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"The idea of adding Mexican states as multipliers in the ARRL 10 Meter Contest is not a new one; it’s been bandied about since before I arrived at HQ," said ARRL Contest Manager Sean Kutzko KX9X.
"The 10 Meter Contest provides a good combination of domestic and DX operations coupled with interesting propagation that is unique to this event, especially during the ebb of the solar cycle," Kutzko told radio-sport.net.
"Who doesn’t enjoy having more multipliers to chase?"
The Mexican amateur radio group DXXE has been spearheading efforts to activate all 32 of the new mults for this year's contest.
Their web page includes a map of all Mexican states, along with a rundown of the possible activity levels, and what stations might be expected on the air.
Some like Aguascalientes are characterized as "Easy" - while others like Baja California Sur are "Semi."
And then there are others which are said to be "Rare."
"They’re really fired up about this and have been since the announcement was made," Kutzko said of the DXXE and its Mexican organizational efforts.
"I think you will see a noticeable increase in the number of XE participants this year."
Mexican stations have been very few in number in recent years, so any increase would be welcomed by a lot of contesters, whether it was just one mult, or 32 new ones.
"This has been on the radar of the software developers for several months," said Kutzko. "With as much publicity as we have generated over the addition of the XE multipliers for the past year, I don’t expect many problems with logging software. The Robot has been ready for some time, so there shouldn’t be any issues with logs."
But there could be troubles with the operators, who for whatever reason, might not be ready, and will be using outdated software, and may have no clue was the "EMX" or "JAL" multipliers are.
"Has anyone got NA set up for the 10 meter contest next weekend since it now has added Mexican states as mults as well?" asked John Geiger AA5JG on CQ-Contest this past week.
It's the kind of question that many might confront in coming days, which means it is probably a good idea to check the Mexican states on your log software before the contest begins!
The 2010 ARRL 10 Meter contest begins at 0000z December 11 and ends at 2400z December 12.
