How To Find Ten Meter Activity

Have you given up on the ten meter band?

Although it's true that you can often scan the entire band
and not hear a single station, the band is far from dead.
The secret is knowing when to listen and what to listen for!

Determining if the band is open:

There are three easy ways to identify if the band should be open
First tune into WWV, this radio station broadcasts on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and
20 MHz. Start by checking 20 MHz and see if WWV is giving you a good strong
signal. If it is, 10 meters may indeed be open, If you can't hear it, it's
likely 10 will be dead. Also be sure to listen for the solar "Numbers" on
WWV at 18 minutes past each hour or 45 minutes past for WWVH in Hawaii
(WWVH is not on 20 MHz). If the Solar Flux is reported above 90 and the A
index is under 5, start calling CQ DX on ten meters! The higher the flux
and the lower the A index, the more DX you'll be working.

Next, there are the numerous beacon stations operating at the high end
of the 10 meter cw band, just below 28.3 MHz. The beacon stations can be
identified by the suffix added to the call, "/B" and "/BCN" are commonly
used. It's amazing how many times these low power stations are solid copy
into my station when there isn't a soul to be found on the band!
Don't give up though if you can't find any beacons, the opposite can
also be true, you might not hear a single beacon on the air, yet there
may be an opening to an area where there is no beacon.

Here is a list of just a few of the beacons to listen for when the band
seems to be dead.

28.225 KW7Y/b CAMANO ISLAND, WA 4 watts
28.244 WA6APQ/bcn LONG BEACH, CA
28.280 NO6J Thousand Oaks, Ca
28.259 KA1NSV/bcn Cape Cod

Lastly, the band itself can tell you if an opening is in progress.
Often when the band is opening or closing, blips, beeps and pops can be
heard flashing across the band. It has a sort of machine gun sound to it.
Once the opening is in full swing, the noises will cease.

What type of propagation should you be listening for:

Aurora: If you live in one of the northern states, can cash in on this
one. Whenever WWV reports a K value above 3, turn your beam north for lots
of fun. Don't worry if the voices sound like they're under water, this is
normal.

Satellites: Start asking around about 10 meter satellite activity. If you
can't find anyone with information, just start camping out on 29.408 MHz.
Sooner or later you'll hear the RS-12 satellite cw beacon. Then tune
29.410 through 29.450. The band goes crazy every day!

Meteorite Scatter: Again, ask local hams if they ever played around with
this mode. If nothing turns up, check the local papers for reports on
the various annual meteorite showers and the dates. Listen during the
peak of the shower. Signals will appear, peak and then drop off quickly.

Sporadic E: This type of propagation can occur at any time so you really
just have to be there at the right time if you are going to catch it. When the
activity extends up to the 6 and even the 2 meter bands, tune in to 28.885,
stations gather there to report openings. The peak months for
sporadic E seem to be mid-summer and mid-winter. Northern states
should point their beams south-west or west. The propagation often
oscillates back and forth between the two directions. Southern states
point north or north-east.

Ground Wave: After dark, and especially on evenings when even the
Sporadic E is not running, check out the band for ground wave signals.
The best time for contacts is between 8 and 10 pm local time. Local
groups congregate across the band each evening and many clubs have weekly
meetings on some preset frequency. Sunday evening seems to be a popular
meeting night. The best frequency I have found to date is 28.400.
It seems, if there is any activity out there at all, tuning to 400 will
find it. Also, don't forget 29.0 for AM activity and 29.6 for FM simplex.
If you have a good location or a decent gain antenna, contacts
a hundred miles away can be made regularly. (This would actually be line-
of-sight communications, since "TRUE" ground wave on ten meters would only
exist to about 15 miles or so.) To encourage ground wave activity, one
local ham club in my area sponsors a yearly GROUND WAVE CONTEST.
Notification is send out to the various clubs and hams in neighboring
cities and states. Consider this at your next club meeting.

Propagation begins at home:

If all of these modes have been tried and you are still not finding any
activity, the problem could be with your antenna. If at all possible put
up an antenna with gain. If you haven't already heard this, you will,
"You can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em!" It doesn't have to be 6
elements on a 36 foot boom either! A 14 foot boom with 3 elements can
give you around 7 Db gain over a dipole. You will be amazed at how much
better you will be hearing stations. What you had always thought was a
dead band, will actually be hopping with activity.

Okay, let's say you just don't have the room put up a beam of any sort. Try a
5/8 wave vertical. You still get 3 dB gain over a 1/4 ground plane. Gain
is gain, however you get it!

Even half wave dipoles and half wave verticals mounted close to the
ground (15-25 feet above ground) can be the perfect antennas... if the
conditions are right. Sporadic E on 10 meters provides those conditions.
These antennas have a high angle of radiation and let me tell you, I've
worked hundreds of stations when the Sporadic E comes in and some of the
strongest stations are those running these types of antennas.

Now that you know some of the many secrets of the ten meter band, you'd better
buy an extra log book or two, because you're going to need it to track all
the additional contacts you're going to make soon. See you on 10!