Keith, I think your assumptions are pretty close to the mark. 6 is mostly closed except during the summer months when there are occasional sporadic-E openings giving 59++ contacts over distances up to 1,000 miles (sometimes more, with double-hop) even when using low power. As the name suggests, these openings are completely unpredictable, except they occur during a season of a couple of months or so centered around mid-June, and more often than not occur during the day when most people are at work. They are great fun when you catch one, though.
The number of sporadic-E openings in a year doesn't seem much affected by the solar cycle. Regular openings like you get on the lower bands obviously are, but the MUF is rarely high enough to support 6m propagation even during the solar maximum, so even when 10m may be workable, 6m often is not. You do have to be dedicated and watch for such openings to catch them, even more than for sporadic-E. The same effort put in to 10m probably would produce more QSOs, though I've often found 6m busy during a Sporadic-E opening when 10m is dead. That may be because 6m has its own dedicated fans, many of whom only work VHF. To them, the kind of distances workable via Sporadic-E are DX, whereas to the HF DXer they are short skip, local and not very interesting. -- Julian, G4ILO K2 s/n: 392 K3 s/n: ??? G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com Ham-Directory: www.ham-directory.com On 9/27/07, Darwin, Keith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This relates to my consideration of purchasing a K3. > > I know NOTHING about 6 meters. I'm an HF op who does CW and some SSB. > What I believe about 6 meters comes from my (limited) experience on 10 > meters. I'm expecting that 6 is mostly closed but has occasional > openings, provided you're not at a sunspot low. I'm assuming the > successful 6 meter operator has to be watching propagation and has to > pick their operating time. I assume it is a hit or miss band and that > you don't have any fun up there unless you put in the time and happen to > catch it when it is open. I'm assuming the same effort put into to 10 > meters would produce more QSOs. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
