09/22/2007 | N0JK We had just moved into our new home in Lawrence, KS and no antennas up yet. So I set up portable. A nice sunny warm fall afternoon here in the midwest. Ran my old MFJ-9406 and a dipole I threw together out of wooden dowel rods and wires out in a field of sunflowers west of town. Was not expecting to work much when I set up, but when I turned the on the radio, W5XN in Mississippi was pinning the S meter. What a treat!

The opening was pure 6 Meter magic. Stations along the Gulf Coast and Alabama popped up loud and into the contest log. Thanks guys, those Es contacts really made the contest for me.

As NL notes, the contacts were not plentiful and for us in Kansas the Es hop was landing mostly out in the Gulf of Mexico. The MUF was high for the QSOs I made as they were under 1,000 km. The high MUF Es center was over southern Arkansas. I was probably catching some high density small clouds in the formation. This makes the third Sept. VHF QSO Party in a row with 6 Meter Es.

Reviewing 6 Meter spots after the contest on the "DX Summit" - I see 6 Meters was open for Es almost 6 hours Sept. 08. At the same time of the USA opening, there was a big 6 Meter Es opening from Brazil to Argentina. Some real DX was spotted into the states via Es; XE2OR, XE1MM, P40C and XE2YWB among others. XE1MM heard the TI2NA/b. With the simultaneous Es openings in South America and North America, and Es to Mexico and Aruba - I wonder if an Es to TEP path may have been open? I did not see any Es - TEP QSOs spotted. Guess the solar flux of 70 was too low for TEP, a few years ago they would have been possible. -- N0JK