Sunday, November 23, 2008

2nd Season E-Skip Kicks In

The 2nd Season E-skip has kicked in on six meters. I was hearing stations all afternoon starting about 1400 CST. I was hearing K1XJ in Connecticut for quite a while on 50.125.70 but never strong enough to work him. I kept listening the rest of the afternoon while watching the QSOs build up on vhfdx.net QSO map. I decided to give it a shot. According to vhfdx.net I should be able to hear folks to the west. I turned the beam just south of due-west, went up to 50.130, and called a long CQ to let folks know I was there. NØPSJ came right back a strong S9 from near Denver CO. We had a nice QSO for almost 30 minuntes before the band started to fade. At this time I'm still hearing signals on 50.125 this late in the evening (1950 CST).

For those of us who are six meter nuts this is great stuff. If you're not the type to listen to unsquelched white noise for hours at a time... well, it's not for everyone. If you do listen sometimes you can get in on the beginning of an opening and be the subject of a pile-up as folks who do monitor the band start to discover it is in fact open. Quite a treat.

73,

Jeff / KCØVGC