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With the Bz component of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field turning southwards yesterday, an unexpected incoming stream from the sun was able to interact more intensely with the earth's magentic field , producing some fairly active auroral conditions overnight. The 'K' index numbers rose as high as '7'...a rare event, indicating a major disturbance. By dawn, much of the activity was winding down and the ensuing F2 MUF spike was not far behind.

9el LFA at VE7DAY

When the winter solar flux numbers drop to dismal levels, many 6m guys just stop watching the band...myself included.
During the last solar rotation, flux values rose to near-Cycle highs and quickly plummeted, along with any hope of finding that six-meter Holy Grail...long-haul F2 propagation. Many six meter ops quickly found other things to do.

One person that didn't stop watching, and never does, was John - VE7DAY, in Campbell River, B.C., on Vancouver Island. John is VE7's iron man of 6m and spends almost 100% of his radio time seeking the magic.

For the past few winters, John has pointed his beam towards the south Pacific at around sunset, and called CQ from the VE7 black hole....on Tuesday evening he was justly rewarded.

At 00:50 UTC on the 31st, John's CQ was answered by Roger, ZL3RC in Christchurch, on New Zealand's South Island...12,021km from Campbell River.

6el Yagi at ZL3RC

One minute later, John worked Chris, ZL2DX, in Martinborough, on the North Island.

8el Yagi at ZL2DX

At 0111 UTC, John completed the hat-trick by working Paul, ZL4PW, in Oamaru, back on the South Island.

Paul, ZL4PW / 7el at 7m

The last contact was a new CW distance record for John, at 12,233 km! He also broke some records on the PNWVHF Society's Distance Scoreboard as announced in a congratulatory e-mail by K7CW, keeper of the books, and one of many dedicated 6m operators from Seattle:

"Decades ago, many DXers believed that Argentina was the world DX hot spot. DXers and contesters seemed to do the best down there. When I was in Brazil, one of the places I lived in was the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, PT9-land. It was only about an hour-and-a-half's drive to the Paraguay border, so conditions there were pretty near like those in Argentina, which was also nearby. I ran 100 watts to a vertical wire taped to a bamboo rod... and thought my QTH must have been included in the hot spot area.

I think now we are becoming aware of another hot spot, this one being in North America on Vancouver Island. I'm speaking, of course, of the your QTH, John! You seem to be doing quite well from that location. Keep it up!!

I see you worked clear down to ZL4. I'm envious. I've been looking for a ZL4 contact for a long time. Today when the band was open to ZL, I was on the road returning from Tacoma. Well, I'm glad you were able to work that great DX.

I will change the Distance Scoreboard to indicate the new records you established today. Congrats!

73, Paul K7CW"


With the present dismal solar flux and low solar activity, it is not likely that these contacts were via the F2 mode, but you wouldn't know it from the size of John's signal, recorded by ZL3RC. Being in the middle of our secondary sporadic-E season, north of the equator and at the peak of the major Es season down-under, I think a better candidate is an Es-link from both sides into the Trans Equatorial afternoon 'bubble'....certainly Es from both ends into whatever is happening in the ionospheric cauldron at the equator!


All four stations were running high power and big antennas, and with a little help from the seasonal E, it all seems to have come together nicely.



 Congrats to all involved, and especially John, as all of the other 6m ops in this part of the country, including myself, were asleep at the switch it seems!

... it seems. It really does take an extraordinary amount of F-layer density to reflect rather than refract 6m RF. With this afternoon's somewhat late arrival of an earlier CME, perhaps tomorrow's F2 spike will be higher.

The global ionospheric (foF2) map today, around 1100 local time, shows a critical frequency of about 12MHz over central North America. This is the frequency at which RF, when shot straight up, will be reflected straight back to earth. This number can generally be used to find the F2 MUF when multiplied by 3.6, which, in today's case would be around 43.2MHz.

Courtesy: http://www.ips.gov.au/HF_Systems/6/5

The highest F2 MUF that I heard today was, very briefly, 43.400MHz...Spanish...from where I have no idea but likely from Central America or Florida.

With the solar flux continuing to remain high, so are my hopes for the next few days but I suspect that any openings could be missed, should you blink!

Courtesy: http://www.dxmaps.com

It's still one hour from sunrise here on the west coast but the 6m fireworks have started on the east coast....Cycle 24 F2 !  Will it reach us today?? ...fingers are crossed.

Courtesy: http://www.noaa.gov/

Somewhat disheartening Cycle 24 never fails to surprise us with its unexpected behaviour and this week is no exception. A week ago, the solar flux was sitting at an uninspiring 138 but has gradually been rising because of the recent growth in new sunspots. At noon today, the flux had reached a level of 219...one of the highest levels of this cycle! With such high numbers, 6m junkies are understandably growing fidgety and watching the rising MUF with hopes that it may reach that magic number of 50MHz.

The last time the sun did this, at the end of November, I was able to work two stations in Florida on F2 during a short surge in the MUF that had been hovering in the 46-47MHz range. Maybe we'll all get lucky again soon if solar activity continues to climb.



Courtesy: http://www.noaa.gov/

Once the geomagnetic field can stabilize for a few days, with high flux, we should see the MUF begin to rise again....tomorrow hopefully. The constant flaring (over a dozen flares in the past two days) and the impending arrival of an earlier CME, may be all that we need. Any auroral event will likely cause a very good spike in the F2 MUF the following day. An excellent short article on Understanding Solar Indices by G3YWX may be found here.

Today's rise in the MUF was a disappointment as the highest I saw was about 43MHz, for a brief few moments. The MUF then dropped back below 37MHz but continued to surge into the high 39's.

This short video, made today at around noon, shows the MUF surging....the band full of signals one moment and then empty the next. The region between 10m and 6m is chalk-full of commercial FM activity (police, fire, utility, etc) and makes and excellent way of monitoring the trend in MUF growth...at times it seems that the F layer is alive and breathing as it trys, usually without success, to climb higher and higher. One of stations in the video appears to be from Maryland, on the typical E-W propagation path seen at this time of the year. My receiving antenna is my normal 4-el 6m Yagi, which must be horribly inefficient at this frequency yet...notice how strong signals can be when they are propagating right at the edge of the MUF:


 So... hang onto your hats boys....it could be an exciting week yet!

Courtesy: http://www.noaa.gov/

With the solar flux index remaining relatively high over the past week, the F2 MUF has been spending most of the day in the mid 40MHz region. For 6m operators, it's always a good sign to see the MUF climb this high as it only takes a nudge to keep it climbing, hopefully to reach that magical 50MHz level.



The region between 10m and 6m is chalk-full of commercial two-way FM activity, particularly from 39MHz on up. With the skip zone running east-west, oftentimes the distinctive Boston accent or the unmistakable Bronx chatter can be heard...police, taxis, fire departments...sometimes even with sirens blazing away in the background. Other times, things will be further south, with accents favoring easily-recognized southern drawls.

Early this morning at 0641Z, a small M1.8 flare added some extra fuel to the F2 fire, resulting in an unusually early-morning rise in the MUF.

Courtesy: http://www.solarham.net/xray2.htm

By 0900 local time, it was hovering around 46-47MHz when I started to hear the 22-watt W4CLM beacon near Atlanta, Georgia. Warming-up the transmitter and calling a few CQ's on 50.098, I was soon answered by Bob, N3LL, in EL86 on the west coast of Florida ....a nice single-hop (2600mile) F2 QSO. Another CQ brought KJ4E in EL98, to the northeast of Bob.

Courtesy: https://maps.google.com/

Now normally, at this time of the morning, the F2 MUF would continue to slowly climb....usually peaking-out somewhere between 1030-1230 local time, so things were looking hopeful. During our exchange, N3LL peaked at 599 as the MUF continued to surge between 46 and 50MHz, struggling to maintain its ever weakening-grip on the magicband.

From here, things went south fast and for some reason, the normally slow climb halted as the MUF quickly retreated to the low 40MHz regions...it was all over.

The end of the opening can be clearly seen in the geomagnetic activity recorded at the Kiruna Magnetometer (Sweden). The circled area indicates the period of high MUF:


 ...but what started the sudden spike in the MUF today...was it the earlier flare or the suddenly south-going 'Bz' component of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field as seen about an hour earlier?

Courtesy: http://www.solarham.net/solarwind.htm

Such are the things that 6m junkies find fascinating, as this portion of the spectrum is always full of surprises and curiosities. Even as it slowly decays, poorly-performing Cycle 24 can't resist the opportunity to keep us guessing once again.

I wonder what surprises tomorrow will bring?

Recent comments on the ON4KST 6m chat page tend to indicate that the summer's Sporadic-E season is rapidly drawing to a close...."time to move to 160?" ..."how long 'til Es season? " ..... "is that it for the year?". Peaking around early July, I'm always surprised at how rapidly the three-month propagation-party zips by and, as always, leaves us wanting just a little bit more.

Unlike the past several summers, I had no European QSO's this year. The July 27th VE6 - Europe event was as close as it came but who knows what might have been missed during some of those predawn propagation periods when most west coasters are still sawing wood. Ever-vigilant KL7KY was alert enough to find Europeans at 0300 his time, on two separate July occasions, making me wonder if the same thing might happen down here as well? After Kevin's over-the-pole success, I started all day and overnight scans of the northern Canadian beacon segment (50.010 - 50. 050) with the 756PROIII's versatile (non-squelched) scan mode and the yagi pointed at 035 degrees. Even considering my somewhat late-season start, I was surprised at how often the beacons were making an appearance, often popping-up late in the evening or in the middle of the night....without the scan, these conditions would normally go unnoticed. I probably began my scans too late in the season and next summer will begin earlier, about mid-June through mid-July, hopefully giving me a better chance for Europe. John, VE7DAY, has also expressed interest in pursuing this more diligently next summer as well and has even spoken of daily 0300 over-the-pole CQ's during the mid-season's peak period.

The season highlights for this summer are very few....contacts with LU5FF, BV2DQ, EA8DBM, several dozen JA's and one new U.S. grid for the FFMA struggle.










I still need 49 grids to have all 488 continental U.S. grids confirmed but at this year's rate I'll need to live until I'm 115.









Six meters may yet still hold a late-season surprise for us but if the fat-lady hasn't already sung then she's just behind the curtain ....clearing her throat.