 |
 |
 |
||
| 10m wire dipole strapped to a 10m pole. | Coax to 10m vertical dipole runs up pole. | CW keying improved thanks to a WinKeyer! |
|
|
|
||
| 10m wire dipole strapped to a 10m pole. | Coax to 10m vertical dipole runs up pole. | CW keying improved thanks to a WinKeyer! |
The antenna for the 2025 ARRL 10m Contest was a simple vertical wire dipole with the centre at about 5m. 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 entirely in Search & Pounce mode .... and with no CQing.
Operating stopped relatively early on both days : at 1530z on Saturday with 250 QSOs in the log and at 1500z on the Sunday with 500 QSOs in the log. Further QSOs would have been possible on both days had the operator not decided to finish off with these nice round QSO numbers!
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, slightly more QSOs were made with North America (190) and than with Europe (182).
The Asian QSOs were UA9 (35), BY (10), UN (9), 4X (8), JA (5), HL (3), VR (3) HS (2), 4J (2) and one each from 3W, 5B, EX and TA.
South America : PY (10), LU (9) and one each from CE, CX, FY, HC, HK, PJ2, PJ4 and 9Y4.
Just five QSOs with Oceania : DU2W, FK8IK, VK1A, VL4A and ZM4T.
 |
 |
|
| 38% with North America, 36% EU, and 17% Asia. | QRV on 10m CW from early morning to mid afternoon on both days. |
The Top 20 Countries break-down :
| DX |
Top 20
|
-
|
DX |
Top 20
|
| W |
168
|
4X |
8
|
|
| UA |
48
|
G |
8
|
|
| UA9 |
35
|
I |
8
|
|
| DL |
13
|
9A |
7
|
|
| EA |
11
|
LY |
6
|
|
| PY |
10
|
YU |
6
|
|
| VE |
10
|
JA |
5
|
|
| BY |
10
|
OK |
5
|
|
| LU |
9
|
PA |
5
|
|
| UN |
9
|
HA |
5
|
DX (Non-EU) Countries are shown with a PINK BACKGROUND
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: 4O4A, ER3UA, ER4A, IS0AFM, SV9DJO, TK4TH, TK5MH, T77BL, ZA1RR and Z35F. Either these stations were totally inaudible or were too weak to call at the times when they were spotted. At times some were in an indecipherable echoy "blur".
On the other hand there were just three DX multipliers which had been seen as spotted but which were not worked : J69DS, 5R8IC and 9G5AF.
The UK stations worked (usually with some difficulty!) were : G4BJM, G4IRN, G4RGK, GM3YTS, GM5X, GW4J, M0DHO, M2G, M4T, M5B, M6T, MI5I, MM2N and MW2I.
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!