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