[Elecraft] FD & 6 meters

[Gary Smith]

I've never worked any 6M contacts until Field Day. Never had a 6M 
radio till my old K3 but with my 360' of RG-8 and no 6M antenna, it 
never happened. 

A friend recently gave me 360' of 7/8 50 ohm hardline and I found my 
160 sloper with my K3s could hear 6M signals and had a reasonably 
decent SWR. None of my other wire antennas could do either well at 
all.

I noticed a few things in this little foray, 6M from SE Connecticut 
was only open to the 4th call area. I did make one contact to Rhode 
Island, not far away. 

What I found difficult was the intelligibility of many of the 6M 
stations; many sounded almost like they were on LSB but they were on 
USB. There was little to understand and it seemed like their signal 
was maybe compressed. Others were clear as a bell but I only worked a 
few as my amp is 160-10. I'm guessing some of the radios must have 
had a problem, I thought it might be indicative of 6M contacts till I 
heard the clear stations. But well more than half were impossible to 
tune in easily.

Another thing I noticed was when I was using the second preamp in the 
K3s, I would hear a clicking in the audio as I tuned. It was like 
every increment from the VFO equalled one low volume click. When I 
stopped turning the VFO, the clicks stopped. Is this normal?

Now I have RI, FL, GA and SC on 6M! Nice to have some new challenges, 
seeing as ATNO in DXCC have become more rare.

73,

Gary
KA1J