The good old days

Yesterday, I got a number of emails from 6m operators, including the band veterans. There was a lot of reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ – like amazing openings to Europe from VK2 and VK3. Steve, VK3OT sent pages of scanned log entries, phone and CW contacts to the UK, Scandinavia, and Africa. The things dreams are made of.

But the good old days are actually ahead of us: we are firmly on the path of harnessing the magic of the magic band. This solar cycle, things are different, and for the better.

While my direct involvement on the band started earlier this year, with 4700 contacts logged, and hundreds of hours of monitoring, the puzzle is coming up nicely. The patterns are forming.

So what is different? Firstly, thanks to FT8 mode, we are able to collect and analyse an enormous quantity of data – received and transmitted data – in real time. Today, and literally around the clock, hundreds and thousands of amateurs are generating data while monitoring the 50.313.

Also, our equipment is constantly improving – from receivers, feed lines, to transmitters running more power than ever before. Thirdly, there are more of us on 50MHz than ever in the history of ham radio. The activity is on the rise!

My personal observation could be summed up in two points. One, geographical location is by far the most determining factor to your 6m success. Two, really exceptional openings from the Pacific to Europe are still as rare as they always were.

Location, location, location. The closer to Equator, the better. Here is just one example, from last night. For most of the day, TEP signals (trans-equatorial propagation, favouring stations sharing nearly same latitude, equally distanced from equator) were just amazing. The Japanese were coming in exceptionally strong, decoding 50 or more callers per sequence. Yet at the same time, friends from New Zealand, 900 km south, were seeing just faint lines.

After sunset, a faint F2 to Europe. But this time, I could see just two decodes (SP and LZ) while stations in New Caledonia, 750 km closer to the equator were having fun, smashing into Italy, Croatia and Spain. The kind of stuff VK8s in Darwin see almost daily.

You can have a monster 6m antenna stack, but that would make no difference most of the time if you are ‘too south’. South sucks, big time.

The other painful observation: watching others having fun could cause emotional discomfort. There is no other band that would test your character like the tragic band. I guess this is why 6m is a ‘lone rider’ adventure. A man and his horse, on a dusty desert road, heading slowly into the sunset..

If making friends is the reason you took up the hobby then stick to 40m. Or even better: go CB!

And as I type this…