[SixClub] Understanding SIX [Was: Grids]

[K8RI (Roger on six)]

On 1/22/2011 9:31 PM, Larry Brown wrote:
> You nailed it Doc!  Us little guys (100 watts max and a home-brew dipole,halo or Moxon) have to wait for the openings to come to us. Guys like W8IF up in Ohio just crank it up and wake up the area they want. On another note....you guys keep talking all this "digital" stuff,you're gonna force me to buy another computer and find out what the fuss is about!
If the band isn't open, it really doesn't mater how high the antenna or 
how much power you run except for extended ground wave and Aurora. Power 
plus antenna gain is important when working aurora where you are working 
stations (distorted CW signals or SSB that is almost impossible to 
understand) that are the same strength as the background noise.  All you 
hear is a change in the noise. When signals are that weak and distorted, 
power and antennas become very important.

The legal limit and a 7L Yagi at 115 feet do not open the band! <:-)) 
Even a CY156 running full bore would not open the band, but it would 
certainly find the weak spots in the antenna system. <:-)) OTOH under 
poor conditions the legal limit and a big antenna do make a tremendous 
difference as they do in a "pile up", but poor conditions are far 
different than a closed band.  I don't know any one who runs a so called 
Kalifornia Killowatt on six, but it would take one to work much over 150 
miles when the band isn't open.

73

Roger (K8RI)

> Larry
> kg4zar
> EM78hp
>
>
> On Jan 22, 2011, at 9:02 PM, doc at kd4e.com wrote:
>
>> Unless you have a big tower, big beam (preferably stacked beams),
>> a tower-mount RX pre-amp, and a big amplifier (preferably full-legal)
>> you are at the mercy of generally-unpredictable propagation.
>>
>> The big-guns can almost create their own big-gun to big-gun prop!
>> (Oh, are we allowed to say "big-gun" any more?  Sorry, my bad.)
>>
>> This means that 6M is either open or not, alive or not ... well,
>> regionally, that is.
>>
>> There may be an East-West opening, a North-South opening, and a
>> whole lot of other regional and directional openings ... and
>> the opening will often move, making it even more challenging!
>>
>> 6M digital modes appear to be somewhat rare and in need of a lot
>> of promotion and perhaps some networking so that digital modes
>> are in-use during the leading and trailing edges of band openings
>> where SSB is unusable.
>>
>> Perhaps if there were a system of regular local digital NETS then
>> 6M ops would be set up and ready to observe and pounce on new
>> regional openings.
>>
>>> I understand and can read a band chart..... what I was really asking,
>>> where might anybody on this list be congregating.  That was the main
>>> intention of the message. :)
>>>
>>> So far as I type this, I only have 3 contacts.  6 meters is quiet as
>>> hell. So is 2m (ssb and fm simplex portions) and also 70cm (ssb and
>>> fm simplex portions.)   As quiet as a ghost town around here in
>>> Michigan.
>>>
>>> Ryan KB8RCR
>> -- 
>>
>> Thanks!&  73, KD4E
>> David Colburn http://kd4e.com
>> Have an http://ultrafidian.com day
>> I don't google I SEARCH! http://ixquick.com
>> Shop Freedom-Friendly http://kd4e.com/of.html
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