6 meters activity in south / central wi?

[ffemtbland]

Just curious as to the activity of the 6 meter band in wisconsin ... how is simplex FM range with 6 meters? i'm assuming one would do pretty well with this in a more rural area than madison ...
Lars B
Madison
Monona Fire Rescue
RESCUE 62
ENGINE 4

 

[OpSec]

When the band is open, you can hear low band base stations from the east and west coasts across the country. Locally, with a decent antenna like the Larsen NMO-50B and 100w, I'd surmise that you could get some healthly simplex distances.

I'm looking into a radio like the FT-857 to install in one of my vehicles to play with new things like 6m, esp. now that the CW has been dropped and I'm going to start studying for the General license.

 

[triryche]

check my web page.. ;-)

6 meter FM simplex is not the best for localized communications.. SSB is the band of choice for DX. Keep in mind that 6 meters is VERY prone to causing television interference (TVI) and also likes to penetrate computer speakers, phones, stereos, etc..

 

[k9rzz]

Just curious as to the activity of the 6 meter band in wisconsin ... how is simplex FM range with 6 meters? i'm assuming one would do pretty well with this in a more rural area than madison ...

While there are quite a few people active on 6m SSB in the Milwaukee area, I don't think there is much FM activity on 6. I've worked quite a few stations when the band was open, and that was a lot of fun. Maybe it's time to get some activity going on 6 FM here in southern WI, northern IL, Iowa, etc.

The tricky part I suppose would be that most 6m equipped stations run horizontally polarized beams ... that puts the mobile station with a whip at a disadvantage.

100 miles between base stations is no problem.

I dunno ... I'm game!

John K9RZZ
Greenfield, WI