10m closed? Not so, but you need a good antenna!

Hello again all, the Swede is back!

This time I got the inspiration from all the good band openings on 10m.

Openings you say, I haven’t heard anything in a long time!!

Well, I used to say the same thing, after I scanned the band using my vertical AV-620, which for those of you who does not know what that is, it’s a 6-band vertical covering 6m to 20m, and it’s considered one of the best verticals.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to replace my home built 3 element 10m quad, which couldn’t take the snow/ice, without breaking, and of coarse that’s what happened again last winter/spring.

After a research online, I decided to buy an Italian made 4 element beam, the manufacturer is Sirio, and is well known among cb’ers for their lightweight and good antennas.

Since the 27mhz is close to 28mhz, its a breeze, to re-tune the antenna to cover the lower end of the 10m band.

When I got the new antenna, I saw that the element brackets were already pre installed, so then I only had to put the mast-bracket on, (boom in 2 sections)  and assemble the elements, put them in their brackets and install the gamma-match.

It took me about half an hour, and a little help to tune the gamma-match for 28,400 Mhz.

After it was assembled, I could not find a pipe that was tall enough, so it ended up sitting at the altitude of 2′ above my lawn, but even at that modest height, I heard CE, LU and PY stations with 59 signals!!

The next day, I got my “expensive” tower out, (top section) so now the beam was about 12′ up, and able to be turned, once again I hooked it up to my Icom 706, and again I heard a lot of stations, coming in with very good signal strength and so did a whole lot of beacons, I’ve never heard before!

While I had the antenna sitting “on the ground” it was hooked up to my Icom using about 100′ RG-58, but still very good signals on the rx and I also made quite a few contacts, to see how good side-lobe and F/B rejection it had, because as you all know, to see it on paper is one thing, but what you really get, is something else, so, when you have about 59+20-30dB on the front of the antenna, and you are getting about 8-9 S units on the back, you know it works! (note: not calibrated S meter!)

About a week later, I was lucky enough to get the antenna up in my tower, and results just got better!

Since I have been home for almost a month because of my injured shoulder, I have had the fortune to be able to monitor 10m, from when it opens, around 8-8,30 am, towards Europe and Scandinavia, and yes, apart from about 2 days, yes 2 days, the band has been open!

Around noon, the west-coast beacons are gaining strength (readable all morning though) but after noon people out there start to show up, and then you will hear FO4BM, with good signal, S 54-55, and then the VK and ZL stations show up, they are all easy to work, when there are no pile-up, and that’s with my old boat anchor Kenwood TS-520!

So, if you say that the band is not open, it might be because you just need a better antenna….
What I’m saying isn’t that I have the best antenna there is, but rather that 10m is open, if you just listen with a better antenna.

Don’t forget, that even you technician licensees are allowed on 10m, up to 28,500 Mhz, why not give it your best shot?

The antenna, Sirio SY 27-4 is about $170 incl from H&Y electronics (the cheapest place I’ve found) and it only took 3 days to get it, the weight is also very low, so a TV antenna rotator is more than adequate.

So, now what’s stopping you, get on the fun, get on 10m!