Last day on 6m WSPR?

Today will probably be my last day of this Es season on 6m WSPR. I am not ruling out the occasional outing to 6m, but I do not intend to be on 24/7 as I have largely been for months. Apart from 4X1RF (3519km) no great DX was had on the band (given or received spots). This was disappointing but I am flogging a dead horse on 6m WSPR. We need hundreds of active stations and, sadly, these are just not there.

It is getting harder now on 10m WSPR too with less activity, but I intend to run the 10m beacon 100% of the time when not doing anything else. I am still hopeful that this will show up fleeting 10m openings in the quieter years. I just hope a devoted core of WSPRers stick with 10m. In the quiet solar years there may be days with nothing before a fleeting N-S opening. I think this autumn and winter we will still have decent 10m conditions although autumn 2016 onwards may be much harder. There will be openings even in the quiet solar years, especially N-S.

UPDATE 1150z:  This morning, just 6m WSPR spots exchanged with G0OQK (98km). No Es DX seen on the band, well not yet. G0OQK seems to be nearly always there, although sometimes a 2min WSPR transmission is too long to decode. I think some of the problem is drift as I go from TX to RX in the FT817. WSPR software can handle with a few Hertz drift, but more than that and it just cannot cope. This is one reason why other modes may be better: JT65 and JT9 only need 1 minute TX times. Although not as sensitive as WSPR the shorter transmission time may be better.

UPDATE 1316z:   EA1KV (1304km) has been spotted by 6m Es WSPR since 1154z. He has also be spotting me. No other Es seen on the band.

UPDATE 1320z:  IK0OKY (1480km) was spotting me on 10m WSPR just now. No other Es seen so far on 10m WSPR.