[VHFcontesting] Running a big enough station for portable operations....

[k7xc_tx via VHFcontesting]

Marshall makes a lot of valid points as always. I respect his experience and openess.

I just want to add my experiences as well.

I have spent most of my time on the band at the 50 to 100W level, starting off on one weekend in may of the 1990s, using a Swan 250C into a sloping dipole atop 8400' Pond Peak above Reno NV. Running a Honda EX650 generator, the radio in only receive would load it down and during transmit  was all the unit could do to keep up as the voltage would sag making it chirp on cw. 

Yet I stll managed to work CO2KK during that first time on the band. Soon after I built a very economical 3ele yagi from broken TV antennas and had a ball with it at 12 feet. Less than optimum but it played well.

Later I found myself a old FT620B Yaesu 10W solid state with an analog VFO. I built a 100W kit amplifier and a 4ele yagi and wow what a difference! 

I took that setup everywhere in Nevada, activating some extremely rare grids (DN00, DM19, DM18, DM17, DN10, DN11 & DN01) and did pretty well. My key was to find a tall spot with clear views in all directions, use high grade coax as every watt counts, operate CW when the band was to weak for SSB to be effective,  Always wear headphones when I can, and be patient.

I met my June VHF Contest parter (Dave NR6E, now W7KK) at the West Coast VHF Conference in 1993 and we spent the next ten years going after the all time high score from 7 land. For the first time I was running 1KW out into a 7ele yagi at 25' using newer Yeasu driving a Henry 6M amplifier.  The pile ups were epic, scores increased dramatically,  but it was a huge commitment of time, money, and energy each year till I finally snapped from the pressure and ruined a great friendship.

I then started staying at home and by how had hand crafted a huge 6ele yagi on a 32' boom that plays extremely well.  
It has been all over the country along with my 40' Tower trailer, an ubeatable combination that plays well with only 100W. I managed to work over a dozen European countries from NV between 2010 and 2012, again at 100W or less.

The point to all this?

You absorb good ideas from others, read everything you can on the subject, learn and use CW as it's 16 times more effective than SSB, put up the largest and tallest antenna you can, and make it yours. You adapt and do THE best you can with what you got. And above all, be patient as 6M is a cruel mistress that play only by her rules (which are always changing). 

So yes bigger is better but for most of us just not possible.  

Here in EM12 I just worked 10 countries over the past 3 days, some European, some N American,  some South... It took time, diligence, patience, technique,  and above everything else, the simple act of trying! What was I running, the back 3ele of the 6ele yagi (the front 3 elements were scavaged to make dipoles for the HF contest season last year.) at 30' fed with 100' of CQ-106 (Best RG8 out there) fed on avg only 60W fron the 20 year old IC-746. 

Did I miss the 6ele version,  Hell Yes... and once we finish moving back home to Nevada,  it will be back to it's original configuration. 

The point being, regardless what size your station, never be afraid to try. 

Your mileage may vary....

73s de Tim -K7XC - EM12xu... sk

Sent from my MetroPCS 4G Android device


-------- Original message --------
From: Marshall-K5QE <k5qe at k5qe.com> 
Date:06/19/2015  22:25  (GMT-06:00) 
To: VHF Contesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com> 
Cc:  
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Running a big enough station for portable
 	operations.... 

Hello everyone interested in 6M for portable operation.....

I have done several different 6M portable operations to rare grids.  The 
difference between a station running a 3el beam and 100W and a station 
running 5 or 7 el and 1KW or 1500W is just HUGE.  We ran a 7el M2 and 
either 1KW or 1500W(when we were running EME--yes we ran EME off a 
boat!!) and we worked 1500+ stations in 3 1/2 days.  You just don't get 
that with a 3el and 100W, I don't care how nice the propagation is.

The reverse is also true.  Fixed stations running a 3el and 100W are 
about 15db down from a 7el and 1500W.  15db down is a LOT!! There are 
many MS and tropo contacts that are lost because stations are not 
running sufficient ERP(power + antenna)....never mind EME contacts.  I 
know that you can make contacts with 100W and a 3el, because there are 
hundreds of them made every season.  But you will make a lot MORE with 
more goo.

One of the things that I "preach" to operators contemplating portable 
type operations is that you need to be sure that you have plenty of  
station for what you are trying to do.  Some guys catch on and some 
don't......

There are numerous solid state 6M amps running around nowadays that will 
give you 1KW+ output...get one of those.....

73 Marshall K5QE


On 6/19/2015 9:12 AM, Mike (KA5CVH) Urich wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 4:14 PM, Mark Spencer <mark at alignedsolutions.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm contemplating ways I can run 300 watts or more on six meters (500 watts or more is my preference, less than 300 is probably not worth the effort in my view vs the stock 100 watts.)
> Mike wrote
>
> The difference between 100 and 500 watts is about 6dB, or ~2-3 S-units
> at the receivers location. For mobile I personally don't see investing
> the money or time.  However for "well" equipping a portable station,
> like activating rare grids that's different.
>

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