Nice opening GM to Japan on 6m

Most years around the summer solstice there are unpredictable morning openings to Japan from here on 50MHz. I say "most years" and "around the solstice" but the whole thing is pretty unpredictable. So too are the operations I have to engage in to actually work anybody. Stations rise above the noise and often disappear within 60 seconds, requiring some pretty sharp reactions (which I don't have any more). As for around the solstice - I have worked this path as early as 2 June and as late as 23 July.

50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 23 June 2025

As usual click to enlarge images if you wish. I am pleased to see that "Project Logview" has appeared to fill the gap left by the Log Analyser by Mario DL4MFM. My data analysis comes from HamStats by VA2NW. I will try to cover all this in a posting soon.

After listening and calling for quite a few days, there was finally just such an opening on 23 June. Between 08:31 and 09:03 I worked seven JAs in five squares. I also answered a call from OH6KXL. It is this contact with OH which shows the path these contacts follow. There has to be a Sporadic E opening to OH or thereabouts for me to link into the path which crosses close to the North Pole. 

Best DX was JR3REX in PM74 at 9158km. I only heard stations in Japan unlike at other openings where stations from Korea and China have sometimes appeared here. I tried and failed to work a station in Asiatic Russia at around the same time. This time signals were quite strong and I completed about 50% of contacts, which is much better than previous openings.

The two new squares I worked bring my all-time total for Japan on 6m to 19 squares. It has taken me six summers to do this via 50 QSOs, though I have only managed to reach Japan in four of those years. Realistically I have about five squares left to target in Japan, leaving out watery squares. I do not view it like that though, working 9000km to Japan on VHF remains great fun for me so new squares are pretty incidental.

When this path was initially discovered it was speculated that it might be a new type of propagation. More recently it has been suggested that it is just a special version of multi-hop Sporadic E. My own opinion is that it is multi-hop Es, however unlikely that seems in terms of the number of hops involved. 

Whatever - when it happens I really enjoy exploiting it. OK, most days it does not happen, and when it does I have to scrabble to make contacts. During one QSO seven JAs called me, none of which resulted in a completed contact. However, working 9000km on VHF? What is not to like? 

73 Jim

GM4FVM