Field Day on 6 meters

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WA8ZTZ

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6 was pretty much open here most of the day both Saturday and especially Sunday. The action Saturday was out to the New England area and on Sunday there was a pipeline from here into mostly Florida but lots of Gulf Coast state activity as well. The action shifted out to Kansas just before the contest ended. (OK, maybe Field Day isn't exactly a contest).

My set up was only about 7-8 watts into a dipole but was able to contact several DX stations on the first call in spite of the pileups. The guys with better stations were really racking up the contacts. Was good to hear some sideband activity as it seems most of the stuff nowadays has gone digital.

Anyone else get in on the fun on 6 ?
 

K9DAK

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Yep! Only had a few minutes to tune in on Sunday morning, but made contacts in FL, GA and TX from my modest (50W & dipole) 1D station in EN52.
 

edweirdFL

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Yes, 10 6m contacts during FD using QRP power. I made 2 more today during my weekly portable ops outing to local parks. All were basically due North from my Florida location.
 
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K9WKJ....The FT8 mode is pretty neat, isn't it?.... :)
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Truly the latest greatest arrival to automated ham radio... but I am afraid it leaves me blank-
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---- What..., you exchange a callsign, a signal report, a grid square, then 73s'd ??- plus it takes a minute or so?.... It definitely has its niche, but not in my wall.
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However, I had a JUMA transceiver for 2200 metre's that this winter I sent to my father. He's big into the long wave lengths, and he instantly put it on FT8. That's a place where these modes belongs, he says, adding:
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"I'm having a blast with it"
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I'm happy for him ( he got his birthday present without knowing it...;) )
......all I do is smile ,
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"Its not for me" (says the dinosaur as she slink's off towards a tar pit.... :) )
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Lauri
 
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Thank you Wy, that was Very kind of you !... :)
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I have this innate tendency to take a topic off into the wilds, so to prove I can stay on a subject, tho only briefly.....
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This past weekend I called home-- back west, to my friend who now has my former job in New Mexico. Among the myriad of things we discussed was her brief operation during the June VHF contest (sorry, a little off here, since this wasn't Field Day.. but close enuff, Guys??)
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She told me that from her location (near Santa Fe) the first (and her only contest day,) --- Six opened into north and central Mexico..... and only Mexico. After a brief XE pile-up (hows that for 6 ! ) the band closed...... that is, until about 2 hours later when (she had set her radio's squelch) ...on 50.125 she heard someone break thru calling "CQ Contest." Listening more closely, it was a KH6 !..
She snagged 'em ! 20 watts to a vertical.. .the return of F skip?.... the contact lasted only a few minutes, but the KH6 said she was his first and only non-California contact. Don't open the champagne bottles over F skip yet... that KH6 was the last station she heard, or "worked."
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Okay, I was trying real hard to be good; now--
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I appreciate the new digital modes, but to be honest, my whole career up until recently has been a bunch of digital, beneath- the-noise projects. Maybe I have burned out on "waterfall" (and their equivalents). I will say that the concept of the low power'd station, the below the noise signal detection-- is fascinating, and I think this is the future of radio communications. At the same time, however, its very primitive. When it evolves to the plug-and-play on the scale of present real time voice communications- call me.
Until then, like so many others, ham radio is about talking to people.The digital stuff I got enuff of with my work..... just saying this fellows...
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I don't feel that I have to be cutting edge when it comes to my hobby's. Heck, years ago (where we could get away with it) I tried spark gap... and made a "QSO" of several miles. To me that's the stuff of fun in ham radio (tho I'd suggest not trying spark--- maybe AM on a home made tube transmitter-- experiment-- like maybe seeing the differences between plate and grid modulation?? play with it).... there is nothing like the fun of being a dinosaur. And awaiting the next digital break thru..
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Lauri
 

k9wkj

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but I am afraid it leaves me blank- Lauri

ohh Lauri I get it
I think the JT modes are really cool
and you can learn more about prop than any way i could imagine
but it seems kinda lackluster

you could work DXCC on 20M in a weekend

it really is showing that 6M is doing things we didnt think possible
here we are in the doldrums of the cycle so no F prop
and fellas here local in WI are working JA,BA,DS
and even my crappy system is hearing the UK, France, Spain and others
all apparently via Es
this boom in activity is feeding it self so now the number of stations on 6M FT8 can make 20M FT8 look like a slow day
go ahead see if you can count them all !
G8GJbim.png


is it ruining amateur radio? or is it showing us things we didnt yet consider and cracking open some doors that have been closed to this point?

on the 2200M work
i havent been able to hear anything there, but have heard quite a number of folks on 630M running WSPR and JT9..... but i havent looked in on things there for a couple months
my philanthropy is taking more time than it should :confused:

good to see you back on the board!
 
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That is really awesome, JWT :) !
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I knew of the phenomenal ranges, but all that activity ! ....literally running right beneath our noses, just under the noise....
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Its still not the old conventional QSO's - and I'm not sold on its fun value yet ( :) )
But.... Hmmmmmmm--- for ham radio, the more I look the more I feel it hooking me.
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This sea change in communications reminds me of conversations I had many years ago with my grandfather (SK.) He flew with SAC (the Strategic Air Command) from its inception- and would delight in tales of B36's, B49's... especially to this youthful 'sponge' of an audience who absorbed it all.
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SAC's change over to HF Single Sideband with the vast new ranges the aircraft could communicate astounded the crews- they knew what they were experiencing would change radio forever. The new digitals evoke those same feeling to me.
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Lauri
 
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oppps... Sorry K9WKJ.... I didn't mean to call you JWT...my bad.
They won't let me edit my postings (yet-- ever??) so I cudn't fix that...
Sorry
 

krokus

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Sadly, we did not have the VHF/UHF stations set up, like we did in recent years. One guy did start working a bit from his car, since he had a capable rig, that last couple hours of Sunday.

Sent using Tapatalk
 

WA8ZTZ

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This sea change in communications reminds me of conversations I had many years ago with my grandfather (SK.) He flew with SAC (the Strategic Air Command) from its inception- and would delight in tales of B36's, B49's... especially to this youthful 'sponge' of an audience who absorbed it all.
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SAC's change over to HF Single Sideband with the vast new ranges the aircraft could communicate astounded the crews- they knew what they were experiencing would change radio forever. The new digitals evoke those same feeling to me.
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Lauri

Reminds me somewhat of the AM vs SSB "wars" back when. Sideband was going to ruin ham radio. Well, of coarse the opposite is true and there are still some AM enthusiasts out there so everybody won. The digital stuff isn't for me but all in all it is probably good for ham radio overall.

B-36s, B-47s... cool stuff, my boss at work refueled the 47s, he flew KC-97s.

Back in my Navy days, our C-118s had dual SSB HF sets on board... Collins 618T, 400 watts... nice rig !
 
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eorange

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SAC's change over to HF Single Sideband with the vast new ranges the aircraft could communicate astounded the crews
And that was spearheaded by Ohio's own General Curtis LeMay, who was a ham and foresaw how SSB could be an asset to SAC's worldwide presence. That was one of many operational improvements he applied to SAC.
 

k9wkj

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Reminds me somewhat of the AM vs SSB "wars" back when.

its funny as we think that analogy is apt here
but it really isnt as AM and SSB are both still voice modes and both use the spoken word
to move the QSO along

but the JT modes dont give us any real form of QSO with words like phone/rtty/psk does
its just a semi/fully automated beacon response
call/sig/grid and thats really it!
It is astounding what can be dug out of the mud by the software
but other than it being a nifty way to see what a band is doing
im not really feeling the love.
and everybody is doing it so the phone segments are getting pretty quiet

all this really makes me want to work on my poorly maintained CW skills
and get a Ubitx and have real fun ! (with a transverter for 6 and 2m ) :D

and Lauri, just dont call me late for dinner !
 

needairtime

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I made it out to the local radio club's Field Day event last weekend. I had no (good working/tuned) radio so it was just a learning event.

Only one station appeared to try to use 6m though it was a multiband. While I was looking at this particular station, 6m was quiet! :( The owner switched over 20m, and it sprung to life.

Kind of weird - most of the people were basically responding to CQs versus calling out for people. Then again I knew from the start they were pretty much there for the comradery versus "contesting" (which Field Day shouldn't have been anyway...)

Nobody was touching 2m / 70cm except as the call-in... or it seemed that way...
 

N4GIX

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I went out to our FD location on Friday evening to set up a G5RV about 45' between two very tall trees, as well as a 20-40m sloper that our club president had built. We also pulled the HS/EMS trailer "Big Blue" out of the garage and got it set up for FD activities.

Saturday morning I returned to set up my Buddipole Deluxe and a new "TIA" from Wolf River Coils that I had bought at the Dayton Hamvention this year. My rig was my trusty KX-3/PX-3 combo running off of a 12VDC Li-Po battery. When FD finally kicked off at 1pm CST, I managed only 12 contacts on 10m before the band closed down about 3pm CST. :(

Only two of my contacts were in response to a CQ, the rest came from me calling CQ and mentioning that I was QRP. For some reason that works better than me trying to break into a pileup! :lol:

Our youngest and newest club member (15yo) worked 32 contacts on 20m phone and had a ball! Overall we had a great time with 17 club members and several dozen folks who came by to visit and learn.
 

captainmax1

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My local radio club does field day on the USCG Ingham (https://www.uscgcingham.org/) in Key West each year and get to use their equipment that day. I will try to get a couple pics from my fellow club member and post if I can. It's very impressive. Plenty of contacts. Glad to see so many people still interested in Amateur Radio. I still haven't replaced my dipole that got destroyed during Hurricane Irma and have been using my vertical fiberglass I had to repair. It's good for RX but not for TX. My Discone antenna I use for my scanners and sometimes 2M/440 survived Irma but the top part of my mast was bent about 10 degrees but still works perfect. Am planning on getting a dipole back up real soon. Happy Hamming.
 
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