[SixClub] New to Six Meters

[Dennis Kaylor]

AMEN
and very well said steve

Steve Katz wrote:

>I've written this many times, but some missed it and for some I think it
>just doesn't sink in.  VHF is very different from HF.  If you want to make
>contacts only when the "band's open" on six, you won't be busy very many
>days a year.  Having good antennas is mostly for the *OTHER* 340 days a
>year, when the band is *not* open.  Since most VHF-UHF contacts are tropo
>scatter, a mode that can propagate signals very long distances only when
>larger antennas are used (or operating locations are greatly advantageous,
>like being on a mountaintop), every small antenna improvement can yield
>large, noticeable improvements in working radius.  Here's why "working
>radius" is important:
>
>Say you have a 6m vertical and a 100W station and can usually work other
>stations within a 50 mile radius.  With 6m activity and population density
>as it is, that means you can regularly work 20 stations.  Now, you improve
>to a horizontal rotary beam antenna and find you can usually work other
>stations within a 200 mile radius (not an unusual change).  Now, you've just
>improved your "coverage area" from 7854 square miles (50 mile radius) to a
>whopping 125,664 square miles (200 mile radius).  Assuming population
>density remains equal, and number of 6m operators per square mile remains
>equal, you've just increased how many stations you can regularly hear and
>work, from 20 to 320.  Yes, twenty to three-hundred twenty.  So, you've
>multiplied the number of stations you can routinely contact by a factor of
>16 to 1, simply by adding a small beam.
>
>This is *not* an unusual improvement, by any means.  Remember, 90% of all
>stations you can contact on six meters *will* be "weak," fairly close to the
>noise level.  That's the nature of VHF SSB-CW work, and what makes it
>interesting and exciting in the first place.  It doesn't matter what you
>run, how big your antenna is, or where you're located, this fact remains:
>90% of your contacts will be "weak."  As you improve your station, your
>antennas, your location, the QUANTITY of weak stations you can work will
>increase dramatically, but 90% will still be weak -- there will just be a
>lot more of them.
>
>And geometry's a powerful thing.  When you increase your working radius, you
>increase the number of stations you can contact by the square of the radius.
>A two to one increase in radius yields a four to one increase in the
>population you can contact.  A three to one increase in radius yields a
>*nine* to one increase in the population you can contact.  It's simple math,
>but easy to forget when you're considering antenna changes.
>
>I have a 7L 6m horizontal beam on a tower, and also a "Ringo" 6m vertical
>(1/2-wavelength, works well for FM-repeaters -- far better than the
>horizontal beam, actually, since it has compatible polarity) on the roof of
>my home.  If I tune around on six, on an average Sunday morning, turning the
>beam around listening for weak stations, I can usually hear 10-20 stations
>on the band (no openings, no contests!).  If I switch to the vertical, that
>quantity drops to maybe two or three stations.  Big difference.
>
>73 & good luck!
>
>Steve WB2WIK/6
>
>
>
>
>
>
>It's a question of how big a signal you want to have, and that's at least in
>
>part relative to what sort of signals others have.  The larger an antenna 
>you go to (more accurately, the more effective, the more gain and other 
>factors, but let's say gain as the most obvious one -- and height above 
>ground, how high the antenna will be) the greater your ability to get 
>through when conditions don't quite favor you, when the band isn't quite 
>open, or isn't all the way open, etc., and if you have one of the smaller 
>stations or signals, you may have to wait for many, many others to get 
>through to a DX station before you get through.  If you just want to talk to
>
>your buddy a few miles away, it doesn't take much.  If you want to work 
>DXCC, get through on the first call to rare stations, etc. you might want to
>
>upgrade a little at a time, etc., which is what most of us have done.
>
>
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>
>  
>


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