Same miserable conditions with nothing much to report, there are a few dx stations spotted, but only one contact is showing, this of course indicates poor band conditions and little activity. We have been checking every day for the rare ones, or something worth noting. There simply is nothing, little to report, or work. We hope by fall things will improve, at this time it looks like maybe October might show some improvement.
Six meters it appears has peaked for the season and nothing but band noise can be heard. We have hopes of a winter peak, but with six you never know what might happen.
A word on six meter confirmations, if the band is open you may work a lot of stateside stations wanting your grid square or state, you often hear new grid for me, or new state. However, it seems few make the move to confirm what they have worked. This last opening I worked about 200 stations, received six qsl requests direct. A few sent requests via qrz.com with out reading my qsl policies. It plainly states I do not use qrz for state side contacts, this is reserved for DX stations onlyl. Yet, I received requests about six of them via qrz, I had stated they would be rejected and indeed they were bounced. Thing is I never heard from these stations by any other means.
I am not a LOTW user, so this leaves direct, or EQSL, little action has resulted, this is a radical change since I first starting working six, normally I was overwhelmed with qsl requests. Not so any longer, my point being is that six is a poor band for qsl exchanges, you might receive one request out of ten contacts, maybe? Two is even worse the ratio is about one in 20.This can be quite frustrating for those seeking WAS or VUCC, but that is the way it is for six meters. DX returns fair better, of course depends on if they have a qsl manager, or respond due to the fact some green stamps were sent.
Oh, with state side be sure and include a SASE, but even with that the returns are poor.
