It all depends on what mode you like to use. Most activity now is FT-8. Barely any cw or ssb anymore to be worthwhile for me. I took down my Yagi and it's in the garage and will probably never see the tower again unless someday I ever really get into the digital stuff.
I have a 3 element yagi for 6 but I've never used it other than on FM. I'm curious to see if this solar cycle shows improvement.
I love 6m. I just wish more people used it when there's no conditions pointing to interesting contacts. It's really quiet in my neighborhood.
Thanks for the vid. Any chance next build u can also use inches for the measurements next to the millimeters?
Well it's not gonna be like the 90s anymore. Mostly FT8 signals and... where are the cw ops? Very rare on 6. And so you say, well the band isn't open. Spin up to digi land and you will hear dozens of point-and-click qsos going on.. so if you can actually hear ft8, you would hear cw, but noone gives it a chance anymore.. bummer.
Oh.. well ft8 is just point and click qsos. I really miss cw and ssb on 6. I do ft8, but it's just no where near as fun as cw or ssb. Human element you know? It will never go back to the way it was so I guess that's life... on to other hobbies that are still fun.
Still do six but JS8 call on an Omni Angle. It just isn't what it used to be though. I would not push a new ham onto 6 though as to do it now you need a considerable investment in rotator/antenna's.
I too was on 6m back in the early 90's. Still have the monoband radio Icom IC-551D and the AR-6 Ringo. AM, SSB, and CW were crazy good even on a very simple set up. Meteor Scatter on 6m SSB and also MSK144 are hit and miss this time of year, but when it's a hit it crazy fun! I have had contacts on MSK144 from over several hundred miles - all QRP! Same on SSB at 100 watts PEP. Horizontal polarization is the key to success. I have a PAR Antenna OA-50 Horizontal Omnidirectional that is great! 73 es gud dx on 6 de N8MNG
I just got a new to me used PAR OA-50. So far it has been fun for the teaser openings I have had since I got it up in the middle of October. I wanted it up last summer but I wasn't able to pull that off. Summer baseball with the kiddos took all the free time as it should have. Hopefully the conditions are nice and I can work that loop out this summer 73 and good DX NKØV
Hello all, Here is a point of view from Canada, check the web page of: Michel VE2XK, click on Statistics, http://www.ve2xk.com plus: QRZ.COM web page of Michel. You shall see what is the difference between the number of QSO with other Canadian and QSO with USA. Plus many other statistics on this up to date graph which was last update Jan 2021, 23:30Z --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep in mind that six meters (50 MHz) is a particular one, in many aspects. Personnally, it tooks me 23 years to get my WAS!!!! 41 years to get my DXCC and WAC , WAVE etc. Oh! I dit all of this QRP 10 watts SSB 5 watts CW only.- with a 5 elements M2 6M5X at 30 ft. This band is fantastic when it is open, but it is only seasonal openings. Local activities here? Nothing, niet, nada... and we have full 4 MHZ , VS 3,2 MHz of spectrum on HF.- No Repeater activities except in Ontario and may be a couple in N.S. Well that a bit of info on that band... 73 Michel VE2TH The QRP'er for 58 years now...
Try your HF antenna with a tuner on 6 meters. Although patience will still be needed. Its not a beam like in the video, and the band is highly variable. I'm using a 66' OCF dipole in my 50 foot attic at about 17 feet AGL through an LDG Z11ProII tuner at the feed point on 80 through 6. I don't hear much on 6 meters, but when the band is open it can surprise you. On Jan 10 2022 I made an FT-8 contact from New Jersey to Cuba! Give it a listen during a contest, to get an idea.
Now thats a mega antenna My 6m 5el CC looks about as big as the Aussie's, and no one would call it a mega antenna. Some of the 45ft+ booms on the M2s, definitely.
Hello, I'm Holger, the antennas are great i use the 5 EL to, and 5EL from M², but I'm now using a PA50-7-9BGP from Antennas-Amplifiers. These antennas are optimized for optimal noise, which I think is better than gain. have 2021 VK in Q 65 decode unfortunately no QSO. This year it should work maybe even in FT8, because the conditions are getting better and better. great video. 73 de DD7DAC, Holger
