JAs on 6m?

It is the time of year when we tend to see the better equipped Western European 6m stations working Japan. This is a long way. The popular theory is this is multi-hop Es. Sorry, I just don't believe this.

Far more likely is reflections off noctilucent clouds that return strong VHF radar echoes. Noctilucent clouds are most common in high latitudes at this time of year and are 50-80km up.  The coincidence is just too great.

Sadly, there were no JAs active on 6m WSPR, so this weak signal mode is not going to help. Not sure if the Doppler on these weak signals would be too great anyway. It is a pity stations are not trying higher (even microwave) frequencies on this path. Fascinating. We still have a great deal to learn, but this is one mode that I am sure is under-used.

I know I mentioned this recently (blog entry June 3rd 2015), but when possibly new propagation modes are seen it is very important they are properly explored.  I have the feeling this is very important stuff. Imagine working Japan from Western Europe on 23cms or even 3cms. Wow!  Of course the same sort of path lengths would be possible in Canada and the USA. Get out there and explore!

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/noctilucent .