New Zealand on 6 Meters

The first half of the summer sporadic E season has not been the best in this part of the world. DX openings have been weak and brief. I haven't seen it so poor for several years. We're hoping for improved conditions in the second half of the season.

Despite the lack of fireworks there has indeed been DX to work. It just takes more work. You have to monitor the band, watch what others are working and spotting, and have the antenna pointed in the right direction at the right time when that rare DX signal rises out of the noise. I started the year with 122 DXCC worked and I now have 130. That's pretty good but I am never satisfied. I want more.

Let's roll back to the evening of June 23 when I worked #130, since that was a good one. There was periods of very good propagation to W6 and XE during the day, often quite strong even with the yagi towards Europe. That made me hopeful for propagation over the Pacific Ocean in the evening. It's a not uncommon pattern. But with so few hams over that vast expanse I could only monitor, occasionally CQ and hope for actual activity. Surprises happen.

When I saw US stations working New Zealand I paid close attention. The path slowly crept my way, moving from W0 to W9 and W8, and then in the Toronto area, which is about 300 km to the southwest. Soon enough I decoded weak FT8 messages from a couple of ZL1 stations. 

This was my first time hearing New Zealand on 6 since March. That opening was very brief and I missed out. I flipped on the amp, starting its 3 minute warmup. It was a warm day and I didn't want to heat up the shack unnecessarily by turning it on sooner.

By the time the amp warmed up there were no ZL decodes. So I called CQ and was quickly answered by ZL1RS on the North Island, north of Auckland. On my one visit to New Zealand over 30 years ago I was in that area so I could picture the scenery. Signals were painfully weak but we quickly completed the QSO. I was very happy to log him.

I notified my 6 meter buddies (we're a foursome now) and hunted for more, and CQ'd when there were no signals from across the Pacific. I heard only one other ZL that evening, albeit too briefly to attempt a QSO.

You have to anticipate the propagation to maximize your chances. I had pointed the yagi to ZL well in advance because there was strong propagation to W6 earlier in the day, and then XE came rolling in. As you can see from the PSK Reporter map below that these bracket the great circle path to New Zealand.

After the contact I received a nice email from Bob ZL1RS. It must be quite the challenge to operate 6 meters from that corner of the world due to the distance from there to the most active corners of the globe. On the other hand, almost every QSO is DX!

None of my friends in the area had the same luck as me. However the scales soon tip the other way, and the next day one friend worked 3B9FR while I came away empty handed. That day there were other long haul "almost" QSOs in Asia, and I did manage to work 9K, but that's it. There are enough new and promising signs of DX propagation to suggest that the second half of sporadic E season will be better than the first. Hope springs eternal.

Win or lose the chase is exciting and I'm having fun. I wanted to share that experience by deferring completion of a long delay technical article so that I could publish this one while the propagation continues to be good. 6 meters is truly the magic band.