Dig that E skip tonight!

[ke4pjw]

I got a phone call about 11:30PM from a friend across town. First words out of his mouth, "6 is Open, right now!"

I have been having a ball working 6 and 10 meters at Midnight. Even got a new state :)

Anybody else having fun at the expense of this solar event?

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif yes 10 meters opened up a bit, 28.310 usb had about 6 states heard within about 10 minutes... arizona, texas, ohio, illionios, maine , and a few others all within about a 10 minute listening spree around midnight ( cst ) last night.... the 10 meter FM repeaters were busy with " kerchunkers " and truckers abusing them with music...( nothing really new )

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif yes 10 meters opened up a bit, 28.310 usb had about 6 states heard within about 10 minutes... arizona, texas, ohio, illionios, maine , and a few others all within about a 10 minute listening spree around midnight ( cst ) last night.... the 10 meter FM repeaters were busy with " kerchunkers " and truckers abusing them with music...( nothing really new ) on 29.620 29.640 and 29.600 fm

[ke4pjw]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (kd4amg @ May 29 2003,06:31)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">:) yes 10 meters opened up a bit, 28.310 usb had about 6 states heard within about 10 minutes... arizona, texas, ohio, illionios, maine , and a few others all within about a 10 minute listening spree around midnight ( cst ) last night.... the 10 meter FM repeaters were busy with &quot; kerchunkers &quot; and truckers abusing them with music...( nothing really new ) on 29.620 29.640 and 29.600 fm[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I tell you, this was some rare stuff for 10M. (For me at least) I never hear the North East on 10M. I talked to a fellow that was in New York City that lives in a high rise apartment at about 2AM CDT. He was using a &quot;magnetic loop&quot; antenna. We had a nice 10 min QSO.

I didn't hear any FM activity on 10 last night, but I did make a couple of CQ calls on 29.6. I got no responses.

Hope we get a replay this evening.

[WA7KKP]

Some years ago I had a sked with WA7DCF on one of the HF bands SSB. We made contact and it was touch and go.

Well I had recently put crystals in my Progress Line Deskmate station. He had a Kenwood with FM, so we went to 10 meters.

It was like he was in the room with me. 100% solid armchair quality. This was at 11 PM, and we continued well into the morning hours.

A remote base on Saltspring Island (Vancouver Island, Canada) was linked back to me via the Boeing 2 meter repeater, and was quite noisy. I did a chinese phone patch and held the mic of my HT up against the speaker of the Prog Line. I had the pipeline, not them.

Moral of the story is that the band may be open anytime, anywhere. So use 10 early and often, FM being the most convenient way to monitor. Scanners now program that low in frequency too. Even use a CB radio -- if you hear gobs of hetrodynes, 10 is probably open too.

Gary Hildebrand WA7KKP

[KA8NCR]

Aside from word-of-mouth, any reliable notifications that can be sent to pager/cell phone when these openings occur?

I've been waiting for such an opening for almost a year on 6. Of course, I am usually off doing other things.

Then again, maybe that's the mystique of these things.

[N7VQM]

Aww crap. And I don't have a useful 6m rig. Shame on me!

[W1NCH]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Aside from word-of-mouth, any reliable notifications that can be sent to pager/cell phone when these openings occur?

I've been waiting for such an opening for almost a year on 6. Of course, I am usually off doing other things.

Then again, maybe that's the mystique of these things.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

You've got the right idea; it's all about being there when it happens.

I was monitoring 6m on Memorial Day; it was quiet. Then around 8:30pm or so I heard some activity--turns out there was a sporatic-E opening betweeen New England and the Southeast.

K4SX in Georgia (with a kilowatt and a 7-el yagi) was calling CQ around 50.125 USB so I replied and he heard me! Got a 55 report--not bad for 4w into a 3-el yagi in my attic!

It certainly makes a believer out of you when that happens.

[kg4ukf]

yea.......6 meters was in all night that night. made about 7 contacts with about 2 watts and a homemade dipole up about 9 or 10 feet high. some contacts was made off my antron 99 .. a friend of the family was spending the night with us that night and when he saw me making contacts and mostly having lots of fun he became interested in ham radio.