Have a look at the alerts for 0001 UTC et seq… I guess the Australians are serious about the new challange. Only ten hours to go.
Elliott, K6EL
A quick listen on 6m through the 40m dipole from my trigpoint activation at lunch time revealed the band wide open from S Yorks to Central Eu, plus a very loud 4x4 (dk from memory).
That would be Ami, who is active on 6 and belongs to the FOC
Elliott, K6EL
Hi Gerald, me and you both, but in may case I have to operate only from home as portable operation on 6m in Germay is illeagal - please note this any of you who may be thinking of activating a German summit on 6m en-route to Friedrichshafen at the end of next month!
73 Ed DD5LP.
Which is why there is a special section for those who can’t play (licence conditions) on 6m in the challenge. You get to take part on 10m only. 10m only certificates will be available for those where 6m is not generally available.
I’m clueless on 6M. How should I interpret those Sporadic-E clouds? Do they need to be midpoint between me and target? What distance do we propagate on Sporadic-E?
Thanks & 73,
Barry N1EU
Hi Barry, I look at the Sol numbers,then look at WSPR and then see what is on the DX Cluster which gives a good idea of which way the wind is blowing. But that said, and has already been said, a station a few miles away can be working dx and you can hear but they cannot not hear you. So if you are on a summit, in the right place, at the right time etc. etc. great but…I think 10 will win out.
Night night
Mike
The typical single hop Es contact is roughly 2000 km though when the ionisation gets more intense the distance shortens, this can be a clue to propagation moving to the higher bands. If the geometry is favourable you can get multi-hop propagation over several thousand km, in June you might get several transatlantic openings from western EU to the eastern States, Canada and the Caribbean, lasting from several minutes up to several hours. If you look at the map on UKSMG Desktop - UK Six Metre Group, you will see right now an extensive opening in EU and a lesser event in the USA, this can give you a better idea of how far you can get.
The ionised clouds can be quite large, 100,000 km^2 plus, so they don’t need to be exactly at the midpoint.
Brian
Thanks for all the good info. I will keep an eye out and an ear open.
73, Barry N1EU
Don’t forget RBN too.
I find it a really good indicator of band condx.
You’ll tend to see far more unique spots there than on the cluster.
The map “lights up” (or pinks up!) when there is any sort of opening!
73
Pete
Perfect timing - the band is open to central and southern EU with some real rock-crushing signals on SSB. The cluster suggests that there are some double hop signals with the Middle East working into our region but that is on CW.
Brian
Yes Brian - I had a good session on G/TW-004 earlier and made 18 QSOs on 10m and 6m. Now back home. I will write an activation report.
73 Phil
Edit:
Report here: G4OBK G/TW-004 10m/6m Activation Report
Good stuff, Phil, I listened but couldn’t hear you. Not long after my last post the band closed for me just as if somebody up there had thrown a switch! The map shows activity into the Baltic area but I can’t hear any at this moment. I notice that when an opening is possible the band becomes full of weak carriers and bands of noise some time before ham signals start to pop up, does anyone else find that?
Brian
Yes Brian, aside from the ground wave QSOs with G4SSH, G0NUP, G0VWP etc the stations worked further out such as G0HIO and G8MIA were products of Sporadic E reflection I think.
Log2Map by ON6ZQ showing 10m and 6m stations worked:
Had a listen from my trigpoint activation around 11am today. Both bands wide open with Es, 6m mainly towards Scandanavia.
Thanks Andy!
Still would really like to run some 6m portable with my 6m Moxon that I brought with from Australia. Guess I’ll have to plan a trip over the border somewhere. Perhaps from Switzerland during the Friedrichshafen weekend? … Hmm, off to check there’s not the same restriction in CH.
73 Ed.
(EDIT): P.S. yes as far as I can see, I should be able to operate 6m portable in Switzerland, there’s 50-52MHz as well rather than only 50.08-51.00 as we have in Germany. I hope those wanting to be chased by German base stations realise the restricted band we have here.
P.P.S. Seats are almost full for the trip from Friedrichshafen to the two Swiss SOTA summits on the Saturday afternoon. Please contact me via PM quickly if you want to come along.
What,s wrong with the old fashion method. 
Switch on and listen and the odd call out. 
Mind you yesterday that familiar noise was riding in and out during time the Es was up on 10m yesterday and working the German sota.
Karl