[VHF] Re: [50mhz] E skip question

[Steve McDonald]

John - you have raised some questions that have kept old 6m diehards talking
into the late hours for decades! I can certainly say, after operating on 6m
from VE7 land for over 30 years now, that Es is more frequent in central to
eastern North America than it is out west. As well, it seems to be even
better in the southern states. I believe that the theory of the day for Es
is that it is related to high altitude / high speed wind shears. Although
the E layer is 'above' the weather, I have heard too much Es from areas that
were experiencing lightning storms to believe that this is more than
coincidence. There appears to be some type of relation with lightning and
high altitude sprite generation as well.
During years of high solar activity, there also appears to be some extremely
intense Es that is directly related to geomagnetic / solar storm
activity....I have often thought of it as 'sporadic F' as it has more
characteristics of F layer propagation than to normal Es....and...just when
you think you have it partially figured out, something crazy happens to make
you shake your head. I guess that's the main attraction of the magic band,
as you just never know what might happen next.

You may enjoy reading some of the 6m stories on my web page to give you an
idea of what 6m is like up here.

73 / Steve / VE7SL

http://imagenisp.com/jsm/MAGIC.html