[Elecraft] 6 Meter Questions - OT

[T. David Yarnes]

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" <Keith.Darwin at Goodrich.com>
To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
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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