A good 10 meter antenna for the size and price is the MFJ 1890 2 element Moxon Yagi. It costs less than $100, and the longest element is about 12 feet long, and easy to turn with a TV rotor. A couple of years ago I worked 103 countries on 10 meters during the weekend of the CQWW contest, and that was with the antenna at 16 feet high and blocked to the north by a part of my house with steel siding on it. Probably not a worse place to put an antenna, but it worked!
73 John AF5CC
On Sat, Jun 10, 2017 at 7:21 PM, rsoifer1--- via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
Mode A has always been weaker than Mode B, but with a decent 10-meter antenna it is quite usable. Many operators access Mode B with a 2-meter beam of some sort, then try to hear Mode A with a dipole or ground-mounted vertical , then complain that they cannot hear it.
There is no substitute for a good 10-meter beam. A tri-bander usually works too, but check the tuning to see that the SWR isn't too high at 29.5 MHz. If it is, you may have to re-tune it or even shorten the elements slightly. If you absolutely cannot put up a beam, your second choice can be a 10-meter ground plane, elevated so it is mounted in the clear. It has no forward gain of course, but it will give you a low radiation angle, which will help in hearing AO-7 when it is at low elevation which it is most of the time.
With Field Day coming up, a little attention now to your 10-meter antenna will show up in your results later.
73 Ray W2RS _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb