First 6m opening of the year.

I have a routine when I get in the shack, main pc on the internet, load up qrz.com, dx sherlock and the dx cluster pages, switch on the radio then load up HRD on the laptop for the cat control.

Have a listen around the bands whilst checking the cluster, I use the cluster primarily as a tool for propagation, (as often by the time good dx has been spotted, the pile up has started), and so this morning at around 1130z, it was nice to see lots of spots for 6m.

What may of helped was that there was a contest on, so managed to work some inter 'g' along with a new square IO81, thanks to G4JFK/p, however the band started to open to the south, with two new squares, IM87 and IM86, with EA7RZ being my best and farthest south DX at 944 miles.

I have found that the ZS6BKW to be around 4-5 's' points up from the Sirio 827 I used for 6m last year, the 827 being resonant for 10/12m, though it tunes for 6m, the ZS6 offers in excess of 6 dBd gain, with a multi lobe pattern, so looking forward to some fun on the 'magic band' this year.

http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=EU&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N

http://www.nonstopsystems.com/radio/ZS6BKW-2.pdf