India on 10 Metres

It's been another one of those lazy Sundays where I have been ambling around various bands, not quite settling on any one in particular. 10 metres seemed quite active around midday and there were some good signals, but it was one of those days where nothing seemed to work for me. I just couldn't break through the pile-ups. I even moved to the bottom of the band calling CQ in morse and looking at the Reverse Beacon Network to see where my signal might land. Alas, after several calls I finally struggled through to Moscow with a pathetic 4dB signal. 4dB is the lowest signal I have seen reported on the network. I even wondered if there was something was wrong with the aerial, my trusty half-wave wire dipole, strung up just two metres above the ground.

Several CQ calls later in CW and I gave up as there were no further beacon reports. I switched off the IC7000, feeling quite despondent and tried to console myself with a cuppa. I don't know what possessed me to return to the radio and try again but, after making that cuppa, I returned to 10 metres and heard VU2XO calling on 28.535. Th resulting pile-up was too much to contemplate, yet I couldn't resist giving it another try regardless and, to my amazement, I managed to break through with my 10 watts and piece of wire after only two calls, offering a 5/7 report into the New Delhi area! What a result! OK, this wouldn't be a big deal if you were running 1kW and an antenna in the clouds, but I was quite chuffed.

        Date          Time     Call     Locator   In     Out    Mode   Prop  Distance

        18/11/2012    12:15    VU2XO    ML88PQ    5/5    5/7    SSB    F2    6651

You never know if you don't try!