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| Courtesy: DXMAPS.COM |
Having been on 6m now for over 40 years (yikes!), like most 6m operators I've come to expect a fairly good number of Es openings by the end of June. This summer's Es season has been beyond poor, with far too many days looking much like Saturday morning's 6m propagation map (above) from DX Sherlock.
So far, the only bright spot for me has been a very short twenty-minute opening to Argentina and a CW QSO with LU5FF on May 24 at around 1500 hours local time.
Most 6m ops feel that sunspot cycle peak years also produce poorer than normal Es activity so maybe this is all just normal...or perhaps our global climate shifts are having an effect on the triggering mechanisms for Sporadic-E, just 60 miles above our heads.
Real-time 6m propagation can be followed here; Region 2 for North America and Region 3 for Europe.
After so many summers on six, I personally believe that the best propagation usually happens during the first week of July, so there is still hope for a really terrific month ahead and still time for whoever controls the magic to yet redeem themselves.
2 comments:
As I say I was very active on 6 during the previous solar peak. This time around, not so much (mainly because I've only this year put up a permanent antenna -- and now I'm moving!). But I have been tuning to 6m here and there during the month and I have to agree, I sure don't see any openings. I've heard some very weak, down-in-the-mud Es stuff from the midwest, but too weak for me to even work (and openings were short). I'm not on much though but from what I've seen it sounds like what you're also observing.
- 73, Bert WF7I
It's been very spotty out west here. The east coast guys have had a lot more prop than us but nothing like normal. It looks like it may just be a poor Es season everywhere for some reason.
Steve
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