There was a nice long ES opening on 2 m today but too far south, i.e. between F and LZ/SV. Hoped all the time the ES cloud would move a bit but not much happened. Then I heard stations south and north of me working DX on 144.300, just nothing heard at my QTH. Suddenly Heiko, DG1BHA, who was in his garden QTH just 5 km away, worked IW9HII in JM67ft. I could not hear the Sicilian at all while he was 59 with Heiko – very localized opening! About a minute later he popped out of the noise for me, too, but never got stronger than 53. Worked him at 16:29z (1.714 km), heard him calling CQ another time and he was gone again. So the opening did not last longer than one and a half minutes … but at least there was an opening. 😉 Reports are on MMMonVHF. Otherwise this ES season does not look any good so far …
6 m did not provide too many QSOs today, either. Finally managed to work JO40 for a new square via Tropo (thanks to DL2FDL for the patience, needed about 10 min to complete) and was called by CU3EQ afterwards on double hop ES. 3.500 km is a nice distance but worked him before already and he was quite weak. With the ES down south there was a nice skip into the Mediterranean so I listened for a while to Martin, ISØ/DK7ZB (yes, the antenna designer) who was participating in the UKSMG contest and doing quite well. Will meet him in Friedrichshafen at the HAMRADIO fair in 3 weeks.