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Actually, I’ve never liked people referring to 50MHz as the ‘magic band’. Sure, signals can come out of nowhere, but that’s hardly peculiar to six metres! Either way, I’ve been having fun on 50MHz as is usual in the Es season.

Over the last few days, when there’s been not much happening on the band, I have been leaving the receiver running on 50.276 with WSJT-X running JT65A. I don’t think there is a huge amount of activity, but there have been some interesting loggings; Iceland, Greece amongst others. Typically the most interesting ones have been when I’ve been elsewhere, but I have called CQ a couple of times and was delighted to be called by 3 or 4 stations in succession. Signals were pretty small and there was no sign of any CW lower down the band.

For me, that’s magic – working stations that you can barely hear! Of course, when the band is well open, JT65A, taking at least 5 minutes to make a QSO, is not the way to go – but when you fancy a bit of magic, it can be fun!