6 Meter E's Into Canda

6 Meters was open from the southeast United States into Ontario, Canada during the afternoon and evening of Saturday, August 2, 2008. I worked three stations in Ontario (2 in FN03 and 1 in FN04) during some casual operating:

VE3VII
VA3TLS
VE3KZL

I worked Tom, VE3VII twice. I really enjoyed the first QSO, as we talked for a few minutes about NASCAR and motorsports while we were watching the NASCAR Nationwide race in Montreal. Later in the evening, after helping W4REQ demonstrate amateur radio to his neighbors, Tom heard me again and we spoke for a few more minutes.

6 Meters was also briefly open into the Caribbean yesterday afternoon. I worked Eduardo, C08LY again on 50.125. Unfortunately, the band did not stay open in that direction very long. Eduardo faded quickly and I didn't hear any other Caribbean stations while tuning above 50.125 USB or in the DX Window below 50.125 USB.

All in all, 6 Meters was open to some degree for most of the day. I experienced a lot of QSB (fading) and noise (possibly from some storms in South Carolina) today, but I can't complain. I had QSOs and put some stations in the logbook, so it was a definitely a good radio day.

In addition to the amateur radio activity today, it was also a pretty good scanning day. A C-5M, LOCKHEED 99, worked in SEALORD's area. A couple of MH-60s from 3-160 SOAR at Hunter also went out to the offshore training areas, talking to SEALORD on 284.500. Given that it was a nice summer weekend, the USCG and USCG Auxiliary were also quite active on 157.050 (Marine VHF Ch. 21)

Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net