6 Meter Sporadic E Season, So Far

As I type this the WSJT-X monitor is packed with signals. I glance at it occasionally but do not transmit. The reason is my primary motivation for being active on 6 meters: DX. There isn't much to be worked, or at least not yet.

This is not to say that I've worked no DX this season. I have. We also have F-layer propagation, better when the solar flux is high (it's low at the moment), or if it connects with northern hemisphere sporadic E. That has helped extend openings deep into South America and the Pacific.

I have yet to work a European station this year, and all I've heard is a few of the western Europe big guns. Last year I worked hundreds in May. Looking back at my records it is clear that 2021 was an exceptional year. This year appears to be more typical. The pattern up to the end of May is close to that of 2020. I am referring to the propagation here since it depends on your location. In Europe and the southern US the DX opportunities have been better. VE3 is not the best locale for sporadic E.

So what have I worked? No new countries since working CE and CX earlier this spring, but some have been heard or I've heard others working them. These include: V4, HR, OA, C5, ZL7, ZD7, OD. With 113 countries worked on 6 meter digital modes there are few opportunities to work more using sporadic E. I will keep trying! Prospects for working many more countries using the F-layer are rapidly improving. See the following chart from Macintosh:

Speaking of ZL7, here is a screen capture from a friend of mine. This occurred Thursday May 19, while I was travelling to the Hamvention. You can't be everywhere. I'll just have to be patient for another opportunity.

Paul didn't work him but a few others in the area did. Solar flux was 180 at the time, a record for the waxing solar cycle 25. We can expect a lot more DX opportunities over the next few years.

With few DX opportunities so far this season, my operating time on 6 meters has been minimal. However, I monitor activity daily. There is nothing else for the station to do since my interest in HF wanes in the warm weather and I am busy with ham and other projects. I am usually ready to pounce when I hear a station of interest. I miss a few when I am busy outside the shack.

That means you may not hear me when sporadic E is intense. If it's ordinary single hop with Canada and the US, I often stay off the air. I keep monitoring promising DX paths and perhaps occasionally transmit targetted CQs. When I do that I rarely reply to calls from nearby. For example, I typically ignore calls from Canada and US stations when I call CQ DX/EU/SA/AF/AS etc. I especially ignore those calling on my transmit frequency, since it is QRM for possible DX replies, or on the 50.323 MHz intercontinental DX window. It's a matter of courtesy.

One ongoing amusement is the number of hams replying to fake calls and false decodes. They have improbable call signs and grids, and in the latter case are almost always very weak. A couple of recent examples caught my attention. 

One was a station signing R0BOT from FN03. It was almost certainly someone accusing another certain someone of using robot software, which is unethical. Yet many stations who ought to know better called R0BOT! In a way it's touching that so many hams put an enormity of trust into the software they use.

I will only note that if this false decode was a real message we are likely witnessing the start of WW III.

Which brings us to a more interesting question: where are the blog's technical articles?

It's true that these have lagged. The warm weather has driven me outdoors and to non-ham pursuits, but I am partway through a number of projects. They'll eventually generate articles. These include:

• Rebuild of the prop pitch motor gearbox. I've made significant progress and also hit roadblocks. More on this when I am done. On related news, I may soon acquire a spare (third) small prop pitch motor. I really need a spare on hand so that I can rapidly make a substitution when a motor requires service.
• The UI (user interface) of the antenna selector is substantially complete, and it is communicating with the Arduino doing the actual switching chores. The project was delayed when I decided to make a fundamental change to the sharing of duties between the two software components. I have an article in the works to describe the various design choices I've made. It may be helpful to others with similar station automation aspirations.
• I have in hand the final component for the 10 meter stack switch. Construction is not a priority right now so I may not have the stack operational until the fall. I altered the physical design from that for the 15 meter and 20 meter stack switches to ease construction and repair.
• Repairs are needed to the 3-element 40 meter yagi. It still works well so I've procrastinated making the several climbs needed to deal with the problems.
  

Another bump in the road is COVID. I came back from Hamvention with the virus as did a number of my friends. It was truly a super spreader event! My symptoms were minor and no more than an inconvenience for several days. Nevertheless it cost me close to a week of productivity. I am almost fully recovered. 

This was going to be the end of the article, and then something wonderful happened.

Above is a PSK Reporter map of where I was being heard on 6 meter FT8 during the early evening of June 3. I was surprised to be flagged by E51WL on 50.313 MHz. You can see that I noticed the flag close to an hour too late. By then the common watering hole was extremely busy so I switched to 50.323 MHz to try my luck.

Within five minutes I logged 3D2AG. The amp was off for that QSO so I turned it on and kept looking to the Pacific. In the midst of a long string of CQs I was called by E51WL. We worked despite the weak signals. He was copied here as high as -2 db over the following hour. I heard many others working both E51WL and 3D2AG.

I kept CQing and monitoring but there was no more. It would have been nice to work ZL and others down under. The breadth and length of the opening and the slow QSB are strong indicators that it was F2 propagation. 6 meters will become increasingly interesting over the next few years.