Keith,
I'm probably not the one to answer this, but I will tell you
of my limited experience on 6. Last year was my first real
venture on 6 meters. I was tinkering with my FT-897D last
spring, and ran across several locals. I was actually using
my R7 vertical, which supposedly doesn't do 6 meters. But
it would load using the antenna tuner. Anyway, talking to
the locals was o.k., but since I was vertically polarized
they couldn't hear me as well as I could hear them. I was
Q5, but not loud. Subsequently, I did make several longer
distance contacts using the R7, so once you get a bounce or
two the polarization problem doesn't seem as bad. But the
antenna itself was pretty poor. I did work into the
midwest, southeast, and northwest. All of these were
presumably sporadic E contacts. It was fun.
Now I have an R8 up, which does supposedly do 6 meters, but
I haven't made any contacts with it. So far I haven't heard
much on 6, but my monitoring is intermittent. But I am
anxious to see if at least the locals hear me any better on
an antenna that presumably does do 6 meters--they probably
won't because of polarization, but I still want to see how
it goes.
Now I have built the 6 meter Moxon I posted about earlier.
That will be the antenna I use (hopefully) when things start
to perk up. It's basically a 2 element antenna--driven
element and reflector. Pretty easy to build. I put it up
on a pole yesterday, and I was pleased with the readings I
got on my antenna analyzer. The antenna seems resonant a
bit high--around 50.6 mhz, but at 50.1 it's about 1:3 to 1,
which should be just fine. What I need now are some signals
so I can check it for front to back, etc. Unfortunately, in
my neighborhood I can't just put it up and leave it up. I'm
skating on thin ice with the R8 already! So I just attach
it to a telescoping pole, and run it up 20 or 25 feet, which
isn't too hard because the antenna is pretty lightweight.
There are probably lots of 6 meter antennas around that you
could try. Some folks say you can throw up most anything
during sporadic E and get results. Obviously though,
something with real gain is preferable.
If anyone is interested in a 2 element beam capable of being
set up for any band from 20 through 6 meters, you might
check out Vern Wright's portable beam
(www.superantennas.com). I have one of those also, but
right now it is at another location, and I can't use it for
the time being. But it is a heck of an antenna for portable
and field use. Vern is in the process of putting out a 3
element version. The 2 element version will probably get
you 4 db or so of gain. On 6 meters you don't have to go up
all that high to get a nice low take-off angle. If my math
is right, a half-wave on 6 is only about 9 feet, so anything
above that should show some nice results. The 6 meter Moxon
I built should give me maybe 3 db (I said maybe!), and that
is even easier to put up on a pole since it is smaller.
As for frequency, I think the standard calling frequency for
SSB is 50.125 mhz. CW is 50.095 I think. But when things
are cooking, you can probably find stuff all around those
frequencies.
So, use what you have, but some upgrading in the antenna
would probably help a lot. I'm sure others have some good
suggestions for you.
Dave W7AQK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darwin, Keith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 5:45 AM
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] 6 Meter Questions - OT
I've never been on 6. Never. My K3 will cover it so I'm
gonna give it
a try.
What do I need for an antenna? Will a multi-band vertical
like the
Hy-Gain AV-620 give good performance on 6 meters? Should I
put up a 2
or 3 element yagi? I'm lazy and very busy so building
something just
isn't really in the cards right now. If I do the yagi
thing, I'll have
no rotor so I'll just point the antenna one direction and
leave it.
Living in VT, I can point it a bit south of west and cover a
big chunk
of the US. A 2 element yagi would give a wider pattern and
might be
workable.
What modes? I assume CW is just fine on that band or does
everyone run
SSB or FM?
- Keith N1AS -
- K2 5411.ssb.100 -
- K3 maybe next week? -
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