Hi Wayne,
There are many Elecrafters on 6M. Great antennas and high power are
better than QRP into a wet string, but from Chicago, I worked a guy on
Long Island loading a random wire in his basement, and from NorCal, I've
worked KH6 and the east coast with 100W into an 80M dipole. :)
The hot ticket on 6M right now is FT8, a new mode that's part of K1JT's
excellent suite of modes combined into WSJT-X. I made about 8 QSOs this
morning into SC, LA, TX, GA, AZ, NM, and OK. I'm running a KPA500 into a
SteppIR at 120 ft.
These QSOs were all E-skip, and those beyond about 1200 miles were
double-hop. E-skip is called "sporadic E" for a very good reason -- it's
quite sporadic -- and for double-hop Qs to work there must be a
reflecting cloud at two sequential points. FT8 has a s/n advantage of
about 10 dB over really skilled CW ops on both ends. JT65 provides an
additional 10-12 dB of noise immunity but takes four times longer.
Es conditions peak around the summer solstice, and most openings are
within 6-8 weeks of that date. There's also a smaller peak at the winter
solstice.
Serious 6M ops also work meteor scatter, tropo, and even EME. WSJT-X
includes modes optimized for each mode of propagation.
Before the advent of FT8 (about 6 weeks ago), I found CW and JT65 most
productive. This summer, I've made fewer than a half dozen CW Qs. In a
very exciting opening about a month ago, I worked two JAs on JT65 in
about ten minutes. Both called me when I was CQing to the east! As I
responded, I swung the antenna their way and worked them. :)
73, Jim K9YC
On 7/29/2017 11:14 AM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
I’m pretty new to 6 meters. I was expecting very limited activity. But now that
I have an alert set up on dxmaps.com, I’m finding there are multiple openings
every day. There’s an opening right now that includes the west coast.
Is the propagation better than usual for July?
Unfortunately my antennas for 6 aren’t all that great, and the local noise
level is high, so I’ve been making use of every tool in the K3S toolbox (IF NB,
DSP NB, NR, AFX, narrow filters, diversity, and CW-in-SSB). I’m considering
taking the rig mobile to an RF-quiet location in the Bay Area next time there’s
an opening. I have my eye out for a portable 6-meter beam.
Now know what they mean by “magic band." Give it a whirl....
73,
Wayne
N6KR
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