Thanks Gene.  Always interesting to hear how different places saw the skip.

We had planned to operate as WW8OH, but that was changed at the last minute to K8EM ( Easy Money)  Boy, those phonetics really cut thru the QRM Hi Hi.

Heard  a US stn/VP9 and called and called to no avail.  Pulled the plug and went home.  When I fired up the IC7600 yesterday, no power output.  Talked to ICOM and couldnt resolve it so shipped the rig back to them for repairs.  I knew the /VP9 was strong enough to work and really was scratching my head when he kept calling CQ as if he didnt hear me.  Now I know why.

The 4 el yagi we salvaged gave us about 10 db F/B - thats it.  But at 35 ft off the ground , near the top of  a steep hill
seemed to work ok.  My 5 el  new cushcraft sat at home but come July and the  CQ VHF Test, I will give it a go.
Assuming I get my rig back by then.    It's a lot of work to  go portable:   erecting towers, assembling antennas, hooking up rigs, chasing out the critters and bugs from the barn. 

Hoping we can go back  for the OQP in late August and then one or more of the 160M tests in Dec-Jan-Feb. 

Listening on 40m right now and signals sound quite good...the best in almost a week. 

6M  was in and out most of Sat ( mostly towards FL)  but really came alive after 6 pm.  Then Sun morning from 8-11 it was quite good into the SW and 0 Land but went dead from noon-3pm. Then had a spurt but by 4:30 it was totally silent, so we took down the station and went home.  Later I checked  and saw 6 was  loaded with spots from 7pm thru 11pm local time in Ohio. Guess I should have hung around.  What did I miss?

Summary: Cndx were very up and down, but we managed  150  QSOs/8000 pts,  on ssb/cw all on 6M.Heard little from New England.  and not much from the South  on Sun. Heard a /VP9 5x7 Sunday around 3pm local,  but couldnt raise him. 

We would often make 5 contacts in 5 minutes, then nothing for 20 minutes.  Overall rate was around 13/hr with 100w to a  rejuvenated 4 el yagi at 35 ft on a nice hill. Serious S9+5 db noise due north of our rural location definitely hampered things but by beaming West it was down to S5.  Still I heard many calling but couldnt pull them thru.  Sorry guys.

This was my  and the club's first VHF test. I was hoping for more activity. However, I chalked the lack of sigs at times to  the M class flare/particle cloud.  Every now and then Id hear a 59+35 sig but most were 5x7 to 5x9 in OH.

Any comments?

Pre-VHF Test Notes from Central Ohio:

Got the tower and 4 el yagi up last night, at 35 ft on the NW side of the hillside barn.  Looks beautiful!

Despite  hvy T storms and QRN moving into the area that lasted all Friday night, we heard  59+  signals from Lake Huron,  Ve3, Ve2, MN, tuning around just before sunset.   Encouraging....

More T storms predicted for today but clearing out for Sunday.

Noise is surprisingly minimal  at 8 am Sat despite overcast skies and continuing rain, with 1" of accumulation   yesterday.

The barn is  ready.  The station is mostly assembled.  Heading out  around noontime to finish up.

Six began opening up today (Thursday)  with  contacts  from OH to ME, AL, GA, FL and stns heard in MS, PEI, VE3.

I guess we could say "signs of life.....  Here's hoping.

Good luck from the stratosphere.

Class M flare/ particles due , what?, Friday?  How might that affect 6M? A indices est'd between 20-25 for the weekend last I checked.

The HF bands sure have been punk the past two days.

Any tips?

Tnx!  The Es here in Ohio has been spotty, seemingly most of it has been in other parts of the country.  Last night around 8 pm  the spots showed a huge opening between stations in TX to CA.  So we can always hope.

Good luck with your mobile.  Do you  try to cover mostly the coastal areas as you roam, or the higher parts of  NJ?

The local club is setting up on a hillside in SW Licking County, OH with one station for 6M and one for 2/440. It will be my first   6M effort.  We have a  finished 2nd floor in an old  barn at around 1200 ft. being made available to us. Great viewfrom 270 thru 360 down and around to  225 degrees.   So tropo Columbus-Toledo- Cleveland, down thru  Pgh,  might be in the offing.

Any other club/portable  operations  in Ohio, and beyond? 

6M will be ssb and cw though I see there are no bonus points for cw.  100w to 5 elements at 30 ft will be the setup.

Can an old 6M pro give me an idea of what to expect the activity level to be between cw & ssb? 

Bob

saw a post yesterday  where a fellow worked several Europeans via WSPR on 6M.  No other such  spots were made, so it looks like only he crossed the pond.

The freq was something like 50.294/  is that a wspr freq?

Just curious how many are using this mode.  The fellow certainly was successful!

Thanks for  all contributors to this very interesting thread.  Ive beenwondering about  optimum angle of radiation for Es, and TE. 

Re: Es - Last year I heard frequent ( AKA regular hi hi)  sporadic E with my 5 el yagi  six feet off the  patio.

So far this season, Ive yet to hear  the same regularity of Es openings. with the same beam at 12 ft. ( up from c. a qtr wavelength to a more interesting 0.5 wavelength.)   But I do hear a few sigs float in and out of the ether for a few seconds and then theyre gone.  So Im curious what others are hearing  these past 3 weeks of early Es season?

(Note: there was that one terrific TE opening to LU around May 5th but not a big Es opening yet, here in central OH.  IVe made some cw Es contacts to MS and TX and FL, but thats about it, and signals were weak to moderate at best.)

Are we off to a disappointing Es season, or is it far too early to draw any conclusions?  Last July and Aug were way down after a terrific late April May and June, so maybe we  can pick things up at the other end.

There are plenty of times when I call call call and dont get thru the pile up  so I know things could be better.  And Im  again thinking about getting a tower, after moving from the last qth with deed restrictions ( sold the yagis tower and amp 10 yrs ago rather than store it in the garage)   Now I have 3 acres  in the country so the  tower again becomes doable.  The downside is Im 69 and not sure if   the investment in a crank up/tilt over tower and large yagi, not to mention the rotator ( @ $1k by iself) is all worth it. 

And the ability to work all bands and catch the openings with a competitive signal isnt quite as appealing as it used to be when I was a contest station in the 60s-70's-80's and early 90's.)   But it still is tempting.

Dont know about height on 6M since my 5 el cushcraft is 10 ft off the back deck and beams through the house when looking West, NW and SW.  With 100w, it  consistantly gets into CA, WA  OR and BC.

And a few days ago during that nice TE opening to LU, it worked  a couple of LU's and a 9Y4.

Of course, I cant comment on those days when I dont hear anything, that perhaps those  impressive towers and stacked yagis  copy  loud and clear.

The exciting part about the recent openings is that our club  has found a nice elevated rural qth for the June VHF Test and it looks like we will man it for much the  contest - running 100w to a 5 el yagi,  perhaps even equipped with a real rotator!  Wow! Talk about  going DeLuxe.  So Im hoping for nice weather and  a good day for Es. 

Throw in a grill, good food and companionship, a couple of lounge chairs, and you have the setting for a  FB weekend.

KF6A:  not yet sure what is and what isnt meteor scatter.  I do hear some  1-4 second  signal build ups that then descend into the noise and are lost.  But at times  tend to gather themselves  and pop up, then down again.  Not sure what that is.

Is polarization a factor with meteor scatter?  Is it mostly a cw phenomenon, or equally cw-ssb?  Do the minor meteor shower events  produce much scatter, or is it mostly the bigger events in Aug and Dec?

Identifying the skip mechanism on 6M  seems almost arbitrary  to me at this point.... meteor scatter, tropo ducting, Es, multihop Es, TE ducting, and even F2.  Pretty interesting even if nebulous.

I was surprised to see the  SM-W7 and NJ-WA/BC  skip even without any strong Es.

And, yes, I love the irony of the  term "regular Es."  or how about frequent Es?

On May 5 @ 2100z in central Ohio, there was a  fair Es opening to FL.  BUT, after having read the latest VHF column in CQ that said May is  not a good month for TE, I heard a band full of LU's on ssb and cw working stateside, and managed to work two of them plus  a 9Y4  who was 59+.  I also heard a C6 at +20 over 9 who had the entire US calling him.   

After 55 years of ham radio this was my  first opportunity to hear  6M TE  sigs.  The opening lasted about an hour.
Other spots from the area reported  a VP8, an OA and a CE station but I didnt hear them.  Then a few hours later there was a huge opening frorm 9 Land to the  Pacific NorthWest according to spots. 

Then the next day I saw  a Swedish station had worked into 7 Land (WA)  so some interesting things are starting to happen.

I still havent heard a great  Es opening but the TE charged my batteries!

No significant opening yet heard in Ohio.  A few 4's from FL were popping in and out a week or so ago but not stable enough to work.

It's late this year....or was early last year!