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| 10m wire dipole strapped to a 10m pole. | Coax to 10m vertical dipole runs up pole. | Despite many ferrites keying was lumpy! |
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| 10m wire dipole strapped to a 10m pole. | Coax to 10m vertical dipole runs up pole. | Despite many ferrites keying was lumpy! |
The antenna for the 2024 ARRL 10m Contest was a simple vertical wire dipole with the centre at about 5m installed the day before the contest. The lower half of the wire dipole was pulled away from the pole and a ferrite balun was used at the feed-point.
Operating was almost entirely in Search & Pounce mode, with little or no CQing.
Conditions favoured further away stations. For much of the time closer-in EU stations were in an undecipherable "blur", with signals and multiple reflections bouncing all over the place. By contrast most DX stations in Asia, North America and South America were relatively easy to work and signals were still crisp and clear (unlike the at times propagation distorted EU signals).
Despite a relatively disadvantaged QTH towards North America, more QSOs were made with North America (253) and than with EU (219).
The bulk of the Asian QSOs were UA9 (47), JA (20), BY (11), UN (4), VU (4), HS (3) and VR (3).
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| 40% with North America, 35% EU, and 18% Asia. | QRV on 10m CW from early morning to early evening on both days. |
Apologies if the keying was at times a bit lumpy. Despite the use of many ferrites some RF still appears to be making its way into the PC and occasionally messing up the PC generated sending. Many QSOs were therefore made with hand sending to avoid the lumpy PC generated CW.
The Top 20 Countries break-down :
| DX |
Top 20
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DX |
Top 20
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| W |
211
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OH |
9
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| UA |
89
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EA |
8
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| UA9 |
47
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KP4 |
6
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| VE |
25
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SM |
6
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| DL |
20
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UR |
6
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| JA |
20
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YU |
5
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| LU |
12
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CT |
4
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| BY |
11
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F |
4
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| 4X |
10
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G |
4
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| PY |
10
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LA |
5
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DX (Non-EU) Countries are shown with a PINK BACKGROUND
Almost the entire contest was spent tuning up and down the band looking to call stations "seen" on the Band-Map. With a relatively simple (vertical dipole) antenna, trying to crack large pile-ups was to be avoided.
The list of "easy" European Multipliers which were not worked includes : EA8RM, GJ2A, GW4J, MI4I, MI5I, SV9MBH and ZA1F. Either these stations were totally inaudible or were too weak to call at the times when they were spotted. On the other hand there were just two DX multipliers which had been seen as spotted but which were not worked : HZ1HZ and J8AA.
The only UK stations worked (usually with some difficulty!) were : G3RWF, G4IIY, GM5X, GU4CHY, M4T, M5B, MM2N and MM3T.
Rising ground towards the north west means that the QTH in OE5 is not at all favourable for North America, particularly with a simple dipole antenna only a few feet about the ground! The following NA Multiplier stations were heard and called but my signals evidently couldn't quite make it that far : ID: WJ9B, MB: VE4TL and VE4GL, MT: N9RV, NE: N0GN, UT: N5LZ and NG7M and WA: W7WA
Doing an ARRL 10m Contest with a low wire dipole does not compare (in terms of the number of QSOs and Mults) with the use of a 4el 10m yagi at 80ft, which was the case in the 2011 ARRL-10m Contest entry as G3TXF, but it can be just as much fun!