Good luck on my new 10 m dipole, first EU contact on SSB!

Last few days, I have been trying to improve the performance of my newly purchased End Fed Half Wave antenna for 40, 20,15 and10 m by trying out various orientations. I could improve the performance on 40 m a bit, but 20 m performance deteriorated. In between, I could hear a few stations very strong on 10 m and the band noise was much lower than on other bands in my region. I could also have one DX and a couple of VU contacts from regions on which I have not been successful on other bands. This made me think of a half-wave dipole antenna for 10 m or 28 MHz band. Another reason was that I have homebrewed dipoles several times in the past and deployed them well as they are quite simple.

First I tried folding and twisting back the existing 20 m dipole, so that each side would measure 2.5 m, but it did not tune at all on 10 m with HI SWR popping up in the radio. In some parts there were up to 3 layers of wire, which I thought could be the culprit and I removed them immediately. This led to only a small area of folding and twisting back, as is standard practice, for potential future tuning in case VSWR is not favourable.

In the new format, though VSWR ranged from 3.0 to 1.0 across the 10 m band, it could be tuned using built-in automatic antenna tuner of the radio to near 1:1. Then I heard a CQ 10 m call from DK8WG and to my pleasant surprise, I could get an immediate reply and a three minute contact followed! It was a solid 7376.3 km, 320.8° NW on short path as seen on qrz.com.  It was at 17.35 local time (IST: UTC+5.30). That was my first ever contact from Germany on SSB. Of course he was using a multi-element beam antenna. I was still copying him loud and clear after 30 min and he was working stations from EU as well as Asia.

Now I have to think of adding a 1:1 current balun which I had purchased recently for dipole antenna experiments. Currently the cut end of my RG 213 cable which I am using for 10 m antenna is not having a PL 259 connector. I have ordered one online and once it arrives, I will connect the balun and recheck before tuning the antenna further. It was a 30 m long RG 213 cable pre-crimped with PL 259 connectors at both ends. Now it has the antenna end bare after cutting into two and just twisted on to the antenna elements as an initial prototype. One limb of the dipole and the feedpoint has been attached between two CPVC pipes attached to the balcony fence while the other end has been tied using a nylon wire of about 30 cm to a galvanized iron pipe holding my CP22E VHF antenna. So it is an inverted V antenna, fully on my small open balcony.

Later I could also hear one CW signal quite well lower down on the 10 m band as well as a few digital signals on multiple regions. I have ordered CW paddles as well, which will take about 2 weeks for supply from a VU manufacturer. When I get it, I plan to relearn CW and use the paddles for the first time. Earlier in my ham life, I used to work a lot of DX on CW with a straight key and my homebrew vaccum tube radio, on 40 m. While the basic noise level on all other bands in this region is 5,9, it is only 5,3 on 10 m which gives me some hope as long as the peak of solar cycle 25 lasts. Beyond that I know that propagation on 10 m will come down and I will have to go for the lower bands.