[50mhz] [VHF] 6 meters this April

[Bill VanAlstyne W5WVO]

I have considerably less 6m experience than a lot of y'all (just since 
2003), but in my limited experience, an early start to the Es season has 
been associated with a rather mediocre overall season, once past June. That 
said, my guess is that said perceived correlation is SHEER COINCIDENCE. LOL 
Data pool simply too small.

I've yet to see an Es season here in NM that didn't get started "for real" 
right around May 12, plus or minus a day or so. The number of early or 
anomalous openings does vary quite a bit from year to year, both in terms of 
dates and number of occurrences. So far this year, not much to write home 
about from NM, and I must content myself with monitoring the Es map, 
watching all the guys on the East Coast working the early stuff, as happens 
pretty much every year around this time.

Just two more weeks to go, though, and the 2010 Es season should be off and 
running in NM!

Bill W5WVO

--------------------------------------------------
From: "N1BUG" <paul at n1bug.com>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 3:06 PM
To: "John Geiger" <aa5jg at yahoo.com>
Cc: <vhf at w6yx.stanford.edu>; <50mhz at mailman.qth.net>; 
<6meter at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [VHF] 6 meters this April

> It sure seems better than most Aprils here in central Maine. There have 
> been several single hop openings and at least one to the Caribbean. A few 
> days ago there was an opening to S. America. The HC8/b was booming in, as 
> were HC2FG (think that's the right call) and HC1HC whom I worked for a new 
> one! Never imagined that would happen in April. HC8/b was in for quite 
> some time, but the HC stations were each loud for just a minute or two. 
> Oh, TI2NA/b and TG9AWS/b were blasting in for a long time also.
>
> HC8GR/b is hard to keep inside even a wide rx passband. It's chirp exceeds 
> even my former 220 MHz all tube transmitter, which up til now was the most 
> chirpy thing I've heard that didn't have feathers. ;-)
>
> I have no idea if this bodes well for summer or not, but I sure hope so!
>
> Paul N1BUG
>
>
> John Geiger wrote:
>> I am starting my 19th summer on 6m (how time flies when you are
>> having fun), and I must say this is the best April I have ever
>> seen for 6m given the openings we have had here in SW Oklahoma
>> and especially based on the spots I have seen so far-Hawaii into
>> NM, the east coast into the Carribean.
>>
>> So, for you long time and/or serious 6 meter ops, I have 2
>> questions:
>>
>> 1. Is this the best April you remember as well? 2. Does there
>> seem to be any relationship between how the beginning of the
>> summer Es season is in terms of April openings and how the summer
>> Es season is as a whole?
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