26th June 2009...Big opening to NA on 6m

Big opening on the 26th of June to North America and the Caribbean. Needless to say, with a 2 element beam in the attic pointing east, signals were incredibly weak here.

Opening 26th June 2009...Yellow tracks (50 MHz), Blue tracks (28 MHz)

To put it into context.... 1) My take off to the west isn't great so height above local ground has a big impact. With the antenna in the attic, local houses are also in the way. 2) The 2 element has a front to back ratio of about 10-12 dB so signals coming from the west were getting attenuated a lot. 3) The antenna is indoors.....a loss of probably another few dB. Taken all together, the losses are probably around 15dB when compared to say a 2 element outdoors at the same height pointing west. (15dB is the difference between someone running 5 watts and 150 watts). 

In the early part of the evening, I could really hear very little....only German stations from the east via 1 hop Sporadic-E beaming this way towards North America. Eventually, signals improved slightly and I could just about hear FM5AA (2/1) and V29JKV (319). From North America, some of the stations that I heard were VE1YX (4/1), K1TOL (519), N9XG (519) and K4PI (529) among some others. Just to prove the point that the beam has a reasonable front to back, I could hear G and GW stations on tropo from the east (~300 kms) and were much stronger all evening. Highlight of the day however was the one and only contact I managed to make! I called KY5R in EM64 who was just above the noise level and somehow he managed to hear my 50 watts on cw. Alabama from Ireland on 6 metres with an antenna in the attic pointing the wrong direction.....amazing. 

Here is a selection of EI related dx spots from the night... EI7IX 50208.0 K9UHF en53io53 tnx 0038 27 Jun United States W1DYJ 50140.0 EI7IX FN42IO53 0013 27 Jun Ireland N3CR 50140.0 EI7IX 0000 27 Jun Ireland N5DG-@ 50095.0 EI1IP 2354 26 Jun Ireland N4GN 50095.0 EI2IP IO61 2354 26 Jun Ireland N1BAA 50140.0 EI7IX IO53 > FM16 2353 26 Jun Ireland W3ATO 50140.0 EI7IX FN20IO53 2343 26 Jun Ireland K8YTO 50095.2 EI2IP IO61<>EN82 2342 26 Jun Ireland VE3DO-@ 50140.0 EI7IX IO53>EN94 huge e/c pileup 2337 26 Jun Ireland N2CG 50140.0 EI7IX IO53 59 into NNJ FN20wv 2332 26 Jun Ireland VA3XJ 50140.0 EI7IX EN82MHIO53 loud in en82 2320 26 Jun Ireland K1DAT 50051.8 EI0SIX/B 549 >FN42 2248 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50167.5 KB8U EN71sw, Washtenaw cty MI 2236 26 Jun United States EI9JF 50089.9 K4BI Jim EM74 2221 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50178.1 WD5K EM12nr, Dallas cty TX 2211 26 Jun United States VE3EN 50150.0 EI0CL tnx ! 2205 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50208.4 KB8U EN71sw, Washtenaw cty MI 2202 26 Jun United States EI7GL-@ 50005.3 K1TOL FN44IO51 cq..in the bcn sectio 2202 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50150.0 EI9FVB Clg cq dx NA 2155 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50187.7 K8MD EN82bq, Livingston cty MI 2152 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50200.0 N8CJK EN84gg, Iosco cty MI 2148 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50128.4 WC2K Clg you here 2125 26 Jun United States VO1KVT 50167.0 EI3GYB IO53<>GN29LF 2123 26 Jun Ireland EI9JF 50081.0 AA1ON 579 2122 26 Jun United States K4YMQ 50146.0 EI2JD EM63IO63 2111 26 Jun Ireland NZ3M 50205.0 EI4EY 2111 26 Jun Ireland W5THT 50215.0 EI4EY 2109 26 Jun Ireland W2YR 50147.0 EI2JD 2105 26 Jun Ireland W2YR 50205.0 EI4EY 2102 26 Jun Ireland VE1SKY 50205.0 EI4EY FN74<>IO52 2046 26 Jun Ireland IK4IDF 50147.0 EI2JD 2031 26 Jun Ireland EI2IP 50110.0 WP4G cq cw 2008 26 Jun Puerto Rico EI2IP 50122.0 8R1DB cq still here 2007 26 Jun Guyana W4UDH-@ 50185.0 EI4EY 55 in EM52 2000 26 Jun Ireland FM5AA 50120.0 EI9FVB FK94> EI9FVB 50120.0 FM5AA FK94IO51QV 1957 26 Jun Martinique EI7GL-@ 50045.4 OX3VHF/B GP60qqIO51 2510 kms 1952 26 Jun Greenland EI7IX 50045.0 OX3VHF/B 599 over 1 hour 1944 26 Jun Greenland EI7IX 50104.0 V29JKV fk97io53 up .5kc 1939 26 Jun Antigua & Ba EI7IX 50104.0 V29JKV cq 539 1913 26 Jun Antigua & Ba EI2IP 50117.0 TZ6EI Still in most evening 1843 26 Jun Mali EI7IX 50175.0 WB4SLM em82io53 tnx 1842 26 Jun