VE3EN 6m Blog (6meters.com)

Another Day, Another Opening towards Europe. After a slow start to the season, the East – West Es over the Atlantic has been great. For this opening I was somewhat out of the main path, however I managed to work Pete TF/VE3IKV while he was up in Iceland for a new 6m DXCC #95. The grid square was HP83. He was being worked by others to the south and I was hearing nothing at all. Suddenly he drifted in for only about 2 minutes and then was gone. With Pete sending at over 30 wpm CW, that was all we needed to get the QSO done. The only other station I worked during this opening was Bert S57RR at 14:23 UTC on CW.

Despite Es season being pretty lame at times, lately there have been a fair share of openings across the Atlantic Ocean. This evening provided a nice opening with great signals via the northern EU path. This Es opening also had 3 distinct waves where signals would come and go. The first wave started at 18:43 UTC with PA2M in the Netherlands worked on 50.081 CW. A few minutes later I worked ON4IQ in Belgium on 50.087. I did hear a DL station out of Germany very weak, but was unable to work him.

After about a half hour of quiet, things opened up again with a much more stable 2nd wave with many big signals. My first QSO during this wave was with G8BCG in England at 19:26 UTC. The last QSO was with EA6SA on Balearic Island at 20:56 UTC. I happened to be sitting on 50.082 listening to nothing in particular while I did some internet work when I heard somebody suddenly call CQ with a fairly weak signal. Sure enough it was EA6SA and I worked him without any problems. This particular opening featured many stations out of mainly France, Spain and England. Other stations worked were F6KHM, EA4SV, F6HRP, EA5KA, EA5FX, EA1EJ, G3XRJ, EA1YV and CT1ILT.

Throughout the evening I did see many spots for a German station up in Greenland around 50.102.5. OX/DL3GCS was being worked by many 1′s and 3′s located to the south and east but I was unable to copy anything at all. I decided to go take another listen and at 21:40 UTC he did drift in within a 559 signal on CW. Nobody was answering his CQ’s and I worked him easily. I worked one other EU station this evening and that was G4IFX at 22:26.

A nice opening indeed!

Friday June 22nd, 2012 was the day before Field Day. I was over at my friend Steve’s (VA3FM) house preparing for field day when during the evening we had to drive back into the city to pick a few things up. I happened to check my cellphone and the ON4KST chat and to my surprise, a good sized opening towards Europe was in progress. I basically made Steve stop by my house so I could get in on some action. I caught the tail end of the opening. At 22:51 UTC I worked David MM0AMW in Scotland, followed shortly after by MD0CCE on the Isle of Man. I finished off by making a SSB contact with F6EAS in France. Signals were fairly strong.

During the afternoon of June 21, 2012 a fairly intense Es cloud was hanging over the northeast. Signals out of the lower EN grids across the great lakes were very strong. This opening also featured some Short Hop Es into the lower FN grids and upper FM grids with distances between 600 and 800km. Below is a video of Chuck W3TC in grid FN00.

After about a week of pretty much quiet, finally some DX on 6m. Things were dead all day long with the exception of typical Es into the 4 call area down the east coast. In the evening out of nowhere, PV8ADI in Brazil was in with a great signal. The only other DX heard here was NP4A in Puerto Rico who was 59 on SSB.

Not much going on the past week on 6m. The Sporadic Es conditions have almost been non existent. Last DX worked was on June 12th. On that day I managed to work LU7YS, 9Y4D, MM0BQN and XE2X. That was a weird day for Es. Seemed to be open in all directions, but only marginally. There was a bit of Aurora this past weekend, but that’s about it. Things better turn around and soon. So far this is shaping up to be one dud of an Es season.

This past weekend the ARRL June VHF contest took place and through most of the weekend, things were a bit hit or miss with only a few narrow signal paths on Es. That was until the evening of the Sunday session when things opened up with a couple of intense Es cloud hanging around the northern tier of the United States. This is probably the most packed I have seen the band in a very long time. CW signals from 065 to 100 and SSB signals from 125 all the way up to 300. 6m sounded like 20m during the peak of CQ WorldWide. I decided to play around and CQ Contest for a while and had a pretty good pileup going. Very intense signals out of the 8 and 9 call areas across the great lakes. Also had very short skip into the lower FN / upper FM grids. Through all of the intense signals the west coast was also heard and I managed to work a bunch of DM and DN grids. I did hear a few CM grid stations out of Northern California, however they were heard calling other contest stations. I added a 7 minute video below of myself during the contest with a pileup.

A typical hot June evening felt like things were about to open up towards Europe and sure enough it did. This season I have been left out of many openings and for a chance I got to sit in the bulls eye. I started hearing the CS5BALG/b again so I moved up to the CW band and through some of the random contest stations, I was hearing CT1FFU on 50.094 at around 5pm local time. I worked both him and CT1EKY. Both had great signals that continued to rise. I decided to spin the VFO into the SSB section and to my surprise I was hearing a strong Italy station working a USA station. Finally another hop deeper into Europe. I went up the band a little bit and called CQ DX Europe and suddenly I had a mini pileup of Italy and Ireland stations. Ireland is where my signal was first landing and another good hop was working its way down towards the Italy region. The first station to answer my call was IW1AZJ in JN35. A video below shows him along with IK5YJY in JN53 and I4EAT in JN54. During this opening I worked nearly 50 stations out of Europe including many out of Ireland, Wales and Italy. Others I worked included F5BZB in France, G4RRA in England, S57RR in Slovenia and OE9ICI in Austria. Bert S57RR was a true s9 at times.

The biggest treat of the opening was working a brand new 6m DXCC. I seen 4O3A in Montenegro spotted on the DX Cluster at 50.099. I quickly spun the VFO there and I caught him calling CQ. His signal was not very strong, but easy copy. I managed to work him second call and DXCC #94 was in the bag. Video of this contact is also listed below.

What a great opening !

The morning of Sunday June 10, 2012 brought a very early European opening. This was a sign of good things to come later in the day.
I woke up at 545am to let the dog out and I decided to turn the radio on and sure enough the CS5BALG/b in Portugal was in and growing stronger. Over the next few hours I was able to work EA7KW in Spain, CT1HZE in Portugal and CN8KD in Morocco. The opening for my area did not spread deep into Europe. Stations to the south and east again had a better angle off the Es cloud. Betting things were to come.

My friend Steve VA3FM decided to stop by this evening as he wanted to check out 6m. There was a pretty large opening going on between Europe and North America. The only problem was that the signals were landing everywhere but here. Stations in southern Ontario, east coast and even VE2′s to the north were in on the action. After about an hour of listening, we stepped outside to discuss our plans for field day coming up. After about 20 minutes, we came back in and to my delight, there is PA0RDYin the Netherlands calling CQ on 50.085. His signal was not very strong, but I worked him without any problem. The opening lasted about 20 minutes with signals drifting in and out. Stations worked were PA0RDY, CT1ILT, GM3YTS, GM4UYE, PC5C and finally GM4WJA on both SSB and CW. Below are a couple of videos showing PA0RDY and GM3YTS.