with so many multi band multi mode radios these days, 6 meters has really 
come of age the last couple of seasons.  Plus the openings this year were 
better than last by far.  I'm still running a vertical at 20 feet on the 
roof and 43 watts output.  I just worked state number 40 or 41 in these two 
summers being back on 6 meters, I have to check my totals, tonight with a 
big loud opening from the east coast clear to the west coast.  I picked up 
South Carolina and I only need NC from w4 to complete that part of my W4 
total.  The opening has lasted for over 3 hours and is starting to peter out 
now but west coast signals are still pretty loud and lower W4 golf coast 
signals are still pretty strong at times.  The CW activity this year is what 
has impressed me so much.  It used to be you could not hardly find a CW 
contact and if you did, it was your only one for the opening.  This season, 
tons of guys who like CW have been working the openings using CW.  Tonight, 
I worked K7NX and as K0NX, we had a little short chat.  He commented on how 
nice he thought my call was and I said, I picked it for how it sounds on CW. 
He sent back, Same with me.  So now I'm looking for K9NX who is fairly 
active, at least on the lower bands, according to a friend who knows him. 
Anyhow, as I mentioned one night, I heard a Japanese for about 30 seconds Q5 
a couple of weeks ago and tonight, although I could hear the signal from CT1 
Portugal, transmitting as he worked east coast and gulf coast southeast 
states, I could never have come close to working him.  We have another two 
months, and maybe a little longer, before 6 meters stops propagating so get 
on the stick.  Oh, about a week ago, a guy came on the 2 meter repeater I 
was on and said, Florida was coming through on 2 meter side band on 144.2 
MHz.  I went and listened but with just a dual band vertical, I copied 
nothing.  I did hear two or three Denver stations work him but they all run 
power and big antennas on two meters.  Due to the Rocky Mountains, pointing 
a multi element beam in weird directions can net you contacts with Colorado 
and surrounding states on side band that you normally could not work ground 
wave.  To work a repeater about 50 to 60 miles north of me back in the mid 
seventies, I had to point my beam at a mountain 35 miles to the southwest of 
Denver.  Then I could bring the repeater up and talk full quieting into it. 
Beaming right at the repeater up north with a 13 element beam vertically 
polarized would not even key the repeater.  Even with my little diamond dual 
band at 20 feet, I can, on 2 meter side band, copy a couple of guys in 
Cheyenne Wyoming.  They are weak but I could work them.  We have nets on 2 
meter side band, 220 side band, and 432 sideband each on different nights of 
the week and some nights, on 2 meters, we have Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, 
Wyoming, Colorado, and one guy even in Utah who check in with his signal 
bouncing all around the mountains and valleys over to Denver.

Phil.
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