Saturday, August 9, 2014

6 Meter E season near end " I THINK "

I started a blog page this after noon about the dwindling 6 Meter E season....BUT this evening I checked the reflector and saw some activity, and be darned if we didn't have a small opening from the North West to W6 land.
My past few years of 6M logs tell me that my first E season contacts are in the first week of May and my last of the season are the first week of August. I have not had a 6M E contact past August 5th for the past three years so tonight I passed that by four days.

My past logs also tell me that I have had over 200 6m contacts during the spring/summer E season for the past three years as of tonight I have 195 in the log for the 2014 season. It was lackluster for us in the North West I think at least for me. I caught one opening to the SE working grids in Florida and Georgia, and one opening to the NE where I knocked off my 49th state for 6M WAS.

I worked two JA stations and one KL7 and several XE stations. But all in all most of our openings were to the South AZ, NM, CA, a few to TX and OK and a few to the Mid West stations but the bulk were short skip to the South. I know the East coast had some great openings to Europe and it seems to us up this way the guys in the East get the most action ....Ok I may be jealous a bit.

As most of you know I live with CC&R so the antenna is a 3el beam at 15 feet and I run the standard 100w, the antenna is below the roof line so it can't be seen from the street. I always enjoy any contact on 6 and will not moan about the lack of F skip or the lack of double hop to the East, but next year I will be watching close for DE, my last state for 6 WAS.

I would like to hear from any of you that work 6 and see what you thought of this E season it is fun to compare notes on this crazy band. I have never had any luck with the winter E season, the last few years I have only made four or five contacts in the Dec. and JAN window.

I love 6 but now it is time to move on to DX and contest season for me. Have a great summers end and who knows we may grab a few more on 6 before it is over.

Remember do the best with what you have, get on and have fun, 73 K7JAN