In case there was any question about Sporadic E occurring in June 2026, it was convincingly answered on the 10th and 11th.

I was away from my ham shack that morning when I started receiving alerts about new grids on 6 meters. Once home, the alerts continued, and I worked new grids and new DXCC countries through late morning and well into the evening. Not only was 6 meters hopping, but 2 meters was too.

Six Meter Sporadic E — 20 New Grids, 4 New DXCC

On 6 meters, 50.313 MHz was absolutely packed. I picked up a couple of new grids there and then moved to the DX Window at 50.323. The intent with that frequency is for European stations to transmit on one sequence and the USA on the other. That way, you avoid nearby stations obliterating the DX. Of course, not everyone got the memo, but it wasn’t too bad.

Over the next several hours, I worked another 18 grids across Europe and later in the evening into the far reaches of Canada. Included in those new grids were four new DXCC countries! Those were GW, OE, OK, and SP. Now for the confirmations. That brings my 6-meter DXCC total to 100 worked. And my overall grid total to 922 worked.

Two Meter Sporadic E — 3 New Grids

Well into the evening, the 6-meter activity continued with wall-to-wall QSOs on 50.313. I also started to monitor 2 meters and found some amazing QSOs underway. I managed to work a number of distant stations, including KR1ST in FN21, K2TER in FN13, and N8AJM in EN72, for new grids. That brings my total to 203 grids worked.

Let’s hope this level of activity continues through this weekend’s June VHF Contest and well into the rest of the summer.