ok so i wasnt even planning to get on last night, just fired up the rig to check something on 2m and kind of drifted down to 6 meters out of habit and holy cow there were signals everywhere. worked a bunch of stations down into central america and even heard what sounded like a JA but couldnt pull him out of the noise. Es season is really starting to crank up i guess.

also saw something on the ARRL site about that new Icom IC-905 getting more traction lately, people are actually doing stuff with it on the microwave bands which is cool to see. felt like it was vaporware for a while there but i guess units are actually in peoples hands now. anyway back to 6m — anyone else getting into this opening or is it just my part of the country seeing this

yeah 6 was wide open here too, im up in the midwest and i was hearing stuff i never hear. had a solid qso with a station in Costa Rica on just 100 watts and a simple dipole which honestly still amazes me about that band. theres something about sporadic E that just feels like cheating in the best possible way lol. keep an eye on DX maps and pskreporter if you havent already, makes it way easier to see where the clouds are forming before you even key up

I actually just got my ticket a few months ago and havent tried 6m at all yet, didnt realize it did stuff like that. I thought it was basically dead most of the time? maybe i need to dust off that old beam i found in the garage and see if it covers 6. this hobby keeps surprising me every time i think i have a handle on it