[UK-CONTEST] CQ WW VHF

[Andy Hewitt]

Tammie,
Well done on having a go! However I think you need some guidance concerning 6m. It is not your "normal" HF band, neither is it your normal VHF band, it is called "the magic band" with good reason. I have been a keen 6m operator for years yet last week I thought that the sporadic E season for 2009 was as good as over and spent Weds evening in the RSGB HFCC contest, only to find out later that 6 had been wide open to the USA! The secret of 6 is to listen ( to white noise most of the time), to listen to the beacons below 50.100, to learn to listen to the noise, it changes character before it opens and becomes more like a "frying" noise rather than a hiss. Calling CQ does work sometimes but listening on the calling frequencies 50.110 for dx, 50.125 for the Americas and 50.150 for Eu.Listening around 50.100 +/- on cw which is where the dx normally satrts to be heard.

I wish you the best of success.
73
Andy G3SVD (currently /XE1)





________________________________
From: Tammie Evans <m3enf at dsl.pipex.com>
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Sent: Sunday, 19 July, 2009 11:49:34 AM
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] CQ WW VHF

Hello again all!

Thank you to everyone for the advice, all very welcome (as usual!).  I stayed up all night (well, til about 0530 UTC then slept til 0930 UTC) and spoke to a few DX stations notably VK7 and KP2!  Very excited about the VK7!

Now calling CQ on 6, so far on 4 QSOs lol.

Still finding my feet on VHF, I feel like one of my tiny fish in my pond that has massive Koi in it!

73 Tammie M3ENF