I got onto 10 meters for the first time. The antenna length is pretty reasonable. My original intention was to try to connect to a repeater. I have always been interested in FM on HF especially using a repeater. Beware, a lot of the repeater listings for 10 meters are outdated. No luck there.
I started to look into thew CW area. I heard a numerous beacons very clearly. callsign/b is the method. That took getting used to. Other than the beacons, there was no activity.
Has anyone made good contacts on the 10 meter band?
10 Meters can be erratic, my farthest contact ever was on 10meters, from Grapevine Texas to New Zealand on about 20 watts SSB. When I first turn on my rig, I tune through the bands just to see if 10meters is open. Sometimes I hear activity on 10meters and 15meters will be silent. 73'S KA5SIW
Erratic it is. Not as bad as 6 meters. About 15 years ago (before I had my license), I listened to 10 meters on my scanner. It was pretty interesting to hear people communicating on 10 meters about band openings on 6 meters. They would comment about an opening and then rush over to 6 meters. In a blink of an eye, the opening on 6 meters would close, and they would all be back to 10 meters.
This weekend, the CW beacons were very strong. It was amazing to pick up the signal when VOACAP showed almost no coverage at the times that I was listening.
Daytime Dx on 10M can be great. I've made lots of contacts on 10. When I feel like some quick Dx I check dxsummit.fi and if the band is good there's a lot going on.