Looking at the PSKreporter maps, most Vara stations are still strongly focussing on the 20m HF band.
Sure, 20m is a good band but hey, there is good propagation on higher bands too. Often, the optimum band is not 20m.
I have very nearly daily contact to US stations on 10m with good signals.
Check out
select your QTH (callsign prefix) area and the DX (callsign prefix) location of interest and hit the "Band by band" option (green keys below map). It takes a moment and you get this:
Lot's of scope on the higher bands. Just get the timing right and it works. I dwell on 10m daily from about 22:00 Z to 04:00Z usually. Then often 15m and 17m.
Go higher !
73
Dieter, VK3FFB
Today my station will again for a while on 30m (25th Feb). Let´s see....
Well, hello ! 10m Vara seems popular in North-America today:
LH Beacons (1Øm):
21:35 VK3FFB -13
21:34 K6NLX -Ø8
21:33 KBØZOM +Ø1
21:32 KEØIJN -Ø4
21:28 KN6JWG +ØØ
21:27 KU4WW -18
21:Ø5 NØDZQ -14
2Ø:33 KB8CR -16
(At NC3Z today, used <LHR> command)
I like it.
73
Dieter, VK3FFB
30m ...would be nice :) At 17m i got already some stations but yes, i agree with VK3FFB!!
I was on 17mtrs last night. FT8 out of EU was booming into VK, but no Varac stations replied to my CQ or did anyone appear on my beacon log or on PSK Reporter. 😪
Yes, I agree with Phil about 20 and 40 metre thing with operators.
Cheers Mark VK1MK
Three things are favourable on 10m
a) relative antenna height ( h/lambda ) is more than on lower bands, giving better take-off angle, even at "low" antenna heights above ground
b) antenna dimensions are small. lambda/2 is only 5.33 m (17.5 ft). Easy to accommodate a resonant antenna
c) the man-made noise level is low. Better SNR.
73
Dieter, VK3FFB
10M has been my favorite band lately. And see quite a lot of traffic there.
I agree 100%. unfortunately there is still noticeable this strange behaviour to use only 20 & 40 meters when a new mode appears. We shall follow MUF not habits. Use of WARC frequency should became familiar during week end if the bands are occupied by rtty contests.
73 de Phil,iz1fks
Do you have proof the higher bands work? 😁