Lloyd mentioned the good band conditions from Field Day of 1976.

That weekend brought the longest duration Sporadic E opening to the 
upper HF bands and 6 meters that I have ever experienced. I've seen 
some shorter openings which brought stronger signals, but this opening 
began for me on the Friday of field day week, and continued well into 
Monday.

I had just graduated from Mississippi State University, and went back 
up to Starkville to operate field day with the radio club there.

Fifteen meters did not shut down at any point during the weekend, and 
10 meters was only quiet for 2 or 3 hours, well after midnight.

Our big attention grabber in the club at that time was a 2 element 40 
meter quad. We would begin with it pointed toward the east coast, and 
gradually turn it full circle as the band shifted westward. To rotate 
it, two guys would untie an anchor rope at each end, and walk it 
around to the new direction.

That weekend, we had literally worked everything we could hear on 40 
meters by 6 AM Sunday morning.

I was new to 6 meters, and a friend had brought a Swan 250. Nobody 
else in the club thought there would be any 6 meter activity, but 
after we had cleaned out 40 meters, they let us put that Swan on the 
air with a 3 element beam at about 30 feet.

By the end of the contest, we had worked 30 states, 4 provinces, and 
made an average of 1 contact per minute over the 7 hours that we were 
on 6 meters.

We did not have any bands above 6, but I was told that 2 meter 
sideband gave many clubs lots of extra points that year as well.




Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs