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When I decided to chase DX on six meters I had the notion that it would be relatively easy - wait for the band to open and point the antenna on the great circle path to the area I wanted to talk to. Make sense? Well, here in grid FM18, on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, all that often did was lead to a lot of frustration. The band is not that simple. Es clouds and F2 hotspots don't often line up in a manner favorable to me. Six may be open, but it is usually open to somewhere else, right? Well, in case you haven't discovered it yet for yourself, we don't always have to settle for this. Instead of sitting idly by dreaming about that retirement villa at an appropriate geomagnetic latitude, blow the dust off the rotor controls and try to tap into available propagation by exploring unconventional paths. Regardless of propagation mode some spectacular DX can result.
I have outlined and mapped below some paths that have worked for me, as well as a few I and others think might exist from time to time. Try them on ocassion, and remember there are likely quite a few others waiting to be discovered.
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