This is a reprint of an article that appeared on the site in the summer of 2007 and 2008. It has since become the single most popular document on the site with over 2,023 hits as of today. Thanks to W4GNE for sharing his passion and skill for six meters. It is almost time for that band to bust loose!
Here are a few operating tips and ideas for working 6 meters, this article will include some facts as well as my opinions on operating 6 meters, and in no way do I claim to be a 6 meter expert.
I will start by giving my station set up and a few accomplishments I have made on 6 meters. My transceiver is the Icom 706 MK2, no amplifier, Diamond SX-200 watt meter, Diamond coax switch, to switch between HF and 6, Cushcraft A505S 5 element beam at 30 feet AGL, fed with half inch Andrews till just below the rotator, and then a ten foot piece of Times Microwave LMR-600 to the antenna, all jumpers are LMR-400, The Mirage KP-1/6M pre amp which is not in use right now, Yaesu G-450A rotator and controller. Here are a few accomplishments I have made in the three years I have been working 6, 11 ITU zones, 147 different prefixes, 4 continents, 203 different major grid locators, 25 DXCC entities, and 42 of the 48 states, and just for info, my first year on six I worked with a vertical antenna mounted in the same place the beam is now, ( Diamond DPGH62) Thanks Doug (KD4GIE), for turning me on to this nice vertical, It has worked plenty of DX to Europe, South America, and double hop Es to the west coast.
Okay, now to the good stuff, first of all…LISTEN, LISTEN, and LISTEN some more. I usually start listening around mid March till about the end of October. For those of you with rigs in the house, if you are painting, doing some plumbing or whatever, turn that rig on, squelch it up and crank the volume up! For those that have outside shacks, be creative, hook up a speaker outside the shack that you can disconnect easy, that way if you are in the yard washing the car or something you can also be LISTENING for 6 meter openings. Remember these dates: June 21 and December 22, the summer and winter solstice, start listening a couple of weeks before and 3 or 4 weeks after, I have worked double hop to the west coast in January.
WATCH a DX cluster as much as possible, I have two that I watch, one with filters set up so that I only see 10 meter and above spots, and one with no filters. If you see spots for 10 meters more than likely 6 will be right behind it. Try not to use the web clusters, they have too much delay, log into one via telnet that way you get real time spots. Here is a link to a big list of telnet clusters: http://ve9dx.weblink.nbtel.net/telnet/sites.html Here is a link for a list of commands that work on most telnet sites, if they don’t you can usually type “help” and it should give a short list of commands. http://www.dxcluster.org/ click “technical info” on the left side of the page, then on the “DX spider” link, then scroll down a little and click DX Spider user manual. This is the telnet cluster I use, hrd_cluster.ham-radio.ch 7300 just in case you are not familiar with telnet, here is exactly how to login. In Windows go to start, run, type telnet, enter, from telnet type the letter O hit the space bar, type “hrd_cluster.ham-radio.ch” hit the space bar again, then type the port number, in this case 7300, then hit enter, you’re in!
Now for some general QRG info, the U.S calling frequency, 50.125.0 whatever you do, DON’T run a pile up on the calling freq, it only causes more QRM and sometimes when you have booming 1 hop, to the mid west (for me) , there will be some weaker stations in the 2 hop area trying to call, but can’t be heard because of people piling up on 50.125. It is the “calling freq” even though you will hear plenty of LIDS working pile ups on it.It is customary for “DX” to work on 50.125,DX means outside the U.S. If you think the band is open call CQ on 50.125 but have a QSY freq already picked out to send them to, and make it up the band, like 50.130 or higher, these guys that hole up on 50.127 only QRM the call freq.
Two points to look at from the previous paragraph; If you hear 1 hop stations 10 or higher over S-9, listen to there QSO’s for a bit, when they quit talking you may catch a station in the 2 or 3 hop area CQing, try to quickly answer and QSY them. You may QRM them but if they are working a pile up on the call freq, who cares! The other point is; if there is a DX station on 50.130 maybe you don’t have an opening to them, that is why I watch a DX cluster for 6 meters, if I see a DX station spotted on 50.130, I stay away!! For U.S QSO’s I try to stay between 50.130 and 50.225 for ssb.
CW can be worked from 50.000 to 50.100, really anywhere is ok, just stay out of the DX window unless you are working a non U.S station the DX window is 50.100 to 50.125. You can use SSB in the DX window if you are calling “DX” or in QSO with “DX” just not below 50.100. Most hams try to work CW between 50.090 and 50.100 unless it is DX, although you can work CW lower on the band, you will be in the beacon area 50.000 to 50.090. This is a good NA beacon map, just click on the red dots and it will show the beacon info. http://www.k9mu.com/map.html
Digital work on 6 meters is a little less cut and dry, most hams will work digital between 50.230 and 50.270, although I have heard RTTY on 50.185 and even on 50.305, so you have to use the VFO a little. Spot yourself on the DX cluster, it is not taboo to be a self spotter on 6, like it is on HF, especially when working digital. 50.230 to 50.240 is usually reserved for WSJT digital mode. This software was developed mainly for EME use but, you can have QSO’s 500, 600 miles away with no propagation, the most common modes are JT6M and JT65. Look here to download the software and find other info for WSJT mode
http://www.ykc.com/wa5ufh/ get the software here http://www.vhfdx.de/wsjt/ Definitely download the user manual and go through the tutorial, it’s the best way to learn how to use the software.
Next I will discuss some things about 6 meters that are mainly my opinion and observations. As for station equipment, the main thing is to put up the best antenna you possibly can, preferably a beam with 5 or more elements with the longest boom you can handle. There are plenty of hams that work a lot of DX with 3 element beams, main thing is, if you can put up a beam, or a cubicle quad….do it! The next antenna of choice would be a loop, these are very good antennas with a low profile, if you can stack a couple, even better, heck through one up in the attic if you can’t have one outdoors. Outdoor wire antennas will work pretty good to, and I have worked guys 1,000 miles away with a wire in their attic.
Pay close attention to these few items: Space weather, if we have some geomagnetic activity often times 6 may open shortly after, it may be a few hours or a couple of days. Watch for Aurora in the fall, winter, and spring. Aurora doesn’t make it this far south a whole lot but, we may see that change as we move into a new sunspot cycle. I have heard some VE3’s via aurora here in Virginia, plus it’s just kind of neat because it sounds so weird. Try to figure out what hams around you have one of those awesome 6 meter stations, usually they will be the one’s spotting DX when you hear nothing, for me in FM17 I keep an eye on N3DB in FM18, I know he has a better station than myself so he’s going to hear things first. I also keep an eye on K1TOL and VE1YX for possible openings to Europe, as well as NP4A and CO8LY to the south. It doesn’t always work out…but I’ll be listening. Some guys to the west to look for are WZ8D, W7GJ, and W5WVO to the southwest.
Look for any trends, they may not always work out…but that’s 6 meters. Just a couple of examples that I have observed: If you have an opening that gets started late in the day, look for the band to be opened better the next day. I have also noticed that for us on the east coast, if we have a big north south opening, say K1’s and VO1’s getting into the Caribbean and everybody in between, be looking for Europe to open, It may not be till the next day, or it may not happen at all but….I’ll be listening for it. Another sort of trend that I have noticed is that during the height of sporadic E season, the band will have a tendency to be hot for a few days at a time, then cool off for a few days. It seems to cycle like that but not always. Towards the end of the season you will notice more sporadic openings, a very quite band for days, then all of the sudden it will open, maybe an all day opening, or only a few hours. Then silence for several days.
These are a few nice beacons to listen for, for openings to Europe and South America: CT1ART/B on 50.036.6, EA3SIX/B on 50.055.0, CU3URA/B on 50.013.0, also look for T.V carriers in EA and CT land on 48.240 to 48.260. In SA listen for these, YV4AB/B on 50.025.0, and 9Y4AT/B on 50.015.
I think I just about wrapped this article up, I hope I included enough information to help any new amateur’s get started on 6. And for the old pro’s maybe I said something here that helped you as well.
This is a link to W5WVO’s improved design for the Cushcraft A505S http://www.andor.net/pub/HAM/6meter/A50-5S_w5wvo.pdf He now runs a stacked set of these, and I think they perform very well for him.
Oh, one more thing before I go, Learn, get proficient, and get fast on CW. You will work a WHOLE lot more DX on CW!
I would like to thank all of the guys that run this site for having this article on their website
THANKS GUYS!!
Did I mention listen and watch a DX cluster? Oh yeah, I think I did, somewhere up there!
Visit www.fieldcomm.org often, join if you want, everyone has fun, and there are some good articles and photos here
Check out my photo album for pics of my station.
HAVE FUN ON 6
George / W4GNE
