6m WSPR update

A few people have noticed that 6m WSPR is quiet when the band is open and there is Es about. This is understandable as working all over Europe is possible with QRP SSB in a decent Es opening. I still hope there will be more DX (USA, Canada, South America, Africa, Caribbean, etc) on 6m WSPR this spring/summer. It requires people to stick with the 6m band and the WSPR mode.

Today on 6m my best DX (spots exchanged in both directions) is G4BRK (134km). I suspect this is tropo enhanced by the presence of aircraft in favorable positions. This was certainly the case with G8EPQ earlier. Eddie G3ZJO was tracking where planes would be to give enhancements. No sign of Es today on 6m WSPR, well not so far.

I am pretty sure some paths are only possible when planes are near the path and the reflections off the aircraft result in favorably low Doppler shift. It is quite common to see strong aircraft reflections but no WSPR decodes. I have seen this on both 6m and 2m. There is some drift as my rig goes from TX to RX, so often the Doppler I report is not Doppler, but drift in my rig. With aircraft reflection it is quite common to see multiple reflections with different amounts of Doppler. On some transmissions I have seen up to 6 different signals from a single TX as a result, presumably, of planes in a stack.

6m WSPR unique spots so far today.