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I bought a 10m radio on eBay back in 2007 during the solar minimum when 10m propagation was nothing to write home about. I verified that the radio worked at that time, though it didn't seem to work very well. And I wasn't sure if it was the radio's fault or the band's.

I was thinking of breaking the radio back out to see what is going on, but was wondering what the more experienced 10m band users are experiencing at this time. How is propagtion on the 10m at this time as we are supposedly approaching the peak of this solar cycle? I do note that this solar cycle (the 24th) is much less active than the previous one.

I'm kind of interested to hear from 10m enthusiasts about how well (or not) they are doing on the band, compared, say, with earlier years when the sun was quiet.

Cyberherbalist
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One way to see how the band is performing right now is to use the DX Maps web site.

Paul
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  • That is an interesting site, but I notice that pretty much all of the QSO reports are for CW contacts. It doesn't tell me anything about voice. – Cyberherbalist Jan 23 '14 at 22:40
  • @Cyberherbalist I suspect that the spots are generated automatically by a CW skimmer program. The difference in propagation shouldn't be too much different between 28.0 MHz and 28.3 MHz, so it'll be a fairly accurate indication on how open the band is, but maybe not the activity level on phone. – W5VO Jan 24 '14 at 10:43
  • Volunteers can send spots who sign up for an account. He may have agreements to use other sites data, that I don't know. – Paul Jan 24 '14 at 11:36
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One way to test propagation at your location is to use WWV and WWVH. While they don't have frequencies up in the 10m range, you can get a good idea of propagation on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20Mhz from CO and from Hawaii.

rhaig
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