10m is open to Japan! konnichiwa! 今日は
Today I was finally able to work some Japanese hams for the first time. I have been trying to work Japaneese stations for awhile now, but the conditions were never really good enough for me to work over there. That is until today. I didn’t just make one contact with Japan, I got to make 3!!!
Using the Flex 5000A, my trusty Hustler 6BTV vertical and just 100 watts I was able to make 3 good contacts to Japan finally! I was elated to add them to the log.
First up was Yoshi JA1oJJ outside of Tokyo. We actually had a small rag-chew type qso which was very pleasant and rewarding since most of the time they are simple signal report exchanges. He was such a nice guy and I explained to him that he was my first ever contact to Japan.
Second up I spoke to Mashiko JE1LET in Odawara, a coastal city not very far from Yokohama. Mashiko was also a very nice guy and we enjoyed another short rag-chew style QSO as opposed to the quick signal reports. Again I found this fun as he told me a bit about his station and I told him a bit about mine as well.
Lastly I was able to make a contact with Teruo, JA3JOT. This last contact was more of a tough one since there were strong state-side stations 50khz above and 100 khz below the frequency. This made for some strong QRM that made it difficult to pull out his 5/4 signal at times. But with a bit of timing between when the interfering stations were talking and when Teruo was speaking, we made the contact.
I had so much fun making the contacts. But then the band started to fade out some on me, so I hung it up for the night.
I plan on rushing home every night to see if 10m is open for great DX.
73! de Nick N9SJA
K9XN 
I’m jealous! Wish I could get in on some of that afternoon 10m DX. Maybe 12m is open, too. It often seems just as dead as 10. Let’s hope this isn’t as good as it gets for the solar cycle.
10m, 12m and 15m are good lately. But I have been spending most of my time making contacts on 10 and 12m. I hope 10m is active for awhile. It really has been hot for the past 2 weeks or so. I wonder how long it will last.