6M
JA Opening June 4-5 2006
The 2006 Es season opened up very promising,
much better than 2005 from here. We had several nice Caribbean openings and even an opening
into EA8. However, nothing could
have prepared me for the incredible opening to JA the evening of Sunday, June 4.
The prelude to the opening was pretty
normal. Sunday morning we had a
nice stateside opening and EH8BPX was readable for a few hours straight.
We had QSOs at 14:46Z and 17:29Z. Several
5’s also reported working into CT3 and CT but I couldn’t hear them. In the afternoon, the band opened to the Caribbean and I
worked FY1FL for a new one @ 21:51Z.
What happened next was the most incredible
thing I have ever experienced on 6M. I was about to shut down the rig and go out for the evening
when I checked the DX cluster one final time around 5:15 P.M. local (2215Z).
I noticed with interest that NL7Z in Alaska was being worked in west
Texas on SSB. I had only worked one
KL7 on 6M ever before that and that QSO was after midnight local time.
I had to give a listen to see if I could hear him.
Sure enough he was a solid 5-7 and he responded to my call immediately.
I then saw on the 6M-chat room page (http://chat.dxers.info/?b=6m)
that JH2COZ was going to call CQ on 50.096 CW.
I had never worked or even heard a JA on 6M so I didn’t think much of
it, but I figured what the heck, I’d listen for a couple of minutes before
heading out the door. So I tuned to
50.096 and to my amazement there was JH2COZ calling CQ a solid 559.
I gave him a call and he came back immediately and I had worked my first
JA ever! I then went up the band
and started calling CQ and had many JA’s come back to me!
Over the next 3 hours, 24 minutes I worked 42 JA stations in 10 different
grids! The signals were on the weak
side in many cases, but all were solid Q5 copy.
They were much stronger and more readable than the often ESP copy we get
on EU stations from here. It felt
and sounded very much like the 10M JA runs we get in contests at the top of the
sunspot cycle. A couple of times
during the run I thought it was over, only to have more JA’s come back to my
CQ’s a few minutes later. In
between the JA’s, I also worked KL8DX and several VE7’s.
I worked my last JA @ 01:51Z. It
was a great experience sharing the thrill of this opening with the guys in the
6M-chat room (http://chat.dxers.info/?b=6m).
They seemed to be as thrilled and amazed as I was about this and their
encouragement and kind words made the experience even better!
I use 2 M2 6M7JHV 7 element (30’ boom)
yagi’s at my QTH on different towers. One is @ 75’ and the other is @ 40’. Interestingly enough, for the majority of QSO’s I used the
40’ antenna as it produced the best signal to noise ratio.
This was due to the fact that signals were equally strong on both
antennas but the 40’ antenna was quieter.
However, as the opening closed, the 75’ antenna was the best as signals
disappeared from the 40’ antenna.
Looking back at my log, the distances worked
were between 6166 and 6567 miles. That is incredible considering that at this part of the
sunspot cycle and time of the year it had to be sporadic Es propagation.
This would suggest 4-5 hops of at least 1500 miles each on these QSO’s.
A lot has to go right for this to happen.
Some of the more experienced locals tell me that this kind of Es opening
to JA hasn’t happened in Dallas-Fort Worth since the late 70’s. I feel very lucky to have been a part of it and won’t ever
forget it!
As a footnote, the next night, there was a
JA opening that extended mostly into Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois
with stations even as far east as Florida working JA.
I never heard any signals that night despite constant tuning to the DX
spot frequencies. Oh well, no
complaining, that’s 6M!
Stats:
JA’s worked:
42
Opening length:
22:27Z – 01:51Z (3 hours, 24 minutes)
Distances worked:
6166-6567 miles (most worked were 6400-6500 miles)
Call areas worked: JA1, JA2, JA3, JA7,
JA9, and JA0
Grids worked:
PM84, PM85, PM86, PM94, PM95, PM96, PM97, QM05, QM08, and QM09
Rig:
Kenwood TS-2000 + Commander VHF1200 Amp (1KW)