The last couple of days saw the opening of the 6 meter sproradic-E season, at least from my station.
I’ve posted the DX Maps of the May 7th opening. It shows my little station alone in North Texas working a few stations to the northeast. That was a very exciting opening as it was the first of the season for me.
It also involved a few JT65 QSOs with my daughter Kendal urging me to go for a walk with her. She couldn’t readily see that I was actually in a QSO and needed to wait just a bit. She’s severely autistic and understanding such things doesn’t really work. Although she did wait.
Today’s opening, May 10, was another huge opening. At first it was focused on Texas to Florida, but I could see some other areas opening up. I heard KE0MPH in South Dakota calling and since my antenna was pointed that way looking for new grids, I heard him loud and clear. But I suspect most others here in North Texas were pointed toward Florida. At least at first.
I also managed to work NE4RD, a friend of mine that serves on the K2BSA Jamboree staff, on JT65. He was running into a wire from Billings, MT — a new grid for me on 6 meters.
The featured image, above, is a snapshot of his JT65 screen with our QSO displayed. He Tweeted that image right after our QSO. Glad he is signed up to be the social media guy for our Jamboree operation.
If that wasn’t good enough, to cap the day, I worked TG9ANF on JT65 for a new country on 6 meters. Plus, when I uploaded my log to Logbook of the World, just a couple of hours after our QSO, I got the QSL! Pretty slick.
That makes 17 countries on 6 meters and 270 grids. Plus, the TG9ANF grid got me to 250 confirmed on LoTW. So I’ve made my application for the 250 sticker — all online and very, very handy.
If you’ve got 6 meters on your transceiver, May and June are the months to switch on the Magic Band and try out some contacts. A wire will work just fine, just ask NE4RD. Try it out.
