10m FT8

For a change, I decided to go on 10m FT8 today. A quick FT8 CQ brought a reply from DL2MEL (871km) but no other spots.

On 10m FT8 TX I use 2.5W which should be widely copied in Europe by Es. Initial conclusions are that there are far fewer on 10m FT8 than 6m FT8 or that my 10m antenna is quite poor. Of course, it could be conditions on 10m Es are not as good as yesterday when I was widely spotted on 10m WSPR with the same antenna and 500mW.

At this time of year I would have expected 10m FT8 to be quite busy.  Anyway, I shall stick with 10m FT8 today and see what happens.

UPDATE 0945z: Did I speak too soon? Now spotted 12 different stations on 10m FT8 RX all over Europe and the Canary Isles.

UPDATE 1336z: At the moment I am spotting a similar number of stations to those spotted on 6m FT8 yesterday. Most of these look like Es.

UPDATE 1928z: Seven South Americans spotted on 10m FT8 today so far. Time to go QRT now.