6 Meters?

[KB0MMB]

Anybody ever hear anything on 6 meters?
If so,whats a good freq. to listen on?
USB,LSB,AM,FM?

[ND6M]

try the SSB calling freq 50.215 USB



go here and see any activity http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7.../spots/map.php

[N5AL]

Anybody ever hear anything on 6 meters?
If so,whats a good freq. to listen on?
USB,LSB,AM,FM?

A good 6-meter introduction on YouTube, From K7AGE: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR3MSQw7iZo )

Also from K7AGE:
For SSB - USB 50.125 is the calling freq. For FM, 52.525 simplex is the place to listen. Set the radio squelched and wait. Watch one of the DX Cluster sites for 6 meter openings being posted. Check with your local clubs to see if they have any weekly 6M nets. You can wait a long time for the band to open. Enjoy the magic band.

[WB3BEL]

If you have a decent antenna 6 meters is open almost every single day...

That's not saying there will be rip roaring Eskip every day or F2 propagation every day or TEP every day.

But with a small yagi and 100 W you can communicate almost every day with similarly equipped stations at ranges of 100 - 300 miles.

Listen on 50.125 USB for Domestic voice, 50.110 is the DX calling frequency. There are lots of CW beacons between 50.0 to 50.080 CW. You can probably hear some of these.

By this time in May, roughly a month from now, there is likely to be an Eskip opening more days than not. This will allow a modest station to communicate with other stations at ranges up to roughly 1200 miles per Eskip hop. When the Eskip is really cooking 2hop or 3hop is not that uncommon. June and July are the months when this is most likely to happen, but it can happen at any time of the year. During these months you can work many stations using a few watts and a hunk of wire.

When there is no Eskip, modest stations can work via meteor scatter roughly up to 1200 miles. The meteors are more plentiful in the morning. A meteor shower makes things faster, but contacts are being made almost every day via random meteors. Digital meteor scatter using WSJT does not require high power or big antennas. The calling frequency for digital meteor scatter is 50.260 USB. If you have ever worked digital modes on HF you probably have all you need to make digital contacts on 6m via meteor scatter. If you need help you can make schedules and get advice on :

http://www.pingjockey.net/cgi-bin/pingtalk/

There are also stations on the East Coast and Gulf region on almost every day making SSB meteor scatter contacts in the morning. This takes a bit more power or better antenna or lots of perseverance unless there is a meteor shower. But if you monitor the SSB calling frequency in the early morning hours you may hear bursts of speech lasting a second or perhaps longer depending on the size of the meteor trail.

There is lots of activity on 6m and the band is a lot of fun. The summer months are perfect for getting your feet wet since there is so much Eskip activity.

[K9STH]

6M:

Fat fingers when typing? The SSB "calling frequency" for domestic operations is 50.125 MHz and the "calling frequency" for DX is 50.110 MHz. The "calling frequency" for AM is 50.400 MHz.


MMB:

In almost 53-years of operating on 6-meters, I have seen openings during every season, at every hour of the day, and so forth. One thing is that way too many people are just listening and no one is transmitting. If no one is transmitting then openings go unnoticed. Listen for the beacons because, if there is a beacon in a specific area, that will give you some idea as to where the band is open.

Tropospheric ducting is very common on 6-meters and that provides a good path for contacts in certain directions.

The 6-meter band is open a LOT more than most people think it is!

Glen, K9STH

[WB2WIK]

Also a tip re condx: Scan the beacons, which are all below 50.090. There are dozens and dozens of them all over the place.

If you scan the beacon subband and "don't hear anything," your antenna isn't very good. I've never lived nor operated from anywhere in the continental U.S. where I couldn't hear 6m beacons. Some might be hundreds of miles away and weak, but that's the nature of VHF. All the good stuff is weak.

[G0GQK]

Since a few years ago I've been looking at propagation maps and the American continent for some reason is the best place on earth for radio propagation. Its dead in Europe and Russia is even worse, there is never any indication of propagation on maps.
Today I read that some US hams had been making DX contacts, the SFI is 93 and 10-12 metres are poor and 15-17-20-30 metres are fair. One UK ham said he had a contact with VK early this morning, but I bet it was a short opening

As for 50 Mhz, there are more polar bears in Britain than there are openings on this band, and when it does open its only contacts around Europe

[WB2WIK]

Since a few years ago I've been looking at propagation maps and the American continent for some reason is the best place on earth for radio propagation. Its dead in Europe and Russia is even worse, there is never any indication of propagation on maps.
Today I read that some US hams had been making DX contacts, the SFI is 93 and 10-12 metres are poor and 15-17-20-30 metres are fair. One UK ham said he had a contact with VK early this morning, but I bet it was a short opening

As for 50 Mhz, there are more polar bears in Britain than there are openings on this band, and when it does open its only contacts around Europe

By far the highest 50 MHz DXCC totals in the world are all from Europe. G0JHC has 220 confirmed. You have to go quite far down the list to find the first station not in Europe, and it's a Brazilian. G4CCZ at 214; G8BCG at 203; G8VR at 200; G4RGK at 193; etc.

You have to go really far down the list to find the first U.S. stations, K1TOL and K1SIX at 175, and they are in ME and NH, which are the closest states to EU -- and why they are up that high.

[WN9HJW]

Would it be a waste of time to put up a wire dipole to try out the band? Or do I need miltiple 11 element stacked beams at a hundred feet just hear anyone ?

[K0RGR]

MMB: Congratulations on your choice of QTH. You're in the narrow section of the middle of the country where it's possible to work the lower 48 states using meteor scatter or single hop Eskip. It will take a bit more effort to work KH6 or KL7, but persistence will pay off eventually. The other good news is that you should be able to do this on 6 or 2 meters. I know that one of our locals has 46 on 2 meters with no EME (I think he has all 50 with EME). He was also running meteor scatter on 2 with an indoor antenna in his garage at one time. Investigate the WSJT programs. They make meteors easy. Some of the bigger VHF DXers are in Kansas.

I would expect you to be able to work from about Dallas to Des Moines with a 100 watts or more on SSB and a small yagi. Bigger is always better.