6M expecttions..
With a 6 element beam at 25ft, your in, higher over larger beam
is better as trees eat signal. However with 5 Elements at 34ft I've done
47 countries and hunting Alaska and Hawaii for all states. Some of that,
my first 35 countries was accomplished using 3 elements at 20ft.
Generally 6M activity has times (nets and contests), or places, as in
you had to be there on the air. I have a radio dedicated to listening
on 50.125mhz for activity and I'm also on 10M as a an increase in
skip on 10 (or even 11M CB) indicates a possible opening on 6M
Local weak signal work out to 120-160 miles is not uncommon.
Sporadic E we are in the season for it NOW, can be world wide.
Meteor scatter is popular even when there isn't a widely reported
shower. There are always rocks falling, how often and how big
varies. Same is true for reflections off aircraft.
Troposphere ducting happens as well.
Contesting, we are now 3.5days from the start of the annual
ARRL/RAC VHF/UHF contest (always second full weekend in june).
That brings everyone out. For CW/SSB and FT8.
FT8 is a dominant other mode and is likely to be active when SSB
is apparently dead, usually because everyone is on FT8. If all
else fails make noise, people are often listening.
Six is the magic band.
Allison