At last today the Sporadic E conditions opened up very well here in Coventry. I opened the M0URX log at 13:27z this afternoon on 28.525 MHz calling CQ, first to reply to my call was SM7DWL Nils in Sweden, great the first spring opening to Scandinavia so I turned the beam a little higher to see what other countries I could work on 10m. I enjoy trying to work as many DXCC in a year on each band, testing propagation trying to find the limits of openings and the limits of my antenna and trying to learn more about the behaviour of propagation at different times of the year and the sunspot cycle.
I continued my “CQ 10m” with a reply from RU2FA Nick from Kaliningrad so for sure the E’s were favouring the Baltic area, just how far will the band open? Will I work a new band slot? I was beginning to feel quite excited about the opening, I had a good feeling about the band today. Keen to keep the momentum going I called CQ again, I hear a quiet reply ,did I hear that correct? UK8 ? I asked the UK8 to repeat his call sign, I dropped the antenna to 90 degrees and the signal came up nice and strong it was UK8OM Mike, I explained to Mike that this was my first 10m Q with Uzbekistan and thanked him for the reply to my CQ call and that a direct QSL was on it’s way. We chatted for a few moments before signing off and I called CQ again.
Contacts with Austria, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Denmark followed in quick fire “59” Qs and some short hop E’s too with contacts into the Netherlands just a few 100 km’s away.
I spotted A71CT Sultan on the cluster just a few KHz away from me so I spun the dial to say hello, he heard my first call, and bang in the log. Great so the band is alive now, back to ‘525 for some more CQ calls, first of course checking to see if the frequency I had left was still available.
Quite soon the E’s were moving over to North and East Europe as lots of UA6’s were calling me and also plenty of QRP stations too, it’s a great feeling to pull the 1w stations out of the noise, with E’s taking away the signal with QSB it takes some effort to get these guys in the log, but I hear their delight in his voice when I hear “yes, yes 100% you have my call” so thank you for the patience of the QRP guys!
Then two stations from Republic of Georgia called me, 4L4MG Murman & 4L1AMM Amiran wow this is great! Very weak I was hearing E?3 I tried but couldn’t get the prefix so I was not sure where to turn the beam. A DL station told me that it was EI3 so I asked everyone to stand by and not to help as I tried again to call the EI3, his signal picked up well on backscatter I got him this time it was EI3GV Brendan in Ireland. I needed Ireland for my personal challenge of working as many DXCC’s as I can in 2010. That contact was followed by MW0CND Martin in Swansea another backscatter contact. The afternoon continued well with many more countries logged. By 17:00z I had logged 130 stations on 10m from about 20 countries, not a huge amount by any means but just great fun. Thanks to all of you.
