN, KC9ECI, KD4WOV, KF2TI, KX5RW, N5KA, TF3ARI, W8GG, WA2CKP, WP4NIX, XE1TD.

Friday: EP3SMH, G4PLE, EA8/DJ1OJ, VU7LD, VE6FW, G4RNK, DK5IR, ZL4AS, VE1TV.

Saturday: VU7LD, VK2APG, VK6TQ, 4Z5LA, 9K2CQ, K5PEW, MM0DHQ, 3XM6JR, EA9IB, ER4DX, IZ6IMN, VK2BC, VK4BYX, VK5BC, VK5FDMR, VK5ZQ, VK7CJR, VK7FWAG, VQ9JK, 9A5MT, DD7ZW, DK5KMA, DL1DUO, DL1PR, DL5DKW, ES1GE, F8AFC, F8CFU, IK8YOQ, IZ5ASZ, IZ8EEL, JA6WJL, JG2TKH, RA3CQ, SM0DTK, UT9FJ, UU2JQ, UU6JJ, VK2NA, VK3SE, ZL3JT.

Sunday: VU7LD, 9W6SUE, F4BMY, F6KVP, G4PLE, K5PEW, KC2HOU, KK6AW, LU5BOJ/O, LU6ABJ, LU7AVV, LW4HBR, N2KNC/AG, YV1RDX, 6K2ABX, 9K2HN, BD7IUN, HL2IFR, JA0GJJ, JA2VMU, JA4FHE, JH1GZE, JH2CYU, JH2ZYY, JH3IMR, JI4POR, JR0JCB, JR7XOD, RX9TX, UA6LV, WD8CQB.

The weekends provided the major activity but even then it was well down on the contest weekends.

DEN2KNC, this call was reported a few times but unless someone can tell me otherwise, I shall discount it as misheard. Surely even a pirate station wouldn’t use DEN as a prefix?

The observant amongst you will have spotted one or two odd VK calls in the above lists. Four letter suffixes starting with "F" are Foundation Licensees. A Foundation Licensee is allowed 10 watts PEP on the following bands:- 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m, 2m and 70cm and are also allowed to use IRLP and Echolink.

Contests: Nothing, nada, nowt, until the RAC Canadian Contest on 30th December.

Sun: Mike VE2TH posted this to the 28MHz group,
“Hi Everybody, right now, we have a huge Aurora opening, plus Aurora Es at the same time. I have QSO as far as VE6/VE7, W6/W7 and in between. Signals are very loud over S-9 plus at times, it's great to have such a nice opening after a long silence of the band. More to come......”

This spectacular picture of aurora was taken by Gunnlaugur Juliusson in Reykjavik.

Those really eagle-eyed VKs will be thinking “Will he mention the cricket?”

I will, but only to say that we were out-classed in all aspects of the game, by a team that shone as bright as the sun in Perth. In two years or so time, I look forward to getting to every day down at Lord’s to see the contest renewed.