34 countries so far in my first season on 6 metres!

I have to say that since it started opening in EI about two weeks back, 6 metres has been nothing if unpredictable. Yes, that's me stating the obvious!! I had been told a lot about the 50 Mhz band but had no experience of even listening to it. It was a brand new experience for me over the last fortnight. And it has been fascinating.

The first opening gave me contacts on CW into places like Poland, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia and Austria, but as time has gone on there have been some more exotic contacts.

Only a couple of days ago, using my Yaesu FT-897 with 100 watts into a 6m dipole (pictured above), I made contact with HI3TEJ in Dominican Republic and NP3CW in Puerto Rico, both on SSB. So I was impressed. However, there are down sides too. Yesterday (Tuesday) I felt sure that I would get E4X, the Palestine DXPedition, into the log as they were getting strong on both CW and SSB at various times. But nada. Still, I will keep trying until they finish on Sunday next, June 6th.

My country tally so far on this first season on 50 Mhz currently stands at 34. Here is my tally on the 6 metre marathon:

date: time: dxcc: call: mode:
01/06 1207 ES ES0NW CW
31/05 1210 GW MW0ZZK SSB
31/05 1135 HI HI3TEJ SSB
31/05 1104 G G1SWH CW
31/05 1053 EA8 EA8BLL CW
30/05 1714 YO YO8MI CW
30/05 1704 UY UY5BC CW
29/05 1011 KP4 KP4EIT SSB
28/05 2217 TF TF2JB CW
26/05 1854 IS0 IR0LVC CW
26/05 1817 EA6 EA6AM SSB
25/05 2301 OH OH2MA CW
25/05 2237 OZ OZ6DL SSB
25/05 2226 LA LA5YJ SSB
25/05 2159 OH0 OH0/PA3BAG USB
25/05 2147 LY LY2X USB
25/05 2123 YL YL2LW USB
25/05 1908 OK OK2YT CW
25/05 1229 F F6EWB CW
24/05 1810 ZB ZB3B SSB
24/05 1323 HB9 HB9RXC SSB
24/05 1319 EA EA5FX CW
24/05 1302 IK IK0CNA CW
23/05 1723 E7 E77ZM CW
23/05 1635 LZ LZ2UZ CW
23/05 1628 9A 9A5CW CW
23/05 1607 HA HA1XY CW
23/05 1548 S5 S57TW CW
21/05 1411 OE OE5FIN CW
15/05 1745 EI EI2JD SSB
19/05 1306 OM OM5MZ CW
19/05 1250 SM SM7CFR CW
19/05 1233 DL DL1LQR CW
19/05 1224 SQ SQ1DWR CW

I visited the station of EI2JD this morning to try and get E4X on six metres but it was not a good day for E propagation. However, I did nab them on five other band slots, so I'm happy enough.

I am up to 64 countries confirmed on eQSL so I'm happy about that.

Happy DXing. 73 de EI2KC Anthony.