Let's talk about 6m FM

[902]

Ah !, Neat- the topic swings to the exotic... Moon Bounce, meteors... and one not yet mentioned- I'll introduce- Aurora....
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Of the three, Moon Bounce, or EME, fascinates me the most. Truly, if you are the ham that can assemble and master a station capable of communicating via EME on 50Mhz you are in a League Unique... I stand with bow'd head in your presence. At amateur power levels, things have to be so cutting edge techy that its borders on the obsessive- but then I should not talk.
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In university days I had the opportunity to operate a government station that boasted a lot (!) more power output than ham radio-- high power into a large dish... this was not on low band vhf (and to this topic, 50Mhz,) but in the near microwaves... During off-hours, unrelated to what we were supposed to be doing with that station, we students would steer the dish at the moon and 'ping it' ('kerchunk" it?-- smiling; after all, the moon is a repeater, albeit a huge passive one.) The +2 second round trip delay was haunting. No one doubts the speed of light, and in our terrestrial environment we just assume everything is instantaneous-- to this day, this remains for me,- the most poignant example in physics of light speed.
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We had the capability of modulating our beam with analog voice. The return signals sounded very eerie-- for consider that big round reflector that returns them.... the difference in distance between the lunar poles and its equator induce a distortion in the completed signal's path.... echoey voices return, delayed by seconds, coming from outer space. (Now visualize a small group of grad students with their cylinder-of-helium-of- a-radio station, making like the Munchkins singing 'Follow the yellow brick road' in the Wizard of Oz.... your tax dollars hard at work!)
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I admire anyone who will devote their energy's and resources to their hobby to achieve something like this on Six..... Its what makes ham radio very special.
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I have some more about Six, aurora and meteors, but later ....
'
..................................CF

There's something about young people and gas... I 'spose helium was acceptable if nitrous oxide wasn't immediately available. My grad school had neither, and was considerably more boring.

Interesting phenomenon on echos. I always wanted to play with EME, but several thousand miles east of you in "the quiet zone." I have no practical use to do so, though.

Interesting theoretical - how would this planar (?) distortion affect, say, an OFDM signal that one might want to recover and demodulate?

I've heard auroral propagation several times and worked a few CW contacts in the 80s. I've also heard some signals bounced from meteor trails, but only during contests. Gee, we need to get the activity back up so weak signal is popular again!

 

[jim202]

I am not really sure what has caused the drop in 6 meter activity. But I can attest to the issue of digital noise caused by all the new computers and network devices has caused problems for 6 meter FM operations. Plus the cable companies are not doing as they should and limiting their cable leakage along their cable lines.

I have a 6 meter FM radio in my truck and it opens up the squelch frequently as I drive the rural roads in the region where I live. We use to have a 6 meter repeater at a tower out behind a hospital. But as time went on, the noise floor at that site went up so high that it was no longer feasible to use it as a 6 meter repeater site.

I am sure the same thing has taken place around the country at many of the tower locations where there use to be a 6 meter repeater. Problem is no one talks about it.

I use to be able to cross over Lake Pontchartrain coming home from work about 15 years ago. It was common to work Canadian 6 meter repeaters like they were local almost every day during the summer. They came in like a local station. Also heard many repeaters from PA and NY. Today, once in a while I hear a strong repeater from Eastern New York area. It too seems to be having a receive issue. Strong transmitter, but hard to get into.

The 6 meter band is a place where if you can hear the distant repeater, you normally will have no problem getting back into it. But I think those days are history. Plus all the talent that works on these repeaters is slowly leaving us.

The other problem is all the good Micor and Mastr II radios are getting on in age that they are slowly dying from lack of parts to keep them working. They were the work horses of the day. The newer radios don't seem to have the robust construction and good shielded front ends needed for a good repeater on 6 meters. Today the big design is for wide front ends to cover many frequencies in the band. Where the older radios only covered a very narrow segment. So progress into new radios is actually killing the low band repeaters.

There are however some fine old equipment that was designed years ago. You can still find them now and then. For mobile operation, I would pick a Motorola Syntor X9000. That radio will go from around 28 MHz. all the way up to 54 MHz. But you also had to get the ham software to program them. Just flip flop antennas going from 6 to 10 meters. They would do a cool 100 watts again with no tuning. The MastrII is a fine radio, but you need crystals to use it. Today it's hard to even find a company that will still make a crystal for you. Then they are costing almost $50 each. so you can't afford to use one of these radios as a mobile.

I did use some of the GE Delta S radios with a little modification to get them on 6 meters. They worked well and had a couple of good scan heads you could use. Problem was programming them. I managed to obtain one of the GE suitcase programmers. But after many years, the Panasonic computer and the interface in the suitcase didn't like to play together anymore. So now I have several of the radios and no way to program the scan head or radios.

You can take a low band high split GE MLS radio and get them on 6 meters. Takes a little of effort, but they can go there and work well. Plus some of the low band, high split Maxtrac radios will work. the Kenwood TK-690 low band, high split can be put on 6 meters with some work and software hex editing. Done that also. Those are good radios also.

But the real issue is probably the fact that most of the hams today, can't be bothered with getting inside a radio and making changes. You also need some test equipment to align the radios once you have modded the radios. So tell me just how many hams have a signal generator, watt meter and hopefully a spectrum analyzer to check the TX output for purity. You just don't find someone easily that has the skill and the test equipment available.

Don't forget the skill to use a soldering iron and not destroy the circuit board you need to change. Unfortunately there are too few skilled hams out there today. Most of them have become a plug and play operator. The days of being able to sit at a bench and do component repair on surface mount circuit boards today has killed the available pool of bench techs today. This is a dying skill that is killing the ham community's ability to work on most of the radios out there these days.

I try to be a mentor to anyone that comes by and ask for help. I stop by the local computer repair shops and scoop anything they are throwing out. Have been able to repair and get working some fine computers. But I guess I am not the normal, average bench technician these days. Just look at how many two way radio shops are shutting their doors. The work is just not there where you can make a living at it any more.

So unless someone has any other ideas, this is my version of why we don't have much 6 meter FM activity around the country these days. My radios are on, but I don't hear much coming out of them. The closest 6 meter repeater to me is the 53.060 repeater in Mobile, AL. But even that repeater has very little activity and it's carrier squelch to trip it off.

 

[bill4long]

Jim,

TL;DR

Internet reality

 

[SCPD]

902, an interesting idea, to use orthogonal multiplexing for moonbounce. Frequency interleaving should be effective against the fading and distortions, but with the narrow band'd signals used in EME, probably of minumal value..... sorry, I'm thinking as I type.......
Yes, over-all I think it would work fine... ..... High power may pose a challenge since the mode requires a linear PA...$$ on a ham budget. I have no idea if anyone is experimenting with that mode for EME: I haven't given moon bounce much of a thought in years........
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(smiling) your quiet zone?... Sugar Grove?... quite a facility, No?...
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.......................CF

 

[AC2OY]

They didn't make a low band Spectra, and the original Spectra radios circa 1990 were deliberately designed to not work in the amateur bands. It wasn't until later that the federal users began to demand 136 - 174 and 406 - 470 MHz performance that those ranges came native to the radios.

My friend used to work all over with an MT500 on 52.525. When the band is open, the band is open. Even SSB with an IC-502 - 3 watts into a whip, all powered by C-cells.

I loved working on low band Micors on the bench. They were straightforward.

My very first exposure was an RCL LD "waffle iron" radio in like 1978.

In 1988, Pennsylvania DOT (PennDOT) dumped a bunch of 4 channel RCA-1000 mobiles and a bunch of upright base stations for Syntor X mobiles and probably Micor bases. A friend and I took my Blazer from Bergen County, NJ to Harrisburg, PA, loaded up with maybe 20 mobiles and 6 foot rack base station. I promptly ordered 52.525 crystals and went to work modifying the transmitter to output on frequency. Those radios were very narrow and did not do well with a repeater split for TX and the simplex TX frequency. But I put a ball-and-spring antenna on the Blazer and it worked great. I had lots of local QSOs on 525 with it.

After a while, I changed vehicles to a newer Blazer and put a 4 channel 60W Regency in it with W2GEZ's (and later WB2MAZ's) Garden State Parkway repeater. In the days before all this connectivity, it was possible for a guy to disappear going "down the shore" in NJ and STILL keep in touch with unfortunate friends who were stuck in North Jersey while he played around in Seaside, LBI, or Cape May. That changed to a Syntor-X after a while, and then to an X-9000. Hey Michael, is that repeater even still up anymore?

I even built a TenTec 6 meter mobile (stay away from them!). It would have been nifty had it worked, but the power level was too low (they must've been afraid people would convert them to CB radios), and I also had an early Alinco 6 meter mobile (also too weak for serious local mobiling). In the days after, I upgraded to 100 W Maratracs. They worked well.

These days, I have a Kenwood TK-6110-2 high split mobile that I hex-edited to get to 52.525. Lots of instructions out there on how to do it if you search (yeah, I shoulda wrote it down...). I've driven across the country and haven't heard a soul on 52.525 or 146.52.

If I read it right the Homdel one with that call is off the air.

 

[jim202]

6 meter FM activity

This computer of mine just dumped the message I was typing for the last 5 minutes. So now I have to start over.

I was saying back in the late 70's and early 80's I lived up in Groton, MA. Had a 180 foot tower with a 10 element 6 meter beam at the top with a rotator. Fed it with a piece of used 7/8 heliax that I scooped from some place. Didn't have a long enough piece of RG-8 coax.

Enjoyed working all sorts of stations on 6 meters on SSB. The high time of it all was one weekend when I managed to work England cross band. I was on 6 meters and I think the other station was on 10 meters.

I moved down to Louisiana and put up a 60 foot tower and used a couple of the DB folded dipole antennas that I modified for 6 meter use. The information is on the Internet on what changes need to be done to move these antennas to 6 meters. They worked great and provided many years of 6 meter activity.

I found that I had a pipeline to the area north west of Philly, PA. to a number of 6 meter repeaters in that area. The band could be dead and I would key my transmitter and hear a tail come back from one or more of the repeaters there. So I started to make some noise giving out my call and eventually would get some of the people I got to know over the radio come back to me.

These days, that no longer happens. I am sure we have the band opening, but no one and no repeaters are there. As others have said, the hams have migrated away from a very interesting band.

As I travel around the country on my many trips for work, the 6 meter radio in my truck is always on scan. Every now and then I will hear something pop through on some skip. Even get to work some of my old friends back in the Boston area on a rare occasion.

It's not that hard to get a radio on the air on 6 meter FM. Big part of it is finding a radio and all the accessories needed to make it function. You may find the radios, but for some reason, many of the radio shops that pull the radios out just chop the control and power cables. So finding the remote control cables and power cables can be a challenge at times.

I don't understand the problem because they have to open up the wire chase ways to install the new cables. But that is how the installers are trained these days to do it. they are told time is money and take every step you can to save every minute you can.

You can find the cables around if you look hard enough. The mics, speakers and control heads are all over the place.

The issue with the older Motorola radios is you need to have a slow computer with a serial port that can run DOS. When I say slow, you can get by with most computers under a 1 GHz. clock speed. It may take running a small program like "cacheoff.com" to shut off the cache in the computer. Have run into that problem a number of times with the different computers I use.

The other issue with these programming computers is that if you plan to use the programming software from the hard drive, it will need to be formatted in a FAT32 format. That way the DOS operating system can read the hard drive and store the codeplug info on the hard drive. In pulling apart many of the older computers that have a bad motherboard, I have collected a number of the 80 GHz. hard drives. These work well for this radio programming once they get formatted in the FAT32 format.

You will also need a RIB (radio Interface Box) to convert the computer RS-232 voltage to the voltage the radios are looking for. There are a number of companies that have knock off boxes that work well. Then you will need a programming cable to go between the radio and the RIB. In most cases, you can make these cables yourself. It only takes obtaining the connectors and then soldering a cable to them. The cable can come from most any serial computer cable laying around. Back when computers used serial connections, you would find one of those serial cables shipped with every device you bought. I have a box full of them stored away.

As I have said many times before in other posts, I tend to create an Excel spread sheet to keep track of the programming I do on my radios. between the RX frequency, the TX frequency and the CTCSS tone needed for many of the repeaters, plus the channel position and maybe the zone and the fixed scan list, your not going to remember it all. Plus many of these radios can hold upwards of 128 channels (modes) each. There is no way you will remember what is where, even while trying to program the radios.

Hope this helps someone get back onto 6 meters and enjoy the fun of band openings.

 

[mass-man]

Couple of years ago while in a fairly rare grid for Field Day, I did metor scatter on 6 meters. I had no clue how, but was mentored by several who wanted the grid. What a hoot! Of course this was EARLY morning on Friday and then on Sat. before FD started and then moved the 6 mtr station a bit for Sun morning. I think I was successful in 12 contacts in those three mornings....all this talk of exotic modes put the wayback machine into gear. Indeed, 6 mtr EME would be a challenge!!!! But come on CF, you are almost two miles closer to the moon that I am here in Dallas...

 

[SCPD]

Moon Bounce is a fascinating aspect of the possibilities for Six, but sadly EME it is beyond the capabilities of 99.99% of hams- especially on 6 metre's. Years ago, however, I remember reading about some amateur radio experiments that were done using a super size dish (Arecibo, Puerto Rico? - my memory is fuzzy here) - this antenna was briefly used to transmit 432Mhz at the moon; it produced a return signal that could be received on a modest amateur setup using a handheld multi-element beam pointed at the moon- receive only of course. I believe they used voice- sideband... the tremendous gain of that xmt'ing antenna making this possible. My point is- have hope; it is possible for the average ham to someday, maybe, experience a taste of EME.
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The military tried it out in the days before satellites as a mode of communications--- this, in the 50's-- long long before my time. I, however, have seen some of these 'museum pieces' still sitting at their sites at the Naval Research Labs along the Chesapeake Bay. Very impressive antenna arrays. The military also looked to the moon for reflections from Soviet microwave signals- sort of the first spy satellite. From what I gather'd, this was not too successful.
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When I sat down to this I was going to bring up another favorite- Aurora-- especially as it applies to Six. Unlike EME, Aurora is a propagation mode any 6 metre ham can use. I spent some time consulting on projects utilizing the HIPAS facility (High Power Auroral Stimulation) high in the North Country-- there we actually created Auroras.... oh, and do I know Auroras! but time has gotten away from me this morning- I'll have to save it for later-
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...........................................CF
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P.S - right now the Moon is closer than it has been since 1948... I guess it looks bigger... but then too, I live closer to it than most !! (smiles to Mass-Man... )

 

[902]

The days of being able to sit at a bench and do component repair on surface mount circuit boards today has killed the available pool of bench techs today. This is a dying skill that is killing the ham community's ability to work on most of the radios out there these days.

There's equipment out there for it. I bought a Chinese IR bonder on an auction website and it works very effectively with a pair of tweezers. It's a very intense light that heats up the board, along with a ceramic element on the bottom so the board is heated evenly. My problem is that sometimes I can't get the parts. It becomes several days of work to wait a week or two to get them shipped in. And, if the failure is an ASIC, you can buy the device and replace it, but if it doesn't have the operating routine on it, it's no good. I used to be quite good at component level repair "back in the day," but it started turning in 1992 or so.

That also seemed to be around the sunset for low band base stations, too. I remember Motorola discontinuing the Micor base and drop shipping Aerotron of all things. We were also replacing the 330 W tube amps with Henry Radio solid state amps back then.

The X9000 radios were super, but so were the Syntor X. Basically the same RF just a different personality board. But you can't find anyone with an R-1800 programmer. Last orange prom I programmed for a Syntor X had to be 15 years ago.

 

[SCPD]

The other evening I was tuning across 28 Mhz when I heard it- the unmistakable sound of Aurora.... That weirdly distorted, practically unintelligible gibberish of a signal, accompanied by its strange squeals and squawks - the signals of Auroral scatter.
Then I recalled I wanted to say something about this- that was 2 months ago, and 6 metre's in particular. .
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I doubt any ham whose spent time on Six hasn't heard it at least once... certainly its effects can be heard on HF. The interesting thing, to me, about it and 6; you can use aurora to your advantage. By pointing a beam antenna North, regardless of where the other station is geographically, will be rewarding. At least 100 watts is generally required, and depending on the aurora, it may be impossible to use broadband modes, like FM. The physics of the spiraling ionized fields, distorted by a Doppler effect, warps any analog signal- and the wider the bandwidth- the worse the distortion... not to mention that each ionized particle becomes its own reflector-- all adding to the bizarre chorus of the signal. Sometimes, by patience, sideband can be used- but it requires a skill at talking slowly and clearly- most hams use old fashioned slow speed CW.
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The lower the latitudes, the less likely the phenomenon... but it does occur frequently to the Lower 48. There are Web sites one can go to see what the current activity is, and operate accordingly....... and from here on, I'm going to steer clear of anymore physics; sufficient to say that Auroras are awesome radio laboratories.
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So if you haven't completed your 6 metre EME station yet ( ) and are impatiently awaiting the return of the E skip, park your beam North and-- who knows??
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........................CF
_______________________________________________________

For those that want to tackle it, here is a site that gives some of the physics.
.
. https://www.ursa.fi/ursa/jaostot/revontulet/radio/enradio.html

 

[jim202]

The six meter FM activity is not what it use to be 10 years ago. With the addition of all sorts of computer network stuff and cable TV leakage the noise floor is way high now. The 2 repeaters that use to be here in this area have been shut down due to the noise floor being so high now they can't hear anything unless your right under the tower.

I do hear a few repeaters coming in from the New York area when the band opens up. But for the most part, it's closed squelch. My radios scan some of the channels that I use to use around the country years back. But there is no daily FM activity. You have to wait for the band to open. In many cases the band is open and no one even knows it.

I have used a number of different radios over the years. Started out with some modified GE MASTR II mobiles that were crystal controlled. With the crystal companies now far and few between , the cost of crystals have gone sky high. So now the only radios I use are the ones I can program with a computer.

The Kenwood TK-690 is a good choice, but you will have to HEX edit the file to get them on 6 meters. The software will not allow you to go there directly. There is a good how to do it file on the internet to explain what you need to edit the files.

The GE Delta S radios and the low band Ranger radios will work, but you need to modify the PA output filter circuit. Plus you need some way to program the radios. The most common way has been with the GE suitcase programmer.

You can find some old Motorola Syntor X9000 low band radios now and then. These will easily do the 6 meter FM band as well as the 10 meter FM band. There are a couple of versions of the programming software floating around that will let you program these radios. But you will need a RIB box and some type of programming cable to get into the radio. You can make a programming cable out of an old siren cable for these radios. It takes some effort and some soldering skill. Information on the Syntor X9000 radio is available on several web sites. Some simple searches can provide you with them. There are manuals you can find and download them from at least one of the sites. The bigets problem is trying to pick up a control and power cable for these radios. You can use the Spectra control heads on them.

Help with these radios is available, but you just need to ask for it.

 

[n2kej]

After reading all of the post on this subject I felt compelled to respond with my 2 cents worth as everyone had great comments regarding this great band.
I used to work as a Fire / EMS dispatcher back in the early 80s and I used to get a kick out of hearing distant counties on our fire frequency 200 miles away. I have always loved the way VHF lowband propagates compared to the other bands. That is when I got the 6 meter bug.

I use 6 FM every day on a repeater I put together over 15 years ago. It started out as split site with the receiver 10 miles away at a friends house. It worked well with no issues. I lost the site when he sold the property so I resorted to duplexers. A good friend turned me on to duplexers made from 1 5/8 heliax and it has worked well.
My repeater is low profile, it is not a "flamethrower" it is located on my property on a tower at 90 ft.
It is a modest setup but it has served me well for many years. I am glad it is at my site where I have control over it. I don't have to worry about a noise floor as I would in a commercial environment, I don't have to worry about equipment tampering or someone cutting my feed lines and dismantling my equipment because I am a visitor on site. I have talked to hams who have setup repeaters at commercial sites only to have a high noise floor. If you decide to setup one on a site, do your homework first.


I incorporated Allstar and Echolink and have established connections with other 6 meter repeaters across the country. We all have something in common to contribute to great conversation, and yes there is activity there everyday which brings out the locals as well. All of us feel as if we have our own little network, I know if I pick up the mic and announce my presence, there is a good chance I will get a response.

For the record I read about repeaters in Pa. Northeast of Philly, they are still on the air but not heavily used. I will use them on occasion with my friends in that area.
I am fortunate to be able to use ht's due to proximity and I agree due to size of the antennas and characteristics of the band, 6 meters is really not a ht kind of band. Although I have worked do on my portable on simplex as far as Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee. Not bad for 6 FM!

Hope to work all of you on 6 meters,
Steve N2KEJ

 

[mm]

Activity is certainly down compared to 5 years ago, 2013 and the 5 years earlier were great for 6 meters but now we are in the low part of the solar cycle.

I have a 900 MEG REPEATER with 6 meter and 10 meter remote bases, both using GE RANGR 110 watt radios and the frequency agile direct entry S990 HEADS so I frequently do channel searches on 6 fm with no luck in contacts.

Using MaCom Orion 110 watt mobiles for 10 and 6 fm and MOTOROLA MT1000 6/10 HANDHELDS, the only radios that get any use are my 10 meter models.

I came up with the original Motorola MT1000/P200 ht, 6 METER mods about 10 years ago and from what others who did the 6 meter mods have told me is that their 6 meter models are now seeing less and less use over the past 3 years.

10FM is more active with thousands of dx contacts on 29.6 fm over the past several years but not so much on 6 meters, in fact in the past 2-3 years 6fm has really died off with only a handful of fm contacts.

In the past 2-3 years I have only talked to a dozen or so stations on 52.525, one 52.56 rptr and on 50.3 fm While the previous years from 2009 to 2013 my remote base was always active on 6 fm but now only 10 gets used.

Even ssb/cw on 6 is down from the previous 5 years, as an example from 2010 to 2014 I had 100's of dx contacts on 6 ssb/cw but in the past 3 years only a dozen or so.

In fact it is so bad on 6 ssb/cw that the majority of old time 6 meter ops have migrated to various JT DIGITAL weak signal modes up around 50.280 MHZ.

 

[k3td]

My repeater is low profile, it is not a "flamethrower" it is located on my property on a tower at 90 ft.
It is a modest setup but it has served me well for many years. I am glad it is at my site where I have control over it. I don't have to worry about a noise floor as I would in a commercial environment, I don't have to worry about equipment tampering or someone cutting my feed lines and dismantling my equipment because I am a visitor on site. I have talked to hams who have setup repeaters at commercial sites only to have a high noise floor. If you decide to setup one on a site, do your homework first.

I incorporated Allstar and Echolink and have established connections with other 6 meter repeaters across the country. We all have something in common to contribute to great conversation, and yes there is activity there everyday which brings out the locals as well. All of us feel as if we have our own little network, I know if I pick up the mic and announce my presence, there is a good chance I will get a response.

Hope to work all of you on 6 meters,
Steve N2KEJ

Hi Steve! I'm now in the Raleigh, NC area and have a Kenwood TK-6110 high split 70 watt radio converted for both 6 and 10 meters at home as well as a Vertex VX-4000 70 watt mobile for 6 FM. There are a couple wide area coverage 6 meter repeaters in the area on 53.03 and 53.45, and another one going up shortly on 53.63. It would be great if one of those machines had Allstar capability for linking to your repeater. When I had my 6 meter remote base with Allstar near Austin, TX it was always fun to link with other 6 meter machines while mobile.

Congratulations for everything you have done to keep 6 meters going in your area! Hope to work you again soon.

73,

 

[prcguy]

A new 6m repeater just went on the air in the last few days around here. I'm able to get into it ok with a 5w hand held radio and 4ft telescopic whip on the radio. Distance to the repeater is 37.8mi, not to bad from a hand held.
prcguy

 

[Golay]

Six

A new 6m repeater just went on the air in the last few days around here. I'm able to get into it ok with a 5w hand held radio and 4ft telescopic whip on the radio. Distance to the repeater is 37.8mi, not to bad from a hand held.
prcguy

Just curious. What are you using for a handheld on six?

 

[prcguy]

I was using a Thales PRC-6809 with a Chinese 48" long base loaded 6m telescoping whip. I also have a Yaesu VX-8R but have not tried the new repeater with that yet.
prcguy

Just curious. What are you using for a handheld on six?

 

[Robinsmark]

6m commercial radios on FM

WB9YLP; 6M, Use it or Lose It!
Lots of Easily bent Ex Commercial VHF Low band l stuff out there Very Cheap I've bent GE MLS up to 6 and they're sensitive 60W and I haven't paid more than $20 for them. The GE's are great.

Yes, I have put several old GE Mastr Pro radios on 6m and some Delta -S too. Had more luck converting GE than Motorola's. Use my ICOM IC706 for 6m now. I probably logged more contacts on 6M SSB in one year than 10 years on 6M FM. THAT DOES NOT MEAN ONE SHOULD NOT GIVE 6m FM A WHIRL!

Years ago I would talk with a friend 30 miles away, but we had a mountain between us that killed 2m signals. Even with 180w in to a 11 element beam pointed at him no dice on 2m. But on 6m and 80 watts into a ,vertical, it worked like a charm!

 

[charlie12]

My local club should have a 6 meter repeater on the are around the end of Sept. I will be on the same tower our 2 meter is on.
I think our 6 meter will be around the 300' mark on the tower.
Since I didn't have a 6 meter radio I got a old surplus Midland XTR off ebay it's the 100 watt model.
The repeater will be about 12 miles from my house, Now I need to get a antenna, I want vertical like a Ringo or J-Pole and I don't know what I will get yet.
So if anyone would like to give advice it would be welcome.

The 2 meter repeater is on the air now at 146.835 -600 with a 114.8 tone call sign on it is KD5UZA and had good coverage area. We will be putting a new 2 meter antenna on the tower and going higher with it when we do the 6 meter ant.
The 6 meter repeater will be TX 53.830 And RX 52.830 with a 107.2 tone,

So if you hear either one of them jump in and talk.

Oh they are in Jackson, Louisiana about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge.

 

[spongella]

6m Activity

Six meters and gets populated during VHF contests but here in NJ not too much activity otherwise. Will make some calls on FM and send some CQs on CW to see if anyone is listening. When 10m is open is a good time to check 6m as the MUF might be up there.