The Sporadic E season has started on the 50 MHz band.
Yesterday afternoon at 1400-1500 UTC I worked LA, EA, EA6, IS0, IT9, ON and I0 stations. So maybe worth a try for SOTA activations during the summer months?
BTW, my antenna for six metres is my 30m half-wave dipole! It works very well as five half waves on 50 MHz, so no need to carry a separate antenna for the band.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
In reply to G3NYY:
Hello Walt,
Yes quite a bit about.
Best wishes
Mike
In reply to G3NYY:
Walt, your 30m dipole should give significant gain on six, but at the cost of there being several nulls.
My own solution was simple but inelegant: two lengths of stiffish wire with crocodile clips one end, clipped to the end of the two metre dipole, and trimmed to resonance on 50.150. It works a treat, and when not in use the wire is coiled up and put in a pocket of the rucksack.
Apropos, this is the time of year to look for Es on two metres.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G3NYY:
6m was bouncing with Es again this morning before I left for work. A quick look on 2m produced 2 Italian & 1 Slovenian station. Time to break out the 4m gear for activations.
In reply to G1INK:
Time to break out the 4m gear for activations.
I’ll be listening for you on 4m Steve, FM & SSB. I’ve only got 25w and a vertical, despite that I’ve still had some great contacts on 4m but not much SOTA activity 
73 de Mick M0MDA
So, one 30 metres dipole, and one 2 metres dipole with extensions, so far…
What other sorts of antennas do folk favour for SOTA activations on 6 metres (and 4 metres)?
73, Rick M0LEP
We have made 14 QSOs on 50MHz on our last SOTA trip.
That was nice to see some Sota-friends like PAØWLB, G3VQO, G4OBK, G3VXJ or even HA5MO on the magic band.
The setup : FT-897 + a doublet antenna with tuner.
http://www.ha5lv.hu/sota/065/065.html#doublet
http://ha5lv.hu/sota/111/111.html
TNX for the QSOs, 73 !
Viktor
In reply to G1INK:
Time to break out the 4m gear for activations.
Now there’s a thought for a SOTA challenge, maybe just over a summer season. Make it a combined 6m / 4m challenge - even better!
In reply to G8ADD:
… 30m dipole should give significant gain on six, but at the cost of there being several nulls.
I concur Brian about the nulls having tried this. If you were serious I suppose you could minimise the effect by having a crossed 30m dipole. Might bring dividends on 30m as well. The alternative is to use the dipole vertical, with the “earthy” side on the ground as a counterpoise.
73, Gerald G4OIG
Not another contest on SOTA!sorry challenge? 12mtrs was duff from the S/W can you imagine 4/6 under flat conditions from IO70.73 Don.
In reply to G4OIG:
“Now there’s a thought for a SOTA challenge, maybe just over a summer season. Make it a combined 6m / 4m challenge - even better!”
Good idea Gerald, however it would exclude certain countries / classes of license etc. For example as far as I know 6m is only allowed in Germany from fixed stations, however this may have changed.
In reply to G0RQL:
Apologies Don… I should have put a tongue-in-cheek sign after my post. 
So let’s have it on 70cms - hopefully you’d be up for that and it would be an excuse to get a new yagi up… then I could do some more of my alter ego stuff from local summits. 
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G4OIG:
You know me Gerald I don’t need a “CHALLENGE” to put up another aerial just some activity other than yourself and the very few on VHF/UHF,which I would find more rewarding as a contact.73 Don.
In reply:
The official view is we’re not having an official challenge for a while. This is to simply allow activators to activate the bands/modes they want without any pressure in their choice. Also it’s useful to have a page on the database site showing challenge results and I’m a bit too busy with other SOTA issues now to add one.
Official challenges have to be open to all so 4m/6m which are not yet universal exclude some people and we would not choose that for an official challenge.
However, there’s no reason why groups of people cannot concentrate on something, such as 4m Es operation during the Summer and report their success etc. in exactly the way the original PP3 challenge ran. I didn’t take part in that but I did find the following the results very interesting. I’m sure such reports would be interesting to those who enjoy VHF and may provoke others to try.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to G0RQL:
Yes, several people thanked me for putting on 2m SSB over the past few days. It was really appreciated as I have been tempted to drop off 2m to lighten my load and simplify the station. However, serious activity on VHF/UHF is getting to be like rocking horse droppings and having received appreciation for my efforts, I am definitely not going to jettison the 2m station just yet.
I can appreciate that rigging antennas for VHF/UHF together with another for HF when on a summit is not for everyone. Having played around with various combinations, I now tend to set up for 2m and once the run of contacts has petered out, I dismantle the antenna and set up for HF. The advantage of this is that I get a short break mid-activation which helps the circulation and muscles that have become stiff after sitting - not good after walking for a couple of hours. The disadvantage is that if a 2m chaser is late, then there is no opportunity for me to go back onto VHF to make contact.
Adding 6m to the station could complicate matters further in terms of set up. However, given that the main mode of communication is likely to be Sporadic E, with signals being (as it says on the tin) sporadic, the idea of using the HF antenna to work the band must be the easiest solution. So, mental note to self - check the band when I am next activating.
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to M0LEP:
I never tried this for activating, but when I first decided to try out six I wanted something that I could knock up in a hurry, and tried the GW0GHF antenna. This basically is a long wire (I think it was 66 feet) to a parallel tuner with a quarter wave counterpoise. I remember that I strung the wire to the tuner under the eves of the house, and climbed up with the 817 to tune up. I found a setting that gave a low SWR and had a quick tune around. I nearly fell off the ladder, the first station I heard was in Cyprus! In theory there should have been several nulls, but I plotted out all my contacts (94 countries with the 817 in the first season) and could not see any nulls in their distribution. Eventually I put up an HB9CV which seemed to have about the same gain but it has a useful null which I can use to tone down some of those 10 kilowatt Italian stations!
Incidentally, I don’t think the HB9CV would be a good antenna for activating: it is cheap and easy to get hold of, it has some gain and a useful null, but it takes time to assemble and would probably need to be tuned up every time you assembled it.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G0RQL:
"In reply to G4OIG:
You know me Gerald I don’t need a “CHALLENGE” to put up another aerial
just some activity other than yourself and the very few on
VHF/UHF,which I would find more rewarding as a contact.73 Don."
100% agree with you here Don!
In the winter Geoff 2E0BTR and I give 2m SSB, 4m FM and 23cm FM a good going over! It is demoralising to see that there is such little activity on 2m both FM and SSB seem to be rather quiet nowadays!
HF in very remote locations is a good idea, I mean trying 2m FM in west Wales for example is hard work as is Northern Scotland! But near the big cities 2m FM will work and is you’re a bit further away use SSB, its even better!!!
Yes the conditions are nice on HF when up on a hill, no QRM etc! But seriously, WHAT IS THE POINT? You get the same QRM free conditions sat in a field in the middle of nowhere, or on a beach with a BBQ and a Beer!!
WHY WASTE THE HEIGHT?
We all know VHF and UHF work better with more elevation, so use it to your advantage!!
I know Andy has stipulated no challenge this year, but I would vote for 70cms! As most countries have it and there are people in the UK on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, trying to increase activity. Antennas are small or large, lightweight, cheap to make and have huge amounts of gain for their size, if you ask me it’s a no brainer.
4m and 6m are a bit limited, after 5 years at 4m with over 180 activations using it. I must admit that it has been a struggle but I love the band and the people that use it, so I stick with it! Just like 2m SSB when you hear the familiar voices of G0RQL, G0NES, G0LGS, G4FUJ G3RMD, G0TRB to name a few. Who all say “it’s nice to hear some activity on 2 for a change”
Anyway rant over
Bracing myself for the assault from the HF massive!!
Matt G8XYJ
PS have not been on here for ages, seems weird to be back!
In reply to G8XYJ:
Hmmm should I try pointing my 2m beam towards the UK from Germany later this month. Last time I tried, I worked G0NES fairly easily and despite being spotted, Don was the only signal I could hear. I suppose theres always a chance of Es this time of year as well. Es are so frustrating though, I remember on a previous Germany trip, driving down the M1 with GW0DSP listening to Potuguese commercial stations on the car radio then nothing for the following week in Germany. Cest la vie!
In reply to G8XYJ:
But near the big cities 2m FM will work
In Scotland? Really? Edinburgh? Really? You have results for this? 
I know Andy has stipulated
Not me, the whole MT. Challenges can be huge fun but we’re just letting the dust settle now. By all means come up with ideas for future challenges and talk about them.
Andy
MM0FMF
Yes the conditions are nice on HF when up on a hill, no QRM etc! But seriously, WHAT IS THE POINT? You get the same QRM free conditions sat in a field in the middle of nowhere, or on a beach with a BBQ and a Beer!!
WHY WASTE THE HEIGHT?
Oh, the height isn’t wasted, Matt! On HF with a nice slope in front of you, you can get some pretty good DX - good luck with working the Aussies on 2 metres! The point, though, at least for me, is the hill. SOTA is a nice little bonus for being in the mountains that I love nearly as much as my wife and family!
Look at my callsign: when that lovely little sheaf of foolscap paper dropped through my door, 70 cms was the lowest band permitted to us G8A’s. A few years later 2 metres was dropped in our laps. I paid my dues on V/UHF for near 40 years, I enjoyed them so much that I put the Morse test and an A license on the back burner, I’d spend more time there now if there weren’t so many perishing birdies on the band - on 2 metres here both the SSB and the FM simplex calling channels have a permanent carrier sitting on them - so I make no apologies for exploring the DC bands! Be that as it may, I don’t see you having much luck in persuading people back onto V/UHF, they left for their own reasons, if they return it would also be for their own reasons.
Remember that for an effective challenge you need Chasers, plenty of them for preference. On 70 cm you cannot get away with a poor site, which is why it is now a minority interest, so I doubt that you would ever get enough Chasers to make a 70 cm challenge viable.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to MM0FMF:
How about a “short” challenge like 6 meters from May thru July only? Should be lots of ES activity those three months, lots of chasers, lots of rare grids being activated…something that doesn’t drag on for the whole year.
Those months are the busiest for 6 meters here in the states.
Sort and sweet…
Pete
WA7JTM