Whatsup on 6 meters?

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bobruzzo

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Been outta ham radio for 20+ years. Recently got myself a nice new IC 7300 and G5RV. The radio has 6 meter capabilities. I cant hear anything on 6 meters with the G5RV but is there any 6 meter activity around here? Never used 6 meters before. I was going to get a small 6 meter vertical but not sure if its worth the bother.
 

popnokick

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6 Meters has frequent band openings lately. You'll do better with a horizontally polarized antenna rather than a vertical since the only 6M mode using vertical is FM... and your 7300 doesn't do FM. However it DOES have a built in soundcard modem, making it much simpler to use for digital modes such as FT8 / FT4. FYI - 80% of the activity on 6M is now FT8 (per ARRL). So consider that very seriously. There is still SSB activity, nets, etc.... but all horizontally polarized. The G5RV is not going to handle 6M. A 6M squalo is fairly compact and requires no rotor. Or a 3 element beam... which will need a rotor. Personally, I have had great results with a 80 Meter - 6 Meter Off-Center Fed Dipole. Works very well for 6M on down to 80M and all in between.
 

imonitorit

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Been outta ham radio for 20+ years. Recently got myself a nice new IC 7300 and G5RV. The radio has 6 meter capabilities. I cant hear anything on 6 meters with the G5RV but is there any 6 meter activity around here? Never used 6 meters before. I was going to get a small 6 meter vertical but not sure if its worth the bother.

You might want to check the activity on this site no too far from you. It seems like FT8 is very active. http://sixmetersct.ddns.net:20553
 

tweiss3

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6 Meters has frequent band openings lately. You'll do better with a horizontally polarized antenna rather than a vertical since the only 6M mode using vertical is FM... and your 7300 doesn't do FM. However it DOES have a built in soundcard modem, making it much simpler to use for digital modes such as FT8 / FT4. FYI - 80% of the activity on 6M is now FT8 (per ARRL). So consider that very seriously. There is still SSB activity, nets, etc.... but all horizontally polarized. The G5RV is not going to handle 6M. A 6M squalo is fairly compact and requires no rotor. Or a 3 element beam... which will need a rotor. Personally, I have had great results with a 80 Meter - 6 Meter Off-Center Fed Dipole. Works very well for 6M on down to 80M and all in between.

The 7300 does do FM, and frequently use mine for the local 6m repeater.

There appears to be a 6m repeater across the bay from you, I would expect you would have no issues hitting that one. Also, the 6m opening have been pretty good lately. I had a few over 1000 miles on sideband recently, and I'm just using a dipole I made mounted vertical 20' off the ground.
 

vagrant

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50.125 MHz on USB is the best chance for phone. Along with an antenna that can handle 6 meters don't just listen, call CQ and see what you can stir up. Digital modes are popular and increasing, so that is a definite option to watch for regardless of band.
 

jwt873

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There have been some spectacular openings on Six over the last couple of months. I've logged quite a few stations from Europe and Japan. The 'problem' is that I HAD to use FT8 in order to do it. FT8 has become THE mode... Seems that you gotta be there or be square.

During the the last JA opening to my locaton, they were coming in strong.. For a while I had a pileup going with up to 3 Japanese stations calling me at once... I could hear their FT8 signals plainly. So.. Just for a change, I thought I'd run down to 50.125 and try some SSB or CW.. What was there? nothing. Nada.. Just one US station talking to another.

Most who run FT8 use a software package called WSJT-X. WSJT Home Page You can configure this software to report who you've decoded over the internet to a resource called PSKReporter. They display all active stations on a map as 'pins' and draw lines between the ones who have heard each other.

Go to: Display Reception Reports

In the top boxes, fill in: On [6m] show [signals] [sent/received by] [anyone] using [FT8] over the last [3 hours]

You'll see the current activity on 6 meters. (Note this resource is good for all modes and all bands). If you look, it shows how many amateur stations are currently reporting their activity... Right now as I type this, there are 2371 ham radio stations (Mostly in NA and EU) running FT8 right now.. And that's JUST on 6 meters...

If you're not familiar with the mode and just want to hear what FT8 sounds like, and to see if Six is open, go to 50.313 USB. Listen for the squeals. If you hear them, six is open.
 
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jwt873

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And.. Just cover the original poster's question.. A vertical will work OK for the FT8 mode.. I use a 4 element Yagi.. but I have friends using simple dipoles with great results.
 

littona

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Regarding WSJT-X... it's a bit overwhelming. Have some patience and do a lot of listening and comparing to the user guide to figure out what's going on before you start transmitting. And even after you do TX, keep referring to the guide. It's quite involved!
 

ve3ext

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OK I do have wsjtx and been doing a lot of ft8 so I may look into a dedicated 6 meter antenna.....a dipole is easy to make.
6m is wide open right now and all day long!!

Jerry ve3ext
 
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