Someone wrote Generally true, but this past summer, in July, I was talking
all over the East/Central US on 2m and 6m, via some kind of bizarre
propagation.

Yep --- some of the rare propagation modes mentioned by the original
poster -- Yours was probably sporadic E
But as the original poster said -- it can be months before it may occur.

Here is the drill for sporadic propagation seasons.

Studies over many years for sporadic E propagation have shown peak activity
in the summer months with another smaller peak in the winter. Nearly 80% of
the yearly totals of Es propagation take place from May through August, with
maximums occurring in June or July with June being the more common. Some Es
can take place in late April and early September.
A lower but significant occurrence takes place in the month of December.
March usually exhibits a definite minimum of Es. However, Es can occur on
ANY DAY OF THE YEAR and these are termed off-peak openings.

However sporadic E propagation can produce very strong signals on the first
hop and I have worked many 6M stations several hundred miles away on FM,
when asked they sed they only had FM capability. So when you can work
sporadic E with SSB -- also try the FM segment -- I have worked some rare
states this way. Ditto of course with CW usually down band from the SSB
segment.

When multi-hop Sporadic E occurs -- one can work all over the USA

But SSB will do better and CW will get thru when the others failed. Your
power figures are about right.
--
The Modulator -- RF Gotta Go Somewhere

Worked 48 of the 50 States on 6M -- mostly SSB, Some FM and Some CW


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"Dave Bushong" wrote in message
news
Noise From Afar wrote:
Other than some RARE propagation openings on 2M such as ducting (some
others too) , the range for 2M is essentially line of sight and depends
on height of the receiving antenna and the transmitting antenna, antenna
gains, power, noise firgure and some other considerations.

Generally true, but this past summer, in July, I was talking all over the
East/Central US on 2m and 6m, via some kind of bizarre propagation. SSB
will get you more bang for the buck than FM will, every time. And CW will
do even better.

If I remember right, if you have 100W FM, you will do as well as 25W SSB,
which will do as well as 4W CW.

http://www.vhfdx.net/esmaps/esmap050704_2.html