About now each year, we hear of DX openings between Europe and Japan on 6m VHF. I believe there have already been 6m openings from Western Europe to Australia. One has always to watch for pirates who are actually much closer! I very much hope these QSOs are confirmed as genuine.
The regular 6m Japanese openings (and to the Far East more generally) seem to be linked to mesospheric noctilucent clouds that form about now. I am sure this is E-layer, but not Es. I also wonder about some of the very long transatlantic 6m openings. Some may be multi-hop Es, but I suspect many are not. E layer - yes. Es - no.
They do not call 6m "the magic band" for nothing. Well equipped stations can work some amazing DX. Even very modest stations can have plenty of fun with QRP and simple antennas.
This why a future 8m allocation could be so informative to radio science: midway between 6m and 10m could be so interesting. We could all learn so much.
I am convinced there is a great deal for us to find out about E layer propagation and this is one area in which radio amateurs can really contribute to radio science.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/super-dx .
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