Charles,

I think you'll find 6M a hoot but there are a few things you should not overlook, especially if you've never been on 6M. Here are a few points that most seasoned 6M ops will tell you right up front:

1) Be prepared to listen, listen and then listen some more. When 6M is open, it can get very active and quite fun. But between openings, it can as boring as watching cars rust and grass grow! The problem is during prime sporadic E propogation season (starts late spring and goes thru about this time of year in the US), the band can be dead one minute and roar to life the next with an opening to who knows where for minutes or hours. The trick is to learn to predict the openings for your area and try to be ready to take advantage of them. Until then you'll consume alot of static like all successful 6M ops learn to do

2) While your attic antenna will definitely work when 6M is open, you're going to find that you will want (probably need but you'll want it too) a outside antenna with some height and possibly some gain. A loop antenna (horizontal polarized and omnidirectional radiation pattern) at around 20-30' will do wonders on 6M and 100W. A small beam will garner more contacts at farther distances but then of course it requires more investment with needing a rotor and all. Use your dipole for a season and see how it operates and then you'll know where to go from there.

3) Watch for beacons in the lower 100 Khz of the band. They will show when the bands are starting to open and to where. If you can hear a beacon in a locality, you should also be able to hear stations.

4) Find out what maidenhead grid you're in. Several places online to enter your locality (zipcode, GPS coords, etc) to get your grid square. During 6M QSOs you will be asked by almost everyone you work, 'What is your grid?' and you'll want to be able to answer them other than 'No clue'. If you're interested in awards, you will want to get the other stations grid number too and start marking your 'grid map' (online sources) and keeping a log if you don't already. Almost everyone on 6M is working on some level of VUCC or other award.

5) Go online to the many 6M oriented groups (6MT.COM, UKSMG.ORG, SMIRK.COM, KCVHFGRIDBANDITS.COM, etc) and read up on 6M operations and procedures. Not only will it help you be successful using 6M but makes you a better operator and can help improve your station too in many areas.

Keep an ear open for openings all fall and winter. They do happen but not too frequent as we are reaching the end of Es season like I mentioned. Start gearing up for 6M Es season next mid-Feb thru early-April. By mid-April, it is usually in full swing and really get busy in May and June. I have a friend locally here in SoCAL who we just set up early this year with a loop @ 25' and an FT-100D (100w). He's already at over 60 grids confirmed towards the needed 100 for initial VUCC certificate.

Good luck and have a ball on 6M. I know I do. Look for me when you see an opening into SoCAL (DM-15).

Gene W5DQ
Ridgecrest, CA
Grid DM15

Dave,

You just described the way our club was heading to a tee. Having held both VP for Club Programs and President positions in the past and currently VP for Programs again, I was involved with many of our more experienced members to set something in motion I think is going to have a big impact in the next few years. With our, I call it stagnant membership - not because anyone had BO, we seemed to always have the same 6-10 folks who would come out for any club function or outing. The club had discussed ways to bring life back into what seemed to be a dying club and in the last couple of years, the club has sponsered Technician and General licensing classes to do just that. We have a wide array of talents in many of our more active members and using that skillset, many of the members volunteered to teach sections of the license theory. These classes have been a great success in not only bringing new energetic blood into the club as newly licensed Technician class hams, but many of the existing members have upgraded to General and beyond. Not only do we have many of the new hams coming out to see and learn at functions and outings, but it also appears that some of the existing members are also getting more involved in 'teaching' the new hams about amateur radio topics. Several of the new hams are very involved in the club with repeater support and upgrades, APRS system integration into club functions, setting up their own stations and seem eager to learn about DXing and HF operating. Not that I'm any expert in any given field (I only have a BS in Electronic Engineering), I have given many presentations on HF stations, antennas, 6M and other topics to hopefully plant some seeds of discovery in the new hams minds. Also this year's President is a newly licensed Technician and the Treasurer is his wife, also newly licensed and an professional accountant. One of the new members also revamped our website so now it is more modern and informative, not drab and boring as before. (Link is below - take a look)

There is a new sense of life in the club meetings and yes, we still have those that only come for the meetings and to eat the refreshments but many of the new hams are bringing new ideas and experiences to the club too. Our roster has grown by many new members from the classes and hopefully we will continue to have more classes and bring in more young people to give even more youthful energy to our group. Our youngest member right now is in his early 20's.

Hope this helps you in generating some new blood for your group.

73,


Gene W5DQ
Ridgecrest, CA

ex-WN5UZU / WB5UZU / KI6LO
ARRL Life Member, DXCC: Mixed, 20M & Phone, WAS/HF, WAC/HF, VUCC 6M #1688 - 320/205 Grids wrkd/cnfd
10-10 : 24965, 6 Club :2325, SMIRK, UKSMG, SCDXC, KC VHF Grid Bandits,
Northern CA DX Foundation Supporter,
Quarter Century Wireless Association (1976),
Sierra ARC (Ridgecrest, CA) Member, 2nd VP / Programs 2005-6, 2010, Past President 2007 (www.qsl.net/wa6ybn/)
Hi Desert DX Association (Ridgecrest, CA) Member,
ARRL 6th Dist Incoming DX Bureau “L” Segment Manager,
Volunteer Examineer (VE) with ARRL VEC,
Assistant Emergency Coordinator East Kern County CA,
Past Assistant Technical Coordinator - SJV Section,

What part of the circuitry is the 'certain point' in? If it is used as a meter shunt or for a fuseable link, then the .2 ohm measurement may be critical. Back then they were using VTVMs which had a very high impedance and could measure some very low values.

Gene W5DQ

When I was a kid (over 40 years ago) we had a similar problem in a underground tank we were placing. Used a hand sledge and a star drill. Drilled some holes in the granite outcropping and tapped it full of blasting powder and lit a LONG fuse. Big boom - no more rock.

Of course that might be a bit of a hard sell these days getting hold of a small amount of blasting powder and fuses just enough to pop a rock. Not to mention the neighbors having coronaries by the dozens when you torched it off

Like most have suggested - if it is solid enough, use it to your advantage. If not, better to remove it best way you can and keep going.

Also sage advice on getting a better understanding on tower bases. Big difference between guyed and unguyed towers so better safe than sorry.

Good Luck,

Gene W5DQ

I'm not sure what a UVERSE is but I had RFI from a Netgear WGR614v10 wireless Ethernet router with a Motorola Cablemodem and a external NAS 1 Gb HD attached tearing up my 6M reception with several birdies from 50.0 up to 50.250 Mhz. Troubleshot the RFI until I determined it was from the router in my house, close to where my 6M yagi is located. The shack is in a seperate building from the house.

I replaced the standard unfiltered (no cores) 6' CAT5 cables (two of them - one to cablemodem, one to NAS) that came with the devices with 2' CAT5 cables that I made up using 6 slip-on RG-8X/58 sized cores (mix unknown but suspected to the for HF as that is what I bought them as a long while back). I tywrapped 3 cores close to each end of the 2' cable and the RFI noise dropped dramatically. It is still there but definitely workable now. My neighbor's house is about the same distance from my house to my 6M yagi (MS2 6M7JHV 7el @ 40') and when I rotate the antenna towards his house and he has his router system online, I get similar strong birdies again. I am needing to go and talk to him about letting me 'core' his Ethernet lines to prevent his noise. I know it is his system because I have monitered it and he turns everything off at night and when he drops offline on the wireless monitoring I am doing, the noise goes away immediately. When he comes online the next day, noise comes back.

Just some more info to help (I hope).

Gene W5DQ

Stan,

After reading thru your first posting of where you were completely turned off of Flex Radio and their products to now at the time of this quote (Feb 2010) you had gotten the Flex religion and bought a 5000a, I have to ask you the following:

It is now almost 6 months down the road since you bought the 5000a. How do you like it? Is it what you expected given your in depth pre-purchase analysis and the frustration you experienced with the DEMO pkg? Would you do it again if you were back a square one, which by the way is where I am still at and looking at options?

I currently run an old TS-940S and find it is a very good radio for it's timeframe but I am wanting to step up to something with a bit more modern capabilities. I have a TS-2000X I use for 6M to 1.2Ghz but I am not happy with its filtering capabilities nor it's RX performance on HF. Right now my short list is Flex, K3 and possibly Yeasu FT-2000. I don't have any knowledge of experience with ICOM gear as I have always been turned off by them but I am seeing the newer IC-7xxx series are being well received and enjoyed.

I have been reading thru the posts on Flex radios and found your two treatises on both ends of the spectrum of YES and NO to buy one interesting so I wanted to get an update to see what the results of your efforts were. I decided to post here vice emailing you as I figured there may be others who would also be interested in the information.

Thanks

Gene W5DQ

Bruce,

Man that sounds like a really bad luck streak. I think with luck like that I would stay out of Las Vegas

I agree with the others that you did have a really bad run. After those results, I can understand the 'bad taste' for QSLing but you might consider doing some followup work and see if you busted the address or such. Also as you may be aware, going direct even sometimes takes a long, long time but not 10 years worth. I have received direct QSL returns ranging from 1 week to over a year. Of course lots longer via bureau which is what some DX do - receive a QSL request paid for direct and then they send a return via the buro - which in my mind is really a cheapskate way to go. I understand doing that if no postage and SAE is sent but not otherwise. There are some ops out there that think QSLing is a profession they should reap a profit on. You can usually find postings about them on the boards and forums if you look around. I would have also contacted the stateside manager and told him to send a card or send my money back. He could keep his eQSL junk as I did not need that since it is essentially useless for most awards. Totally unacceptable for a stateside manager to do that!!!! Also keep in mind, most stateside managers only require SASE for stateside mailings.

So far, my return rate for direct mailings is about 65-80% depending on where I am sending to. If I send once and get stiffed, I do a thorough recheck on the manager, address, etc. for any errors and then decide if I want to resend or just drop it in the buro box I send out every few months. I also upload all QSLs to LOTW (and eQSL even if I don't use eQSL's myself, others seem to love using that service - not sure why?)

Sounds like you followed all the typical rules of no call, security envelopes and the like. Hope you fare better in any future mailings you do.

73

Gene W5DQ

Austin,

I think that you might want to approach your mobile/rover design in two phases. The first of course would be for mobile ops. To enhance the capabilities of 6M SSB/CW, you'll prefer to stick to horizontal polarization. Vertical antennas will work for FM mobile but I've found them to have too much loss for much serious low-end SSB/CW use. As you mentioned, KB6KQ loops are used alot for mobile 6M work. My take on this is due to the fact that they are round and lightweight. I own a KU4AB loop, and while it is a great antenna, I would not consider using it mobile due the weight. It is made from SOLID 3/8" aluminum rod and is square so it would be a bit top heavy and easily windloaded in my opinion. The PAR Omni Angle 6M antenna is appx 2' x 2' but it is super light and pointing the 'angle' into the wind (vehicle front) it would help the windloading some. Lots of ideas to consider so look at alot of them to decide.

In your setup for rover work, you can use the same antenna and rig as mobiling or you could augment that with a more serious approach to roving with a small yagi (3 to 5 elements) to provide a much better signal on RX and TX with just a little effort. Of course this would require more planning and logistics to manage it but the payoff would be worth it in my opinion. You could look at getting or making a 'drive-on' style mast mount (where you drive the vehicle tire onto a plate that has a short upright tube to put in a longer mast section to get the 6M moxon or beam up to say maybe 15-20'. The antenna can then be rotated using the 'armstrong' method. Coax is fed to the rig either directly or via a switch to allow changing from the mobile ant to the mast mounted antenna (or something in that idea category). You didn't state what SUV you have but most moxons/beams can be broken down to fit into the back of a larger SUV such as a Suburan or Explorer/Expedition class or on top of a smaller SUV. I modified my Moxon to come apart in 3 sections (2 ends and the mid section) and it will fit into the trunk of my Mitsubishi Galant sedan easily along with masting for up to 25 foot height (five 5' sections), the drive on base, guy ropes, coax, etc. so I know a setup can be done easily for an SUV. A long shaped roof mounted cargo container could easily hold masting and beam boom/elements with support equipment. The idea I am describing will allow you to work mobile on the run and setup for more serious work as rover/ remote.

Just thought I would add some ideas to the pile since you sound like your limited to what you can do at a fixed QTH. I am in the process of revamping my entire portable/rover setup and I'm thinking of employing a system of yagis and loops that will reside in the back of the truck and be able to raise them as needed when arriving at a location and lowered for travel.

Good Luck,

Gene W5DQ

Kim,

Sorry but I am a latecomer to the thread but it sounds like you've got all the info you need to get started so I won't beat the proverbial dead horse.

But I did want to say thanks to everyone who posted here as this was one of the best threads that I have seen in a long while that was performed in a very polite and helpful manner all the way to conclusion without any trolls or troublemakers popping off some unrelated BS, nor did anyone slam Kim for not having a PhD in Computer Science and not being able to do all that was suggested while being blindfolded.  A really nice breeze of fresh air here on eHam for a change.  Lets keep this sort of help going for those that ask.

Congrats to everyone.

Gene W5DQ

I would not base market conditions solely on what I see on eBAY. Auctions historically have the 'bidding frenzy' associated with the deal and that can be nuts in some cases. I once saw a guy listing a quality camera tripod with an opening price for more than retail. He ended up selling the darn thing for even more above that. Ebayers don't always follow what sane market values will be across the board. When I go looking for used gear, I do a survey across eBAY, EHAM, QRZ, QTH and the mags I get to see what the prices are going for. I average the results and come up with a figure that is reasonable. As far as Alpha amps go, as far as I can tell, they hold their resale value very well if taken care of (which the majority are it would appear). Whether to buy an Alpha or an Ameritron depends alot on ones view of the old adage "You get what you pay for!" I found a nice clean Alpha 76PA that a local ham was selling and my buddy back east wanted. I brokered the deal and had it shipped to him via UPS. The amp was $600 but shipping and insurance turned out to be nearly $200 thru the local Postal Plus type place. Still all in all a good deal for him.

I own an Ameritron AL-811 and it does me very well. I admit I went thru the thing and did some minor touchups like replacing the fan with a much better one, added 572B tubes after the 811 died from me puching them too hard on RTTY (yes, I overdid it but I fixed it), and a few other small things. Would I like an Alpha amp. I'd love a 9500 if someone wants to send me one but I won't be buying one myself. I just can justify that level of cost for my activities. I plan on upgrading the AL-811 and when I do, most likely it will be from the used market.

Gene  W5DQ

My TS-940S has a clock that when set it keeps accurate time. It isn't GPS or WWV based but rather manually set. Keep in mind the rig is over 20 years old too.

Alot of hams use more than one clock in the shack. I have several clocks that keep the correct time for various time zones around the world, namely ZULU, local, and a few specific timezones.

I also have NIST time server access via the internet to keep the shack PC in sync for my logging, etc.

Truth is most operators probably would not use a clock in the radio but rather one on the wall. It would be nice to have one in the mobile however.

Gene W5DQ

Unless the additional 10' you're considering already takes some slack into consideration, I would make my extensions with even more length say 15' to 20' because as Murphy will have it, once you dedicated yourself to a 10' jumper, you will need 12' and you back at square one   The additional 5' to 10' isn't going to hurt you anymore than the original 10' and you'll be ready for any issues that might rise such as the need to move the operating desk around, etc.

One issue to watch is when putting a barrel connector between to PL-259. make sure they are tight and wrap the entire joint with black tape especially if the connection is going to be in an environment of temperture flucuations (the attic?) otherwise it can loosen itself and cause problems. If putting it outside be sure to weatherproof it too.

Gene W5DQ

A reasonable antenna? Hardly!!!!!!!

If you have winds of any substanial strength, don't waste your money on this antenna. It cannot withstand any winds to speak of. I had one for a while and although it is a decent vertical antenna, it isn't worth it. Also the 40M just quit working and I checked it from stem to stern and could not find any reason for the SWR to shoot up like it did to over 5:1.  No matter what I did I could not get it to go down so I scrapped the aluminum parts and made a standard 40M 1/4 vertical out of it with some additional tubing and run twenty five 30 ft radials and goa decent 40M antenna out of it.

Be forewarned before buying ......

The jackscrew idea won't work as the ham satellites are not in geosynchronous orbit so their ground track changes constantly. Most, if not all, ham sats are in a polar orbit I believe so there is that too to prevent the jackscrew method. You will need some sort of horizontal rotation to accomplish the elevation part of the pointing at the same time the vertical component handles the azimuth. That is why most successful arrangements use AZ-EL computer controlled system to track sats.

For what it worth and probably not much help in your case other than a reference point, but I replaced my 811A's with RF Parts branded 572B (yeah there Chinese but what isn't anymore?) and also rebuilt the plate cap circuitry using the replacement HV pc board assembly from Ameritron after I toasted a 811a (blew a hole out the side of the glass envelope) and cracked it's suppression resistor in half running a bit hot in RTTY mode. After the rebuild, everything is A-OK and I get 650+W out for about 70W drive (non-ALC) from my TS-940S. I also replaced the stock fan with one that pushed about 2x the airflow past the tubes. I haven't put any measuring device (thermocouple, thermometer, etc) in the airflow to read the temp but to my hand it sure feels much cooler than before using the 811s. I learned my lesson and now only run about 450W or so on RTTY with no ill affects noticed so far after about 6 months of use.

Gene W5DQ