Jack, your idea of lots of CW and mine differ quite a bit. If your CW is concentrated in the top 3 Khz of the CW band and you willingly give up most of the band to beacons and don't even miss the bandwidth you are not my kind of CW affecionado. I do at least venture down to 50.090 for my CQs and much to my surprise I sometimes get an answer. I made it my goal to get some activity for the Straight Key Century Club anniversary celebration this January and I was able to make 3 contacts during the month on 6 meters and one non "SKCC contact. But I only have a 21 meter high tower and beam and a KW on 6 meters. If five contacts in a month in only two states, all ground wave is not very little, we have a definition problem. In comparison I made 452 CW QSOs on all bands and 90 on 160 meters. Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman K5EWJ & Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart
________________________________ From: Jack <vhfp...@gmail.com> To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 12:58 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Advice on 6 meters... Sorry, Willis, but the beacons are operated in a narrow range of frequencies well below the normal CW DX frequencies of 50.080-50.100MHz. >From Ecuador I heard many beacons from South and Central America, the Caribbean and the US, and none of them were anywhere near my operating frequency of 50.097MHz. Roughly 2/3 of my QSOs were CW and the remainder SSB so the statement "there is very little CW" is absolutely untrue. Jack, W6NF/VE4SNA On 2/26/2014 10:45 AM, WILLIS COOKE wrote: > Phil, 6 meters is vacant most of the time except for locals. When it is > good, it is mostly E skip with occasional F skip. Some of us who have more > than 200 countries on all bands except 160 and 6 like it for the challenge, > but figure on a lot of tuning for an occasional opening. There is very > little CW, but there is some around 50.090 to 50.095. Most of the CW band is > clobbered by beacons when the band is open. A large portion of the stations > on 6 meters have Technician operators who do not do code often. If you find > yourself tuning 10 meters during the sun spot nulls, you will find 6 meters > much like that during the sun spot peaks. A four or five element beam will > make 6 meters look like 10 with a dipole or a vertical when the band is open. > Most QSOs will not even exchange names, just grid codes and usually don't > even bother with 59. In spite of all this, I still like it and operate it > some. It is much more interesting to me than > RTTY or PSK and one of the few CW stations you hear there will be K5EWJ. >So if the lower bands bore you and Digital bores you even more, then maybe 6 >meters is your game. > > Willis 'Cookie' Cooke, TDXS DX Chairman > K5EWJ & Trustee N5BPS, USS Cavalla, USS Stewart > > > ________________________________ > From: Phil Hystad <phys...@mac.com> > To: elecraft <Elecraft@mailman.qth.net> > Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 12:08 PM > Subject: [Elecraft] Advice on 6 meters... > > > I have seen some comments recently about six meters and I have never operated > six meters. I don't really have a descent antenna for six meters, just my > 80-meter (ladder line fed) dipole or my hex beam that I can at least tune to > six meters. > > The band is always dead quiet with the small exception of some noise spikes > here and there but very rare. > > Question: is there any activity for six meters that I should invest in a > nice multi-element 6 meter bean antenna? > > My most dominant operating mode would be CW but maybe some SSB from time to > time. I have no idea what's there as this band has always been blank to me. > > 73, phil, K7PEH > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
