[Elecraft] 6 Meters

[Radio Amateur N5GE]

On Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:18:07 -0700, "David Yarnes" <w7aqk at cox.net> wrote:

It's even more fun and more DX productive on CW and a better DX mode than SSB
(My opinion ;o)).

I easily worked Japan from Texas this evening with 100 watts K3 and 5 element
Yagi-Udah.

BT 73 ES GUD LUK
DE N5GE, 
QCWA LIFE MEMBER 35102 AR SK

n5ge at n5ge.com
http://www.n5ge.com


>Hi All,
>
>I seem to be digging myself a bigger and bigger hole called 6 meters!  First 
>I just decided to see what could be heard on that band.  Not much--at least 
>at first.  But then I got a dose of sporadic E, and things started getting a 
>bit more interesting.  Then one of my friends talked me into building a 
>moxon antenna.  That was fun, and pretty easy. The antenna seems to do a 
>pretty good job.  So, I said to myself, if a simple moxon works that well, a 
>4 element beam ought to be almost as easy to build, and work even better!
>
>That was all over the last 12 to 18 months.  Then came the June VHF contest 
>(last week), and some very good sporadic E--better than last year! 
>Actually, there were a couple of sprints in between, which weren't all that 
>productive, but right now 6 meters is humming pretty good!  My K3 does very 
>well, and I even use my R7 vertical much of the time (omni-directional) with 
>surprisingly good results.
>
>I read some of the archives about 6 meter activity with the K3, and noticed 
>a lot of commentary about the K3 being perhaps a bit light on 6 meter 
>receive.  Well, a PR6 pre-amp might take care of that!  It does!  I just 
>added that little accessory, and the results are impressive.  Not something 
>you need for every QSO, but now I'm hearing stuff I couldn't even detect 
>previously.  Lots of additional oomph without raising the noise level very 
>much at all.  Very nifty product.
>
>Point is, I'm getting a little too intrigued with this for my own good!  Is 
>there a 12 step program out there for this?  Fortunately (?) I'm deed 
>restricted, so there won't be any towers and stacked arrays going up!  Hi. 
>There's even some pretty active CW operation at times--I like that!
>
>Bottom line--if you haven't put your toe in the water on 6 yet, do it!  You 
>probably have an antenna that will work fine, and don't realize it.  If you 
>have a K3, and like what you hear initially, get a PR6 pre-amp.  Problem is 
>that the sporadic E only lasts for a while, then goes away for several 
>months.  But there's a lot more going on with 6 meters, even during the down 
>times, than I realized.  If you have a radio that will do 6 meters, the rest 
>is pretty easy.
>
>Dave W7AQK
>
>
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