There have been some spectacular openings on Six over the last couple of months. I've logged quite a few stations from Europe and Japan. The 'problem' is that I HAD to use FT8 in order to do it. FT8 has become THE mode... Seems that you gotta be there or be square.
During the the last JA opening to my locaton, they were coming in strong.. For a while I had a pileup going with up to 3 Japanese stations calling me at once... I could hear their FT8 signals plainly. So.. Just for a change, I thought I'd run down to 50.125 and try some SSB or CW.. What was there? nothing. Nada.. Just one US station talking to another.
Most who run FT8 use a software package called WSJT-X.
WSJT Home Page You can configure this software to report who you've decoded over the internet to a resource called PSKReporter. They display all active stations on a map as 'pins' and draw lines between the ones who have heard each other.
Go to:
Display Reception Reports
In the top boxes, fill in: On [6m] show [signals] [sent/received by] [anyone] using [FT8] over the last [3 hours]
You'll see the current activity on 6 meters. (Note this resource is good for all modes and all bands). If you look, it shows how many amateur stations are currently reporting their activity... Right now as I type this, there are 2371 ham radio stations (Mostly in NA and EU) running FT8 right now.. And that's JUST on 6 meters...
If you're not familiar with the mode and just want to hear what FT8 sounds like, and to see if Six is open, go to 50.313 USB. Listen for the squeals. If you hear them, six is open.