Chasing DX on 6m is very addictive, It is so unpredictable and that's the fun of it. You can have a large antenna or a array of antennas, you can have power, you can have a worldclass receive......but in the end you need some form of propagation to reflect 50MHz signals. Of course a good station helps but when propagation is good a small antenna and 50W power would do well, even on DX.
OJ0C from Market reef is currently active focusing 6m till 21-june. Of course I had to chase this station since it would be a new one on 6m. Actually I saw them on FT8 first day of their activation but signals were low and QSB too fast. I had a reply on my call but no QSO. Then the day after, same thing happened again. And although I heard several Swedish and Finnish stations OJ0C didn't become stronger. I tried every day last week and once had a reply with report +8dB. But no 73, so I'm not in the log I guess. Hopeless....last evening I heard them on CW, finally with a great signal 559. They worked split but I couldn't find out were to transmit exactly, I didn't hear the stations he was replying to as well. I called numerous times but no reply and OJ0C faded away........again. The 21st does approach and I really wanted to work OJ0C on 6m.... So, today I noticed they were on SSB 50.187MHz. No sign listening of course, but I know ES is sporadic. It is just a matter of time....patience. And it worked out, suddenly OJ0C came out of the noise and we made the QSO I could just hear his 73 to me and then it was noise again. But we exchanged reports and that is enough.
But before the above story I had the opportunity to work my first Japanese station on 6m in 2021 today. JS6TWW Yuji is located on Minami-Daito Island (IOTA AS-047) near Okinawa. Living on an island can of course lift your signal being surrounded be salt water. Unfortunately this island is known for passing typhoons and Yuji lost some antennas in the past.....
Pretty amazing propagation today (click on the map to view a larger version). Received China and Hong Kong as well. I recently see more activity from China on 6m and I almost had a QSO with a Chinese station. Unfortunately signals faded just before we could finish the QSO.
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