Summer 2006 Issue

Six Meters Goes Wild!

Regular operators on the magic band were treated to extraordinary propagation this past June. Here Contributing Editor WB2AMU summarizes some of the numerous openings experienced by North American 6-meter operators.

By Ken Neubeck, WB2AMU

Photo A. Here is the three-element Yagi antenna setup of Howard Sine, WB4WXE, during his trip to Antigua as V26HS. Howard had one really good day of propagation (June 4th) and two decent days during his one-week stay. The longest distances he worked were to VE7SL (CN 88), W7CE (CN 87), and W7MEM (DN 17). (Photo courtesy of WB4WXE)

During the summers of 2004 and 2005, sporadic-E conditions were modest at best for the months of June and July for much of North America. Some stations in the northern part of New England and in eastern Canada saw very little transatlantic sporadic-E conditions into Europe. There were long droughts of sporadic-E activity in general.

Part of the reason for the reduction of sporadic-E during the past two summers may have been the presence of moderate-to-high geomagnetic activity that resulted in aurora activity during those months. Typically, unless an intense aurora occurs, high geomagnetic activity seems to be a deterrent for sporadic-E activity. (This will be the subject of an upcoming article for CQ VHF written by Jon Jones, NØJK, and me.)

With virtually a handful of sunspots occurring during the first half of 2006, along with limited geomagnetic activity, there seemed to be the potential for a decent sporadic-E season beginning in May. During the winter sporadic-E season, activity was good for the southern tier of the United States, but for the higher latitudes there was minimal activity on 6 meters. Thus, there was a hopeful expectation that things would be better for the summer.

During May there were a number of decent openings between the U.S. and the Caribbean, as well as between the U.S. and Europe. One station that was worked quite a bit during May by stations in parts of the U.S. was EH8BPX, Avelino, in the Canary Islands. Also, a few expeditions to the Caribbean took place, such as one conducted by Howard Sine, WB4WXE, to Antigua, V26 during the first week of June, and the one conducted by Chris, W3CMP, to Haiti during the third week of June.
Howard reported that June 4th was his best day, with 29 states and 11 countries worked. He gave several VE’s, as well as W3EP, a new country using a three-element Yagi and 100 watts (photo A). Some of the VE stations that Howard worked via two-hop were VE1YX, VE2CTU, VE2XK, VE2DFO, VE3GIB, VA3DX, VE3XN, and VE3IC. As you can see in photo A, Howard’s three-element Yagi was hooked up to an ICOM IC-706 running barefoot.

Japan to the U.S. on 6 meters!

During the first week of June, however, a really incredible occurrence took place on 6 meters. On the evening of June 4th, a number of stations in Texas hooked up with Japan! One was Alan Benoit, WQ5W, and here is what he had to say:

The prelude to the opening was pretty normal. Sunday morning we had a nice stateside opening, and EH8BPX was readable for a few hours straight. We had QSOs at 1446Z and 1729Z. Several 5’s also reported working into CT3 and CT, but I couldn’t hear them. In the afternoon the band opened to the Caribbean, and I worked FY1FL for a new one at 21:51Z.

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