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Too much is happening right now on the radio, so it's quite difficult to keep up with the posts here. This will be a short one. On June 19th I worked ZA/HA5X on 6M CW. He gave me a new one on 6M LoTW. A few hours later, I noticed K0GU in DN70 was active. I was listening back and forth, and after a while his signal was in. I quickly worked him for another square in Colorado. An hour later I got IB0CW in JN60 for a new grid. On Sunday June 20th, I worked ZC4VJ in KM65. I also got MD6V in IO74, who is also on LoTW. I don't have GD confirmed, so that was a nice one to catch. I tried several times on Saturday, but they didn't hear me. Another big opening appeared later in the day, but that will come in a separate post.

Soundclips:

• K0GU 6M CW in DN70

I had some time off before work last Monday June 14th. It sure paid off. I checked the ON4KST map to get a picture of the 6M openings. It seemed like it at least should be open somewhere. I noticed A92IO was on 107 CW. I tuned in and heard a strong signal. I thought this couldn't be him, but it was. Dave was quickly logged. I checked the tv-transmitters and could hear EP and A6 tv. I decided to call cq dx on CW. After a few minutes I got a nice surprise in A71BR. He answered my call and gave me a new one on 6M (#127). He wasn't as strong as A9, but the important thing is that he is in my log. After I worked A7, I tuned in a spot on UY5HF/P in KN55. He was a good signal and I got him for a new square. EA8/DL3GCS in IL17 was spotted, so I turned the yagi to him. There he was with a good signal and he was logged for yet another square. 6M brings it's magic once again!

Saturday didn't produce many qsoes. I was listening around on 6M, but not much interesting. I did get EA8CBN in IL08 for a new grid.

Sunday had plenty of signals on 6M. The stuff I could hear however, was nothing new, except UY5HF/P in KN55. I couldn't get through to him. EA6/M0DLL in JN20 was worked for a new grid. In the evening I was ready for bed when I noticed OX3KQ being spotted. I turned the yagi and started listening. Sure thing, I could hear him with a decent signal. I tuned around the band to see if I could hear something else. I got a bit excited when I could copy the VE8BY beacon. I've heard this beacon only a few times on 6M. Not long ago I noticed VY0HL was qrv from FP53 and I was hoping he would show. I called a few cq's on CW, but no reply. I got a tip from some guys that VY0HL usually are on 50125. I started calling him, and soon started hearing something on the frequency. It turned out to be Larry and he was working MM0AMW. Larry came up a bit in strength and I managed to work him for a new grid, field and zone. I also had one hop to Iceland. I copied the TF1SIX beacon and worked TF3CY and TF3ZA. Not long after, OX3KQ had a very strong signal and I gave him a call. Sorry for the dupe Jesper.

Soundclips:

• VE8BY beacon 6M – in the beginning of the opening
• VE8BY beacon 6M – later in the opening, slightly auroral
• OX3KQ 6M SSB – very strong this evening
• VY0HL 6M SSB – a nice surprise this evening
• VY0HL working OZ3K

Breaking a long range of Hamradio only posts, specially this week, I thought I'd write a short post about the software running this page. Yesterday, WordPress 3.0 was released. It has been worked on for nearly half a year. I upgraded it yesterday as soon as I noticed it was available. The upgrade for me, didn't bump into any problems. My site is running like normal.

I didn't notice much changes at first, but there are several new features. One is the merge of WordPress MU and WordPress. That means you can run several sites on one installation. Another is the new menu stuff. A whole bunch of bugs has been fixed too. Twenty Ten, a new default theme, was also released bundled with the 3.0 package.

Read the release info over here.

6M had been pretty quiet the last few days. There were a few openings, but nothing really interesting. That changed on Friday June 11th though. I was listening around the band for anything interesting, when K1TOL announced he was hearing the Moscow tv-transmitter. He started calling and I turned the yagi and listened. It was quiet… for a few seconds or so. Then suddenly his signal were in and it increased quickly. I worked him and tuned the band. N1BUG was in and I gave him a call. K1CP and W1JJ was also in, and I worked them both. After working those 4 stations, I went to 50080 and started calling and as soon as I finished the first call, I was answered. At times, I even had a small pile-up. I ended up staying on that frequency for nearly 3 hours. The opening resulted in 82 qsoes in 42 different grids. 8 of them were new. The map above shows the grids I worked. The longest qso was KE4WBO at 7466km. I worked 9 contacts into Canada and 73 into USA. This was my best opening to North-America since the opening I had in 2008. Hopefully more openings will come.

All the contacts are uploaded to LoTW and my logsearch.

I talked with a few of the other LA's that were active in the opening. LA8HGA worked over 70 qsoes, LA8AV worked over 50 qsoes and LA7HJA worked around 30 qsoes.

Below you see a plot of the qso'es. The map was made with Google Earth. Thanks to VE2XK for the idea.