Brian, I have to agree with you that apart from contests I have not heard much on 6m FM but I do know of several chasers with the Yaesu quad bander in their cars who would be willing to go mobile for the chance of a different one in the log. It would be good just to get the usage of the band up in between openings and could take a little of the pressure off two metres during busy weekends.
Timing of course is critical to the success of such a venture and plenty of notice. The problems as I see it are that at weekends there too many other activations and during weekdays most of the chasers are at work.
Maybe we should nominate preferred frequencies SSB & FM where those with the capability can monitor for SOTA activations on 6m.
I am a little unsure of why the HB9CV should be hard to tune. I have made loads for 2m and they tuned up very easily with a small variable capacitor. Once tuned the variable could be replaced by a fixed cap of the same value, that way they do not become detuned when the air becomes damp. Maybe the bigger once are a bit more touchy.
As for 4m, it is the only band I haven’t got below 23cms so I cannot comment, but if anyone has a 4m rig or transverter they want to donate I’ll give that a listen.
Try Mike GW0DSP’s house or even worse my friend Graham GW0HUS’s on Halkyn where a free frequency on 2m is one with less than three QSO’s at the same time. Graham works into France from bed with his handheld on 500mws into rubber duck antenna under flat conditions. I know you probably don’t believe it but it is true and it is all subjective. When I was first licensed I remember being told how 2m SSB was so busy you couldn’t get a free frequency.
When we were on Shining Tor Helen had a nightmare finding a clear frequency on 2m FM and suffered the local morons telling her she was on their frequency and they always used this channel even when she had been on there for over an hour. Helen worked 32 stations and could have worked a lot more if it was not down to break through (where is that coming from up there?) and said IQ zeros.
When Barry M3PXW did his activation of Foel Fenlli on the evening of 21st June he was told (not asked) to QSY because there was a fox hunt on the frequency. Whoever ran this event wants to have a look at the band plan, DF hunts have never been held on the channelised portion of the band. Bearing in mind that several stations had been running QRO to keep in touch with Barry on both the journey to and during the ascent for a total of about two hours it was reasonable to assume we had the frequency. Like Helen he also had trouble finding an alternative channel and this was a weekday.
That’s why if we can not get the idiots to move maybe we should, at least sometimes.
In reply to GW7AAV:
My HB9CV is a Moonraker product, the tuning is VERY sharp and it seems to detune easily; it has a square section boom and when I first put it up I had the connector block on top but a puddle collected in rain and detuned it, so I had to invert it. Then the feeder wires flapped about in the wind so I had to tape them in place. I used to take one out portable on 2m and never had such trouble with it so as you say, it might be the size!
I don’t operate four but I am tempted, there were some LA’s on six last night cross-banding with four!
Just need to work out a super light weight design for SOTA.
Maybe wire elements supported by a H framework from the plastic pipe used in Richard G3CWI’s SOTA beams. It would have to disassemble to pieces around 1m for transport. The 2m Yagi elements could be added vertically thought the boom as well.
Wendover Woods - called CQ for ages before catching two locals on 6m SSB. Regretted not taking 2m beam and amplifier.
Black Down - evening activation. 6m open to USA/Canada although they were weak with me. Best DX ES2EZ 1864km. Good signals from TF/G4ODA. Only three QSOs.
Overall I have found 6m rather hard work for SOTA. Low antennas make local contacts hard and when the band is open, 5W is a struggle - even on CW. It is very interesting however. As with 2m FM, there seem to be more locals active in the NW of England than the SE.
In reply to G3CWI:
Richard, I was listening for you in Wendover Woods from the first posting and never heard a thing, which is a little strange considering the distance. I suspect something might be wrong with your setup. Or perhaps mine, although I was also listening to loads of trans-Atlantic DX on the 25th!
I can’t agree about 5 watts being a struggle when the band is open, using the FT817 and, believe it or not, a 66 foot long wire (GW0GHF antenna) at 20 feet, I worked 34 countries in my first two Es seasons; replacing it with an HB9CV has only netted me another half-dozen since! Admittedly one sometimes has to spend a fair time calling, but when for us the band is only open to, say, Italy, for them it is open in all directions and the QRM must be intense!
I suspect something might be wrong with your setup.
Brian
Interesting that you didnt hear the two stations that I worked. Perhaps they too had faults? Both were in your general direction. One was using a vertical and the other a horizontal dipole.
Admittedly one sometimes has to spend a fair time calling, but
when for us the band is only open to, say, Italy, for them it is open
in all directions and the QRM must be intense!
I don’t think this is generally the case Brian. The E layer between points on the globe can be quite specific, so much so that I heard a station 25 miles away in Milton Keynes giving an EA9 a 59 report and I couldn’t hear anything of the EA9. Of course in the UK we also get propogation to multiple areas when E conditions are really good - I’ve worked SP and EA one after another. I think maybe there are just more ops actively seeking 6m E’s contacts in southern Europe than up here.
As for the antenna, I thought Richard’s delta loop would be the easiest to construct with virtually no additional weight in the back pack. I would think that due to the nature of 6m activity in the UK, it is always going to be an “extra” band rather than a main means of qualifying a summit… go on, someone out there, hit me or prove me wrong!
In reply to G4OIG:
Its not always the case, Gerald, but often is. I always listen to who my target station is going back to, and often a station in, say, the Rome area is going back to EAs, SVs and SPs as well as Gs. The reflecting clouds for those contacts would likely be outside our range. I also imagine that in our position on the edge of Eu many of our effective ionised clouds dump our signals in mid-ocean! On the other hand, for transatlantic contacts we need one less hop!
Antennas: someone mentioned Moxons above, I have just remembered that there was an article about them in PW a few years ago, and if I remember correctly kits could be obtained from Sandpiper, though they are not listed on the Sandpiper website so this may have been discontinued. The Moxon has a reduced turning radius and a very good F/B ratio but I have been unable to come up with a design that can be assembled and disassembled quickly, so there is a challenge for someone with more mechanical nous than I have!
I suspect something might be wrong with your setup.
Brian
Interesting that you didnt hear the two stations that I worked.
Perhaps they too had faults? Both were in your general direction. One
was using a vertical and the other a horizontal dipole.
73
Richard
Unlikely!
What frequency were you on? I have some really horrendous external birdies, the worst ones in the SSB band on 50.120, .151, .182, and .213, on some beam headings they are multiple and S9+. There was a lot of activity that day with the East coast of the USA and Canada romping in so I may have missed those contacts in the rumpus, with K1WHS (50.167) in particular still S9 at 2130 UTC! This must have exhausted the band, I haven’t heard much since…