Every year when the major DX contests roll around I select a band 40-10 that I work for the most part and fill in some needed holes in the band country search. This year, I chose ten meters since I needed to fill in some areas in Europe and what ever else I could find.
I was very surprised on Saturday morning of the strong signals from just about every country in Europe, some signals as strong as 25 to 30 db over nine.
I managed to work several interesting new band countries, 9A, OM 4O3, plus those big surprises P33 that is a special call for 5B4 one CN2, HI3 VK9LM from Lord Howe on quite a bit got this one on two bands , FY5, CQ3 P40, BY6, B4L and a few on 15 to round out the contest with several JA stations.
I am not one that spends endless hours saying the same thing over and over, 59/04 or or 599/04 or 59 Ky, or 599/KY. this becomes total boredom within an hour, or more. No, I prefer to hunt around or the hunt and pounce method. It has been profitable for me, I am not interested in racking up a huge score, just adding some new ones on various bands.
The CW version of the contest will be shortly and I plan to attack ten meters again if the band is good, if it is not then 15 will do, we will just have to see how the propagation goes?
With that, hope you found some good ones, worked some new ones, or new band countries, I have not done any 80 meter work for years, perhaps in the next few years I might construct something for that band once again. 40 I have good luck on that band and nearing 300 countries, with twenty well over that mark, 15 closing the gap quickly and ten have some work to do. Maybe one day I might rekindle my interest in 30 and 12, but for now too busy with the other bands. Ok, regular reporting resumes tomorrow. Looks like a few good ones on tap for November, more info to come.
