[SixClub] New to Six Meters

[RICHARD BOYD]

I stand by what I said.  I see no contradiction.  73 - Rich, KE3Q


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Katz" <stevek at jmr.com>
To: "'World Wide Six Meter Club'" <sixclub at mailman.qth.net>; "'Mike (KA5CVH) 
Urich'" <ka5cvh at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 1:30 PM
Subject: RE: [SixClub] New to Six Meters


> 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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