Last year in late May I bought a rig with 6m capabilities and noticed the Es openings.  But when do they start?  early, mid, late April?  early-mid- May?

Never heard or thought of that...dial creep huh? 

How DO you check for it?

I started noticing it about 6-7  years ago and both drift about the same amount.

Both of these reliable, top notch rigs have  held up  wonderfully for the 30+ years Ive had them, but old age is catching up with them both, in the form of drift.  Over 2-3 hrs they will drift 500 hz, and over 5-6 hrs they will drift about 1000 hz.

As  mostly a cw operator, this is an issue, as  the guy Im rag chewing with has to chase me down the band.

Anyone familiar with  how best to correct the problem?

Talking strictly Es,  the 55 ft on 20m ht analogy is less than 1 wavelength.  1 wavelength on 6m is 20 ft or so.  and that should do a very nice job.

As an example, my 5 el yagi  6 ft off the ground and beaming THRU the house works  all up and down the west coast during Es season.  Made c. 200 qsos in 40 or so states and 7 countries including Portugal last season.  Id LOVE to be up at 25 ft.

Just got on 6m this past summer after 55 yrs in ham radio.  Lots of Es openings in May-JUN-JUL so  you could do a nice job  with 5-10w ssb and a  light wt dipole antenna strung from a couple of trees  about 10-20 ft high.  Most guys use horizontal polarization on 6m, so u better stick to a horizontally polarized antenna like a dipole to avoid some major cross-polarization loss ( 3-6 S units) on the direct wave contacts. Not such a factor on  Es.

Sounds like fun.

Nice set up.  I thought about the fiberglas surplus masts but then read several comments by users who had them fail  while in use, presumably due to aging.    Im always on the lookout for a solid build push up mast to get 15-25 ft off the ground, be it for the 6m yagi at home, or at FD, the Ohio QSO Party,  and a few other contests the club likes to do.

In the old days you could always get  aluminum push up masts, or steel lt wt push up masts at Radio shack or many other places, but sadly those supplies have all but disappeared. :<

I  do update to eQSL every few weeks, and print out paper copies every few months, but usually not before the HD crashes for some reason!

I spent some time at Travis AFB n/o SF back in 67.  Got to drive around CA from Orange Co up to Sacramento-Russian River-Napa/Sonoma Vallies-Yosemite.  It was a terrific year but not much hamming other than at the MARS station running phone patches  from NAM. Ah the good old days.

Way to go Dave!. 

I  made a few hundred qsos last Es season  but alas a virus  hit my log and I lost most of them. :< 

After 55 yrs in ham radio it was my first time on six!  And a real blast.  Im thinking  since a half wavelength on six is 10 ft, then 10-20 ft off the ground should be mighty effective.  So until I get a tower back up...if I do...the next step is some emt conduit  and  a  10 ft high yagi for  the next Es season.   

With so many new rigs having six m capability, and the improved  vhf performance of such rigs,   six ought to be a fun place  to spend MAY-JUN-JUL!  I gotta think the activity level is many times what it was in the past.

How do you put away and set up your moxon? Just throw a tent over it?  Hide it in the bushes?  Roll it out of the family room  onto the back deck or patio?    Mine is sitting in a patio umbrella base, tied to the propane grill.  I can see it from the shack but have to trot out the back door to turn it....maybe a 75 ft trip each way. Rotator by Armstrong!

anybody out there?  Bill Stewart, COOP, Phil Flores

de Bob
5A3TG, F7AL, W3HKK, 9G1GS, ON8UD, PY8/W3HKK

w3hkk@arrl.net

Of course, back in the "old days"  I took a broken piece of hacksaw blade, two screws and a piece of wood. 
Result"  dah dit  dah dit   dah dah dit dah.

The dits really fly with the  wt removed...probably around 45-50 "wpm." It's almost a blur.

WPM sending speed on my bug is what Im referring to.  ie dits plus dahs = one character and 5 characters= 1 wpm.
Never really thought about dits only as equivalent to wpm.  Sorry if I wasnt clear enough.

So , real sending speed is 12-23 wpm depending on the wt setting.    Im still  surprised thats all I can do these days, despite copying much faster in my head.  But that  must be old age for you.

Bob, 69 and counting.

How low can you go and still work  effective Es? 

Last May I bought a 5 el yagi and put it up 6 ft off the patio. Running 100w I worked 37 states and 4 countries including EU.  Worked the entire west coast beaming THRU the house during May-Jul. 

Now that was fairly effective but I could tell it wasnt keeping up with the average bear.

So Im curious how others with   5 el yagid and 100w do with low antenna hts like 10-15-20-25 ft or so?

Is the weight on your bugs the same size as mine?  see above. 

when I  count wpm its based on sending dots and dashes, five characters per word.  So yes dot speed is really flying, as I noted before.  But the sum of dot and dash times = wpm.

Despite much finagling, I can only get it to go  between 12 and 22 wpm depending  where on the shaft the weight is positioned.

I suspect my speed is limited not by the bug but by how quickly (or slowly) I  make the dashes, rather than the dots.  ie my actual hand speed.  I know its much slower  on the dash side. I can feel it.  In fact even if I remove the weight and let the shaft fly Im still around 25-28 wpm.  Now when I use the built-in memory keyer and wind it up to 35 wpm or so, I can copy fine. Both ways.

So at age 69 it may just be the brain telling the fingers to make dashes  takes a lot more "travel time" than it used to.

Bug runs nice and smooth now.

Thanks all.

Im set at a tad under   1/16th of an inch.  This is a four year old  Vibroplex straight from the factory - all chrome with a red knob.  The weight is .75" long and .6" diameter.  Thats how it arrived.  Didnt know  you had a choice of weights. 

I space the contacts to get  nice relative spacing between the dots and dashes.  but it can be  hard to adjust properly for some reason.

I used a very similar Vibroplex Lightning bug back in the   late 50s early 60s and I was pushing 40 wpm back in those days.

I was favoring the THP from all Ive heard, but at a high $/watt as you say.    Thought they had an auto tune amp but maybe I was thinking of the amp plus external THP tuner.

c. 750 watts cw would be a reasonable power level for my needsthese days.  For years I used a Denton Clipperton L  heavily in contests but sold it  when I moved to a deed restricted area.  Now Im  retired and "free again" so an amp would come in handy on 160-6m. 

I much prefer solid state with a quiet blower but some of the lower priced  tube amps may be hard to resist,  since Im also  looking at a tower and  5 band yagi.rotator in the very near future.