VE6AB Mobile Ops
Sporadic-E Opening on 6m
Early morning finds me in the vicinity of Buffalo Hill south of Arrowhead AB, where I happened to be in the area shooting photos, when I received a notification that there was a possible sporadic-E opening on 6 meters.
With my 6 meter halo always stored in the cargo bay of my mobile, it only took me a couple of minutes to switch out my 10-80 meter gearmotor antenna for my 6 meter loop as seen in this photograph of my mobile.
Sporadic-E propagation is responsible for most of the long-distance (600km and greater) contacts on the 6-meter band.
Sporadic-E is a type of ionospheric E-layer reflection caused by small patches of unusually dense ionization. These sporadic E-layer "clouds" appear unpredictably, but they are most common over the US and southern Canada during the daylight hours of late spring and summer.
Sporadic-E events may last for just a few minutes to several hours, a given event usually affects only small areas of the country at any one time.
During June and July, signals propagated by means of sporadic-E ionization may be heard on 50MHz for several hours a day on more than half the days. Signals are often remarkably strong, allowing 50 MHz stations running 10 watts, and often much less than that, to make contacts 1500 km and longer with relative ease.
The appearance of sporadic-E is related not only to time of day and to season. Sporadic-E may appear at any time, but long-term observations have shown that in the US and Canada it occurs more often from mid-May to mid-August than any other months, followed by a less productive period from mid December to mid-January.
The insert map indicates where the 6 meter activity in the US and Canada was on this morning.
Click on the photo for a closer look.....
