It's all captured best on a QSL card....the one showing a big cat licking his chops to the right, a giant tangle of cats beating the crap out of each other on the left, and a tiny mouse tip toeing out of the pile up in the middle,  thinking he has escaped .....

The first I saw it was on a QSL from OH7RF back in 1973.  I stole it and use it now myself.

This unit is available free to anyone needing parts.   You pick up here in central Ohio,  or  shipped at your expense.


Had been doing some restoration  on a working S76, until it took a header off a shelf  panel-first onto the concrete floor.    Snapped  most of the toggle switches,  did a job on the S-meter, and several knobs, plus who knows what else. I havent turned it on since.

When it fell, I gave up all and any restoration plans.

Bob W3HKK  email: w3hkk@arrl.net


PS I am the second owner, since 1957.

Thanks, Mike. 

One further Q......Ive heard so much how height is the single most important factor  for successul vhf antennas.  My 5 el yagi has been at 5 ft, then 10 ft and now 15 ft. 

Taking your vertically stacking  recommendation, would there be   similar differences between vertically stacked  yagis at a relatively low ht....say 15 and 23 ft, and  with vertically stacked yagis at much higher hts say perhaps 50-58 or 60-68 ft?
 I understand the higher ants will intercept  stronger sigs  at the resultant lower angles.  So I woner if its worth it to vertically stack yagis at  lower hts as well as higher hts?

Interesting reading.  that makes TWO straight VHF Tests where, by quitting early you missed out on all the fun.  Or I should say I missed a lotta the fun.

But it was interesting to see tropo from central Ohio ranging (counting mine) 4 GS's to the west and 4 GS's to the east.  From Columbus OH over to the DC area, and to south of Chicago.  But needing a spatula to scrape so many signals off the noise floor is hard work!

From central Ohio, I made a total of 33 QSOs mostly tropo up to 300 miles away and only 5 Es QSOs to new England and the Maritimes.  At 2pm local Sunday I quit to watch the womans soccer  World Cup match.  Things were very slow on 6 and only a few Es qsos made lats Sun morning. 

But when I came back at around 6 pm, I heard BIG SIGS from New England/Maritimes, the Carrib, and  eastern Atlantic CT2 and CT3.  Plus  PV8 from Brazil.  59+20 was not unusual.    Huge sigs.....so how does that happen.  A dead band for the two day test and then wide open a few hours later?  Its part of the amazing nature of 6M.  I wonder what  other parts of the country heard?

Then of course there are days like today for the  CQ VHF Test with zero Es contacts in my log and about 10 tropo contacts within a 150 mile radius.

Lets hope Day 2 is a bit more  active!

BUMMER!!!  First day wash out with no Es and only the surrounding GS's  in the log her ein central Ohio.

Here's hoping Sunday comes alive!

Well, it's Sat morning and almost "showtime!"  See  a half dozen Euros spotted but not making it into Ohio yet.
Hear some sigs fluttering in and out of the noise  on 125 but nothing substantial.  But its only 8am, and the Euros usually perk up between 9 and 10am.

The rotator is up and working.   Come 2pm we'll see how conditions really are.

Hope to se you in the Test.

Bob

The club set up at a new QTH -  a hilltop renovated barn with a great view - for the ARRL VHF Test in June.  I checked the area with my auto AM radio and found it very quiet. 

Once we got the yagi up and connected the 6m rig, things were different.  Pointing the yagi North  showed the loudest QRM at S-9.  Rotating it south,  west or east reduced it to S4-5, and enabled us to make 130 QSOs.  But at least another 50 were possible if we could have copied the S-5 sigs calling us. The QRM level was pretty much constant throughout the entire contest.

The rural road and overhead power lines  pass  at their closest point, due North of us, so I assumed that to be the source.
The curious thing is  zero QRM on broadcast and 160M.  Just nice quiet white noise. 

Any thoughts?  We hope to return there in the Fall/winter for the 160M test, and then next summer for the June VHF Test, so resolving the QRM would be a big help.

Based on th ecomments here, Impushing hard for our club to add a 6M station for the 2012 FD!

Its like "The Undiscovered Band"

AND...Have a back up rig.  My  14 mo old IC7600 quietly stopped transmitting at around 3 pm Sunday. 

One other thing:  Have a  dual needle wattmeter on the output of your rig so you can spot   issues like loss of output,  changing swr, etc.  I usually set it on top of the rig right in front of me.  When the needles stop dancing, even I know Im in trouble.

Tnx, guys.  Working on it.

Sounds good.  Band has been opening in recent days,  with stronger sigs ( 59+) from shorter distances ( Ohio to SC, GA, NY, CT, MA, MO, KS) as well as the  usual FL and TX boys,  which is encouraging.   Over the 4th weekend,   CA, OR, NV, WA were all solid 57 copy  around 7pm EDST.

Interesting reading  our varying approaches.  The monitor is real useful since band openings seem sooo sporadic.  So far I use the vhf.dx website for postings on  actual real time qsos, maps on where the  circuits are, etc.  One thing is that often I see a lot of qsos going on all around me but Im not hearing a thing!  And other times, if I hear 'em, I work 'em.  So Im envious of you guys with towers, and have been led to believe that height is 80% of a stations success.  So I am looking to get my 5 el yagi up to around 25 ft or so on a temporary basis  until I decide on whether Im putting up a tower or not.  Depends on the stock market hi hi.

But Ive worked Europe in 2011 with my 5 el at 6 ft, and again in 2011 with it raised to 10 ft.  Im really looking forward to getting the  rotator up so I can return to pushing buttons instead of getting up and trotting out to the rear patio to pull a rope and turn the antenna...not that I cant use the exercise!

Bob

Your approach is pretty close to mine.  I would like to increase my awareness of  the band and perhaps appreciate its subtleties, however.

This week's band opening to Europe - yesterday morning and Thurs evening was one of the best Ive seen.  Signals weren't up to what I heard a couple of times last summer, but the breadth of stations I heard - most of whom I put in the log - was impressive.  Sigs were mostly 559 or 55 to 57.  But adding 3  CT's, and an IS0, 9H1, F, EA7, 9H1, and ON5 was my biggest haul ever on 6m.  All with a 5 el yagi  at 10 ft above ground tells me the band can be fun with modest stations.  At the same time, the number of openings I see on the VHF spotting net that I DONT hear also tells me  higher would be better to intercept those signals more reliably.  But a very modest height like 10 ft is  about a half wavelength antenna height so not a bad starting point.

One use for 6M that is underutilized is for local and regional nets.  Our local club  has moved from 10M ( where signals are marginal to fair) to 6m where  copy is armchair and in the summertime we dont have breakers from FL and CA  that fade in and out, or  multiple QSOs on the same freq that do the same thing...come and go.  Everybody comments on how copy is much better.

So with the  increasing number of HF rigs with 6m built in, I see 6m as a growth band for years to come. And one where the modest size of a yagi makes it  fun for many who dont have the space or wherewithall  for traditional HF yagi/tower installations.