Short skip on 40m... 7180 active

[k4kyv]

To-night (Sunday PM/Monday AM) I worked John KX5JT from about 0325 to 0345Z. We signed out before the Eth. jammer started up, and I tuned across the band and heard John, WA5TEV in AR calling CQ-AM on 7180.  Moved up and gave him a call and we worked for well over an  hour, discussing antennas.  He was using his very unusual antenna that I won't even start to try to describe.  When he signed out, W8FU in Toledo OH called using his flex radio and we continued until 0600Z.

Good signals the whole time, with very little audible QRN or QRM.  We almost had a  clear channel on both frequencies except for brief noise from the jammer when it started up on 7175, until it QSY'ed to '65.  Mostly just a steady hiss in the background, with slopbucket almost non-existent. Just before closing down at 0600, I could hear static crashes starting to come back in.

John in AR said he had been working 7180 and 7185 pretty regularly since even before the BC stations moved, and had worked into Europe and Africa AM-to-AM several times the past few weeks.

Signals briefly faded a few times, but mostly remained steady throughout the evening.  This seemed unusual, since the band usually goes long starting about 0400Z, and often nothing closer than 1500-2000 miles can be heard.

I wonder if the longer hours of daylight might be keeping the band open longer into the evening, or is there any such thing as sporadic-E on 40m?