[OKDXA] 6 meters

[Gene Lewis]

I've been a ham for nearly 50 years but I made my first QSO on 6 meters last weekend.  I had the good fortune of inheriting an Icom IC-746, which covers 6 and 2 meters, along with a 5 element Cushcraft A505S 5-element 6 meter yagi and a Cushcraft 13WB2 13-element yagi, as well as a Ham 2 rotor.  Having had this very nice windfall of equipment and antennas, it would have been a travesty to not do something with those bands.  I put up a small tower that I had lying over in the side of my yard and mounted these 2 antennas on it and got on the air last weekend.  As it turned out there was a VHF contest going on, which made a lot of people get on 6 meters.  I couldn't believe it but I worked 14 states and Canada and Mexico last weekend.  That got me revved up for operating VHF.  This weekend that just ended, I enjoyed another flurry of activity on 6 and brought my states total up to 35 states worked, and 11 European countries.  Apparently the timing for my getting on 6 meters was perfect because apparently it's hotter than it's been in a long time, based on what I'm hearing the veteran 6 meter ops saying.  It really does seem to be a "magic band".  If it's open, you can do wondrous things, if it's not, it's as if someone somewhere flipped a switch and turned the band off.  Anyway,  I'm very happy that the timing of my getting this equipment and antennas coincided with an awesome season on 6 meters.  I can't believe the number of states and countries I have worked in the past 2 weeks with 100 watts and the antenna 30 feet in the air.  Here's hoping that 6 meters will continue its current trend throughout the summer!