The solar activity has been low the past few days, and is slowly picking up again.
Still, the past 2 days there have been a bit of DX spotted with my modest setup.
Stations from Vietnam, Indonesia spotted with FT8, and today I spotted VE1PZ in Nova Scotia. No, I didn't work any of them, but just receiving them is good.
With a solar flux as low as 163 that was a bit of a surprise for me.
I know. FT8 has made weaker signal detection much easier, we are in for interesting times.
There have been DX signals on 6m every day for about 2 weeks.
I have received signals from 6 continents, and had QSOs with 4:
North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Last one was TR8CA today, Gabon, Africa using FT8.
All this with a small station, using a V-2000 antenna and 75W from my IC-7300.
I should try building a better antenna for 6m, capable of running more power. I do have a linear, and it would be nice to be able to run 3-400W with a bit of a directional antenna.
Today I made my first two-way QSO on 6m by F2- propagation ... from my station in Denmark.
Why not before? You may ask.
My very first experience on 6m was in November 1979. At that time 6m operation was not permitted in Denmark, as there were still TV stations operating in that band in many places of the world.
Yes, it would be listening only. I had been chatting with a local ham about building a converter, and he had done that.
One Saturday afternoon he re-transmitted a ton of strong 6m signals on the local 2m FM frequency. I thought, now is the time, so I found a crystal in my drawer. Normally I would have used a 22MHz crystal to convert to 28MHz, the closest I had was one on 21.4MHz.
That would work, so I found the components from the junk box and that Saturday evening and Sunday morning I finished the converter, built according to the ARRL Handbook.
Sunday afternoon came, and the US and Canadian stations were booming in, but all I could do was listen and make RX log entries.
That was OK for the first day. I contacted a friend who had borrowed my HF receiver and asked him to return it. He did, and now the crossband fun could begin.
The next days I was working many QSOs, transmitting on or near 28.885MHz, listening on 50MHz, and I followed that up for the rest of (solar) Cycle 21, and had a lot of fun with that. Later the UK and Irish stations started getting permits and I could continue the crossband fun with them.
Then, in 1989 I moved to the Netherlands for 25 years, and did not have the opportunity to work much ham radio in Denmark. At that time there were still no 50MHz permits in Denmark (or the Netherlands for that matter) In those 25 years we had 2 pretty good solar cycles with 50MHz openings, and I worked a bit from apartments in the Netherlands. when it was finally allowed there.
I can say a bit more about this, and maybe I will do that later.
Moving back to Denmark in 2015, it was at the decline of the weakest solar maximum in memory, with no 50MHz F2 propagation, so this year, with the prospect of a much better cycle 25, I could hope for some F2 propagation.
Come November 1st. the wait payed off.
Yesterday, October 31st, I did hear some transatlantic propagation, after having some indications of openings into Australia and Asia. All with a very poor antenna located between lots of trees, and just monitoring.
Yesterday I got my 6m radio connected to a V-2000 antenna (6m-2m-70cm vertical) and got it working with WSJT-X. Still no QSOs, and I got it working a bit too late.
Today I got up at about 8 local time, and there were signals coming in from several areas of Kazakhstan UN..., and some EX, and more in that area.
I managed to work two stations with this setup: UN3G and UN7GW. It was not that easy to get through the European callers, and I received reports about 20B worse S/N than I sent. I am guessing it's because of Eu-QRM and maybe a high noise level at the UN stations. yes, OK, I worked "only" 75W to protect the transceiver and the antenna and I am guessing that a minimum of 10dB difference in transmit power is not unreasonable.
Finally I made it! F2 propagation on 6m from my modes station at OZ9QV.
I do hope that the solar activity will continue high in November and over the winter. It could give some excellent QSOs on 6m, even with such a small station.
Update Saturday afternoon, 2nd November, in the afternoon:
After trying in the morning with stations in UN, EX etc, Finally some success in the afternoon.
I worked Two stations in North America: N1BUG with CW, and VO1SIX with SSB.
I tried a lot with FT8 on 50.313, but no luck. I guess my signal was mostly drowning in European QRM from stations much bigger and much more well situated than mine.
If we get another opening like this, I might try to use the secondary frequency, 50.323 with FT8, and possibly trying out with FT4. I need to look up the frequencies used for FT4, though.
I did see a lot of reports of my signals being received, in the East Coast, from VO1 in the North to Southern Mexican stations.
I will regard this as a very successful day with my modest station. Excellent propagation.
We have F2 openings.
The past week I have received Australia 3 times, Vietnam once and Kazakhstan several times. The 6m F2 season has started.
This morning 4 stations from Kazakhstan are reported with my monitor station using the 6m part of my HF (half wave) vertical, which is a very poor antenna.
I suspect that the many European spots are F2-back scatter, with distances above 2500km are probably F2.
I have heard (seen) many local stations working the DX
So yes, the F2 season has started. I will not be surprised if we start hearing North American stations within a week or two, if the solar flux stays high.
Today the solar flux is 256, and from what I learne decades ago, at this time of the year (late October, early November) this could easily result in Trans-Atlantic F2 propagation.
My best 6m antenna at the moment is my V-2000 tri-bander, and I am a bit worried about running continuous modes like FT8 with 100W, so I will probably stick to using 50-80W.
If the openings get like back in 1979, that should not be a problem.
Exciting times.
We are approaching the month of May, and I am seeing the first signs of the sporadic E season.
For a few days the 6m FT8 monitor has shown more signals from across Europe than a few weeks ago, and a few days ago the first signals from Spain came on 8m. In Spain stations of (certain license type) can apply for 8m permits, and a few have been seen on 40.680MHz with my FT8 monitor.
This afternoon (and some days ago) a few Irish stations were through on the 8m FT8 monitor.
Occasionally I have seen DX openings on 50MHx this year.
As my monitor antenna is very low, and only a half wave vertical, it is limited what I see
Mostly in the autumn I have seen openings to Southern Africa, Like ZS. This could be F2, if it happened in the middle of the day. If it is late afternoon, or in the evening, in my opinion it must be trans equatorial propagation (TEP), extended by something else, like sporadic E from here to the Mediterranean Sea.
Very occasionally, with solar flux above the 170 mark, I have seen one or two stations in the Caribbean or Central America. Just one or two FT8 spots from my monitor receiver.
Today was different. I spotted Florida, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Bonaire, with the very poor antenna. I could see others in Northern Europe working far more stations than those.
I think it is time to get my IC-7300 up and running with FT8 again.
Moments ago I saw two spots on my 6m FT8 One from South Africa and one from Botswana.
I am guessing that it's some kind of propagation to the Mediterranean sea, extended by F2, given the time of the day. If I remember correctly, it would be a bit early for Transequatorial propagation from the Mediterranean to Southern Africa.
All this with a very poor antenna on the receiver.
If the solar activity increases to a solar flux of about 200 for more than a week, and without too much geomagnetic storms, within the next 4 months, we could get some really spectacular world wide propagation on 6m.
But then again, prediction is difficult, especially about the future ;)
For 6m FT8 monitoring I am using the 6m part of the R-6000 antenna.
This antenna works fine on 20-17-15-12-10m. On 6m it's a poor performer.
The past few days I have had many European spots, and I suspected that it was F2 back scatter signals.
This morning a surprise spot appeared on PSK reporter. I decoded DU3LA (Phillippines) in the PK05 square. The first station in Oceania I have ever received on 6m.
The solar flux has not been particularly high the past few weeks (130s), but jumped up the last few days, to about 160.
Who knows, if the solar flux stays high, we might get some interesting DX on 6m.
When I picked up the PM2B mentioned in #3, there were two 30MHz low pass filters included in the price.
Further, I had some older low pass filters, a 30MHz and a 50MHz one, so I got them all tested today:
Out came the NanoVNA F (4" screen). The tests were made with a wideband calibration setting, so the absolute values are not perfect.
All filters are in good working order.
This means that I now have three 30MHz low pass filters and a 50MHz filter, all fully functional:
The old one I have is a Yaesu filter with a 100W rating. I have had that for decades.
The second one is a Trio/Kenwood filter, 100W rating.
The third one was a bit of a surprise. An old Drake filter rated 1000W.
The fourth one is a BNOS low pass filter for 50MHz. No rating on the filter, but I suspect it is 10W or so. It is a much smaller filter than all the others.
I reckon that all those ratings will be reduced to about 50% of the stated rating if I want to operate 100% duty cycle modes, like digital modes, e.g. FT8.
I opened the 1kW filter, and all looks clean, a beautiful mechanical construction with silver plated coils and high power capacitors, likely silver mica types. Somewhere I have a PA for 10-11m that I suspect has poor harmonic suppression so the 1kW rated filter would likely fit nicely in a system with that one - if it has sufficient linearity for SSB. OK, as I mainly want to use it for CW that is not so much of a problem. FSK digital modes will also work nicely.
The other option would be using this filter with an old IC-M710 that can deliver 150W continuously.
I would hesitate to use this filter with my 1kW power amplifier, even if I use it extremely rarely.
Given that I paid <$100 for the two filters, including the 1kW one, as well as the not fully functional PM2B, I consider this trade as excellent.
I picked up more at that rally, more about that later, as it is a different story.
When I purchased the small Flexa Yagi antennas some time ago it was the intention to make a compact, not too visible antenna system for 2m/70cm/23cm SSB/CW etc operation. At the time I had chemo therapy, so everything went too slowly, and the project almost died.
This project has now been resurrected, and I got the 3 antennas assembled.
- 4 element yagi for 144MHz
- 11 element yagi for 432MHz (strictly speaking 8 elements, as there are 3 reflectors making a reflector plane).
- 16 element yagi for 1296MHz
The Flexa antennas have very thin steel elements (and a not too heavy boom), reducing the visual impact of the antennas, as I wanted
All these antennas are made for mounting in front of the mast, i.e. "behind" the reflector, so the mast will not interfere with the function of the antenna by blocking part of the elements, especially on the higher frequencies.
Having all antennas front mounted will create an imbalance of the load on the rotator, so I am thinking of making a compromise here: Mounting the largest antenna (the 4 el. for 2m) on one side of the mast, then mount the 70 and 23cm antenna in the opposite direction. This will make the operation a bit more cumbersome, but I think it can be done.
I may add a Moxon Rectangle for 4 and 6m to the system. This is a rather small antenna and will not add significantly to the visual impact.
Further, some small antennas for the 2400MHz and 10GHz band are expected to be added. No parabolic dish there, just some tiny yagi or patch antenna for 2400 and a small horn antenna with a transverter for 10GHz. This is for later, but initially a LNB (frequency stabilized), maybe with a small horn extension will be mounted for 10GHz monitoring purposes.
I will need to mount this on a rotator. No need for a heavy duty one, so I am looking into options.
I intend to mount the system on top of an old apple tree where I have some antennas already.
For SSB/CW (DX) work I have had a clover leaf ("Big Wheel") antenna mounted right on the top of the tree, essentially invisible, and it has provided some DX on 2m.
What kind of performance can I expect from this system.
On 2m, the stated gain of the 4 el. antenna is 7.6dBd. This may be exaggerated, but compared to the old clover leaf antenna I expect to mount the 4 el. 2-3m higher and less obstructed, so I would expect a performance improvement of approximately 10dB over the clover leaf antenna. With a good preamp at the antenna, and also an added PA in the shack I should have a solid performance boost, compared to the current system.
On 70cm, with a stated gain of 10.2dBd the system is a very modest, but some DX activity should be possible.
On 23cm, with a stated gain of 14.2dB (exaggerated?) I would expect some interesting occasional DX activity, especially if a preamp and a PA (25W?) is mounted near the antenna.
On 13cm this system will just be playing around , maybe with some interesting DX in the best directions I have, but I do not expect much there.
On 3cm the system is very modest. I may be fortunate enough to make some DX under excellent tropo conditions, and possibly some rain scatter QSOs.
For the higher (microwave) bands some hilltop operation is probably a much better option, but the capability of some modest home operation is good to have.
Interesting time on 6m.
I still have my FT8 monitoring running on 50.313MHz. Today that kind of monitoring gave an interesting result. I did not make a QSO, but I made the following observation:
From about 1542 and 1809 I received ZD7BG, mostly at lower levels, but peaking at -1dB SNR.
This happens with a sub-par system, running the 6m element of my R-6000 antenna (feed point at 6m) with an old Tokyo Hy Power handheld radio. The R6000 has very poor performance on 6m, but is quite good on 10-12-15-17-20m.
I could see in my listings on WSJT that several local stations worked QSOs with the ZD7, but I saw this a few hours later.
To me this shows the value of monitoring 6m outside the sporadic E main season.
To be fair, there was some sporadic E on 6m with good signals from Southern Europe. This happens all year round, and the past few days there have been some openings.
Sporadic E alone cannot explain signals from St. Helena, though. The distance is just over 8000km. I suspect that this was sporadic E propagation feeding a signal into the TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) zone. The Solar flux today was relatively low at 115, so F2 propagation is very unlikely. Also, the time of detecting the propagation makes F2 propagation even more likely, as in the North-South paths like this one F2 propagation would peak about local noon.
To me this shows the value of 24/7 monitoring of 6m, especially at times outside the peak of the solar cycle.
A few weeks ago I found this at a local get-together taking place at a repeater site. At this meeting they sell (often donated) stuff for the benefit of running the repeater.
This year I found an unknown set of band filters in a box, I suspected that it would be a kind of triplexer, and toady I got my NanoVNA out, and yes it is.
The connector at the far side is the common one. On the near side we see two very recognizable labels, VHF and UHF. I did not know what the third one was, but measuring I found.
Testing from the common port:
TOS: Low pass filter, flat up to 117MHz, then a small dip of up to 5dB, then a 3dB cut-off at about 134MHz.
VHF: Flat from 135MHz - 270MHz, but some feed through up to about 315MHz. Good attenuation below 100MHz and above 400MHz.
UHF: High pass filter with 3dB cut-off around 336MHz. Attenuation on 1300MHz was about 3dB.
Residual attenuation:
Below 100MHz: Practically flat with <0.5dB attenuation
VHF: <0.5dB at 144MHz
UHF: <0.5dB at 435MHz
Attenuation between band ports was more than 22dB at frequencies where I would expect to transmit, so that is insufficient for a transceiver triplexer. For a VHF-UHF monitoring receiver system, this would work nicely.
I got a few of the filters for experiments. I had decided that the shielded boxes, at least, could be useful for other RF projects, and there were some decent looking (SMD) capacitors for VHF and UHF. There were quite a bit of these filters, so I might have got a few more. If they are there next year I may get some of them again.
Yes, finally I got to use my RF test equipment, now it is time to get some construction done.
Over the week end I found some older scanner receivers etc that I want to use for propagation monitoring and general (local) traffic monitoring.
Because I like to have the monitoring running for hours every day, and using solar power, I want to limit the power consumption.
Monitoring FM channels:
I have a 10m FM transceiver that I intend to use for monitoring 10m FM on 29.600. Draws 160mA on receive, which is acceptable, though not ideal. Current consumption is still about 160mA, but it is better than using the IC-703. For 10m FM it is also possible to use a Bearcat UBC92XLT handheld scanner running 6V with 70mA current consumption. A voltage regulator reducing the 13V to 6V will be necessary for this (easily built).
For 6m FM, monitoring frequencies in the 51-52MHz segment I can use my older Yaesu VX-5.
The best results of those came with 2 handheld scanner receivers, Bearcat UBC65XLT. These are 10 channel units capable of running in the 4m, 2m and 70cm bands. They draw 5mA when off, and 50mA when receiving.
I think that one of those should scan the 4m FM segment - 70.300 - 70-500 - 9 channels, and 69.900. the frequency pair 69.900/70.500 is allowed in Denmark for use with repeaters - yes 600kHz spacing, just like the 2m repeaters.
The alternative would be using a (Wouxun?) handheld for this purpose, if I can find out how to program its memories.
The second one can be used for 2m, and the 143.625 MHz, all in 25kHz spacing system. 143.625 has been used by the space stations Mir and ISS for communication with the ground stations in Russia.
For 2m FM I could also use my older Kenwood handheld TRX, or a Baofeng as monitor, again if I can figure out how to program the beast. Since I have no intention of transmitting with those I have no problem using those Chinese radios for monitoring.
For 70cm I could use the Baofeng's again.
Now, what to do for 23cm? I do have an old Kenwood TM741 triband radio, and that could be useful for FM monitoring on that band. I will have to test the power consumption of this one, but it does have the advantage of being capable of running 3 bands simultaneously, with additional transmit capability. I can likely find a low power scanner capable of running 23cm. We shall see.
I am well aware that some antennas will be necessary for all this (and more) monitoring.
The advantage of receive-only antennas is that the preamplifier, if it is necessary, can be placed close to the antenna, so a low cost coax cable (cheap satellite cable) can be used.
The 10 - 6 - 4m, and 8m bands could be covered by a TFD antenna about 2.5m long, hanging in a tree in the garden. Essentially invisible.
For 2m, 70cm and 23cm a short tri-band vertical can be used, with a wideband preamp, and stilll the low cost cable. Not invisible, but relatively discreet. Yes I am aware of the possible overload of some receivers when transmitting, but that is, for now, an acceptable compromise.
For reception on bands in between - such as air band and FM broadcast radio of both Western European and Russian stations, a wide band antenna, such as a discone or a log-periodic antenna could be used with a wideband preamplifier.
The next level will be some monitoring using FT8 and beacon reception, and this requires more sophisticated reception systems capable of SSB. I have some ideas, but this will have to wait for another time.
The 30m long piece of wire has found its place for a while.
The feed point is placed 2m high at the end of the out-house under an apple tree. It then goes up through the tree and lead to the second apple tree - the largest in the garden, then down to a smaller tree where the end is attached. Most of the wire is about 5m above ground, not particularly high, but definitely better than 1m above ground.
The antenna now has a counterpoise added, about 50m of wire, about 2m above ground (and lower).
The system works nicely on 30m, and does not need a tuner when operating from 80 - 6m. On the resonant bands of the dipole, the dipole mostly works better, but on 20m in particular the wire gives signal mostly equal to the dipole. On 30m the dipole is useless, as it is not resonant at all, and the wire works nicely. A TZ station (Mali) was coming in nicely with up to S9 signals, but 5W was (as expected) not sufficient to break the pile -up. I will have to try again when signals are good, and less stations are calling.
The present set-up of antennas and transceivers for the 80 - 4m bands is now as follows.
IC-705: Wire antenna, workable on all bands 80m - 6m.
IC-7300: Dipole working on 4,6,10,15,20,40,80m
IC-7600: The old R-6000 antenna running 10-12-15-17-20m, and the 6m part of the V-2000 antenna.
IC-7100: A vertical Sirio half wave antenna for 4m, mostly used for the local FM traffic.
Almost every day I have been working QSOs with the 5W output CW, mostly from the IC-705. QSOs have been made on 10-12-15-17-20-40-80m.
Now we wait for 4 and 6m to open - and 2m in the summer Es season. I suspect that I will mostly run more power on those bands, but some 5W work will be tested in the big openings.
New antennas are needed, so I can include 30-60-160m. Initially I expect to make and use a 30m vertical 1/4 wave GP, usable on 30-10-6-4m, probably good enough to listen on 8m (40MHz).
Next antenna will probably be an EFHW wire antenna for 80m. That should work on all HF bands except 60m, and with an extension coil it should be extended to work on 160m. I do have the transformer (49:1), it must be built into a box, but then it should be ready for deployment when the weather gets a bit warmer. Yes, I am waiting for spring weather. It may be variable, but I think I can find some warm and dry spells to play with antennas.
We have got more sunspots than I have seen in several years, and we are getting more daylight, so the HF propagation is already better than I have seen it in years. Good times for HF QRP operation ...
Now that we have more daylight in my area (55 deg. N), the propagation on the higher HF bands is improving again.
On top of this, the solar flux numbers have been above 100 for several weeks, with very few days below 100 SFU, I is now about 60 days ago we had no sunspots visible. Cycle 25 has started in earnest.
In my 5W challenge I have now had QSOs on the 10-12-15-17-20-40, and 80m bands.
Testing the SWR with my 5-band dipole showed that it is also useful for a few more bands than the design frequencies - 10-15-20-40-80m. The dipole can operate on 4-6-12 and 17m. SWR is too high on 30 and 60m, and far too high on 160m. But not bad to be able to operate 9 bands on a 5-band antenna. This may change when I get the feed point higher up, as it is less than 4m above ground. I will have to improve the HF/MF antenna system, so I can include the remaining bands, and maybe try out the 630m band, or the 2200m band.
Last night I made what I refer to as a real CW QSO on 80m. F6BBQ with much more exchange than calls and report. Nice and moderate tempo, perfect for my modest CW capabilities.
As it is right now, I am using the IC-705 for all the 5W QSOs. When I add an antenna for 30m (planned as a 1/4 wave ground plane), that should be usable on 10m (possibly with a tuner), 6m and 4m on thr 3rd, 5th and 7th harmonic. Not ideal, but probably slightly better than the performance of the low dipole on 10-6-4m, until I can get my 4-6m Moxon rectangle assembled and mounted.
The 30m vertical could be expanded to other bands with parallel (band) elements. This antenna would most likely be used with the IC-7300, with higher power on 4 and 6m, and likely set to 5W on the HF bands. Spring is allowed to begin, but I will probably have to wait another month here.
Here is another one for the idea box.
While I am doing stuff for much higher frequencies I am still thinking of this in connection with my "one QSO per band with home made gear" challenge. I was thinking of using a kit (or two) for a simple HF CW transceiver using a direct conversion receiver.
Some examples of those kits are the Pixie, the Rockmite, the Frog Sound and the 49'er. I have a box with some of those kits, and some of them should be quite easy to convert to HF bands up to 18MHz without too much loss of performance.
For higher frequencies I suspect that the receiver sensitivity will be insufficient for efficient work on those bands (21/24/28MHz). Here it is probably a good idea to use two kits, one for TX and one for RX, adding a preamplifier for improved RX sensitivity, and possibly a PA for higher TX power.
Each transceiver would be modified to use a SI5351 synthesizer board. This board should be controller (programmed) by, e.g. an Arduino, so I will have to learn another skill: Micro-controller programming. There are libraries and some programs in existence, but the programming skill will come in handy if I want to extend functions.
A simple 28MHz model could possibly be used as base transceiver for transverters to higher bands. This would not need RX modifications and could possibly be using just a simple TRX kit. I am well aware of the lack of CW activity, especially on the VHF/UHF/SHF bands, but a single QSO, or a few, should be possible.
I do have two other kits for CW transceivers, the QRP Labs' QCX+, with components for 20m and 60m. Still need to be built, but that is a matter of finding time to add those.
Do I have too many kits and projects? Yes, but I will not have any time to be bored, that is certain ...
Another one of the ideas stacking up ;)
For the last few weeks I have been monitoring 10m FT8, and lately the beacons on 28.200.
A few weeks ago the band started opening to South America from here. There has not been a day within the last 3 -4 weeks without receiving SA stations, mostly from Brazil, and often stations were also coming in from Southern Africa. I suspect that some of this propagation was trans-equatorial propagation (TEP). This fits well into the pattern of TEP being strongest around the Equinox times.
Then stations started coming in from the Far East and Oceania, and the South American stations started coming in during day time, and several stations from Australia.
The past week the propagation has moved closer to the North American continent, Northern part of South America, and Caribbean stations coming in, and the past few days South Eastern and also North Eastern United states have come through, as well as regular propagation to the Middle East and Atlantic islands like the Canaries and the Azores. These are clearly single hop F2 propagation
The past week or so I have re-started monitoring 28.200, and daytime propagation has been detected on this frequency. Almost daily signals from CS3B and ZS6DN, and occasionally very strong signals from the 4X6TU beacon.
To me this means that the F2 propagation on 10m has returned after the deep solar minimum, and I am happy that my favourite HF band is coming to life again.
I suspect that we will see more North Atlantic propagation in the next few months, unless the sun goes very quiet again. That may happen in short periods, but I suspect that we will have good, maybe excellent 10m propagation the next 3 - 5 years or so. Who knows, with the new weak signal digital modes we may even see weak F2 propagation on 6m. That would be exciting.
The most general predictions for the next solar maximum (cycle 25) is much like the previous cycle, but we can always hope that it will be larger. As a Danish poet said about 100 years ago: "Prediction is difficult, especially about the future" ;)
The late afternoon today had a nice Es opening on 2m. Stations received were EA1. EA3, EA6 and IS0.
I managed a single QSO with EA6SA, and I was called by another EA6, but no complete QSO.
All with my omnidirectional "Big Wheel" antenna, so I am not complaining at all.
After finishing reading a book I noticed that the 6m band was open to North America. While I did not work any of the stations with my limited power, 80W into an omnidirectional vertical, the Diamond 3-band antenna "V2000", A lot of stations from Florida and Texas in the South to Wisconsin and further East in the North.
I really need a better antenna for 6m, one that can take the power from a power amplifier. I do have one, but it has been put away for the time being, because the antenna is only rated to 150W, and I do not want to lose it.
All in all a very interesting day of sporadic E.
Here is a thought. When looking at my logs through the years, there is a tendency to have 2m Es openings at my place more often around two sets of dates, about 8th - 10th June and 8th - 10th July. This could be a coincidence, but it does coincide with meteor showers at those dates, so who knows? I do not.
I am well aware that the cause of sporadic E has many other (unknown) factors, but it is a thought I have had for some time.
