West coast Canada to New Zealand on 6m

I heard recently of a 6m 2-way CW QSO between New Zealand (ZL3RC) and a station in Western Canada (VE7DAY). This was probably a combination of Es and transequatorial propagation. At over 12000km it is some QSO. For those prepared to invest in big antennas and high power and lots of patience, this magic band does produce some very long distance contacts, even when there is a lack of F2 propagation. My own more modest attempts on 6m WSPR have been almost a total failure but I was just using a V2000 vertical and 1W ERP. I wonder if I would have had a lot more success with 10W and a beam?

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