[Elecraft] 6 meters Newbie

[WILLIS COOKE]

Joe, you need a better antenna.  Try a 3 to 5 element Yagi on a 30 or 40 ft pole or maybe a Quad.  You need to be above the trees, buildings and other absorbing structures in the area.  The signals are mostly weak on 6 meters, but occasionally they will be stronger.  The clusters and maps are good to give you an indication, but Sporadic E is very sporadic and you may not hear what is strong in the next county, or maybe even the next block.  It requires a lot of listening to catch openings.  When there is an opening to somewhere, you will start by hearing a rise in the background noise.  Then someone has to transmit and you have to be tuned to their frequency when they do.  Six is called the 'Magic Band' because after hours of listening a signal will pop up like magic and a few minutes later it will disappear like magic.  That is why it is typical for a station to give you his call and grid number and not take the time to give you his name or
 state.  It is not called the 'Easy Band'.  
 Willis 'Cookie' Cooke 
K5EWJ 




________________________________
From: W8JH <hoffmaninvestments at adelphia.net>
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Fri, July 2, 2010 8:01:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] 6 meters Newbie


I have not had ANY luck on 6 meters with K3 # 1713.  I had been listening
with my 80m horizontal loop, which my Palstar BT-1500 tunes to a flat SWR on
6m.  Nothing heard over a full year.  Since I still couldn't hear anything I
built a 6m dipole a couple days ago and still no luck.

I can hear continuous carriers sometimes but nothing else.  I routinely
check DX spots sent by hams near me (Ohio by Lake Erie) and have no luck.

I do use the internal preamp.  Carriers on the 80m loop are louder than on
the 6m dipole.  I had the subreceiver installed last year by Elecraft (about
6 weeks turnaround) and did not notice any difference.  Unfortunately I
thought 6m was a dead band or my antenna was the problem at the time so I
didn't think to ask Elecraft to check it out while they had the rig.

Anything I could have screwed up on the rig to make 6m a dead band?  No
problems noted on any other band.

Joe- another 6m newbie
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