[CQ-Contest] June VHF contest and six meter antennas

[Mark Steven Williams]

Tree makes an excellent point here. During Sunday's amazing 6m Es openings I 
worked a station in Denver who was 10 over and he was using a dipole mounted 
in his attic! He was 3 S units louder than the station in eastern Arizona 
who said he was running a four yagi "H" frame. I realize the guy in Az. was 
stuck in the middle of the second hop to the west coast.

Anyway, I started operating "bogus" 6m antennas nearly 20 years ago. My 
Moseley TA-33 tribander at 33 feet loaded up just fine on 6..and I worked 
lots of stuff with it. If all else fails, build yourself a dipole and hang 
it as high as you can. I've worked the west coast using a 1 watt 6m HT with 
a telescoping whip. I have a QSL card here from 5T6M. I worked  Frank using 
a 3 el 6M yagi which sits atop a 15 foot push up mast mounted on my front 
porch.

So, take Tree's advice to heart. Whatever "wet noodle" antennas you have, 
plug 'em in to the 6m port on your rig and listen around. One of the locals 
here uses an 80 meter dipole on 6! Give it a shot.

These days I'm fortunate enough to have 7 elements on 6m at 115ft. But I 
didn't hear any JAs with it Sunday afternoon..and I still use that little 3 
element at 15 feet...and the HF9V vertical! Use whatever you've 
got...there's a reason 6 is called the "Magic" band.

73, Mark, K9GX
EM78ad

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tree" <tree at kkn.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 8:43 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] June VHF contest and six meter antennas


>
> Many HF radios come with six meters included.  However, not everyone that
> has one of these will have a six meter antenna.
>
> During this time of year - we have sporadic E skip openings that often do
> not require a significant antenna.  This weekend, I had a QSO with a 
> station
> in VE5, who was using a 40 meter vertical.  He was peaking S9 at my QTH 
> and
> had a pile of Oregon stations calling him.
>
> I have also worked stations using various other HF antennas.  A simple 
> test
> to see if your antenna works or not is to tune down below 50 MHz and 
> listen
> for baby monitors or cordless phones in your area.  Try your HF antennas 
> and
> use the one that sounds the best.  Then, tune your radio up around 50.125
> and see what you hear.
>
> Enjoy!!
>
> Tree N6TR / K7RAT
> tree at kkn.net
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