Operating on 6m

Some call 6m "The Magic Band". This is for good reasons as at times almost every sort of propagation is possible. 

Sometimes it behaves as a good HF band, but most of the time it behaves as a VHF band. With sporadic-E (Es) one can work all of Europe from the UK with simple antennas and low power on SSB.  

FT8 has transformed operation on 6m. Most DX is worked on FT8 these days. Often all you hear is white noise.  Serious 6m operators run full power and big beams on big towers. There is no doubt these will help, but surprising fun can be had with simple gear.

Even in years of very low sunspots some remarkable DX has been worked. Some of this may be due to multi-hop Es, but I think some other form of E layer propagation is involved for some of these contacts.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/6m_op