Is 10 meters open?
Is 10 open today?
That’s the question many of us are asking as we wait for the summer doldrums to disappear and sunspot maximum conditions to reappear.
One way is to put out a call and see if anyone answers.
When I first got my licence I was told it’s always worth calling on a band that seems dead – it may just be that everyone assumes the lack of activity means it’s dead, when in fact it’s open!
Another way for voice mode and CW operators is to see if they can hear any FT8 burbling on 28.074USB. If there is, decoding signals may indicate what paths are open.
Then there is the VERY extensive beacon network. There are beacons on all amateur bands, but 10 meters is very well served.
Most 10 meter beacons are found between 28.200 and 28.300, with some below and above these frequencies.
Beacons transmit their callsigns in Morse code, and may also give their locator square, power and antenna details. Listening to them can be good practice for copying Morse code!
There is a recently updated list of beacons here.
Remember to enable CW on your receiver to get the correct frequency!
Early this morning I could only hear the German beacon DL0IGI, transmitting on 28.205.
At lunchtime, I couldn’t receive this beacon – but instead the Faroe Islands beacon OY6BEC was very strong on 28.235.
This is part of a comprehensive set of beacons in a radome to protect from the weather – shwon in photo left!
There is a special worldwide set of 18 beacons on 28.200 – the International Beacon Project.
Each beacon transmits for 12 seconds once every 3 minutes at 100 watts. There are then 4 x 1 second dashes sent at 100, 10, 1 and 0.1 watts.
This lunchtime I could only hear 4X6TU in Israel, and I copied the 100 and 10 watt dashes, I could just hear the 1 watt dash, but not the 0.1 watt dash.
Beacons may transmit a continuous tone between sending the callsign – so if you hear a tone, listen for a bit and see if a callsign appears.
At least it’s something to do if the band doesn’t have any QSOs on it!