6m Experiment on International SOTA Day

In reply to G0VOF:
Hi Mark,

Thats great news, about 1st ever 6m on sp-011, it seemed for us at least that there were a good few uniques on both of our activations. That’s what playing Radio is all about!!!

Yes it was 5-9 both ways, I could not complain about my Int SOTA weekend and look forward to more uniques in the future.

I know the 897 is heavy,but its design is perfect for Summit or any outside Expedition,with its rugged looks!!

I will read your report and make a thread in it.

I also hope to put you in my log soon especially S2S.

73

Tony

In reply to 2E0LAE:

Yes, although it was very windy where I was, I had great fun :slight_smile: Here’s looking forward to the next one!

I have just had a look at the photo of your 6 Metre Dipole on Flickr & to look at it’s position you wouldn’t expect it to work well at all, but it certainly did!

If you want to do even better on 6 Metres without much effort you could always make a portable telescopic Dipole similar to mine. It probably weighs a little more than yours, but it also works on 4 Metres & 2 Metres, although I would only use it on 2 Metres for SSB if I had no alternative. It is best mounted horizontally & only cost me the price of two telescopic whips from Maplin.

The telescopic whips are about 1.3 Metres long so you need to add a bit in the middle to make up the missing length. I did this using some heavy gauge solid Copper wire with a chocolate block connector in the middle. The RF choke is 5 turns of coax through a ferrite ring, which is probably a little too far from the feedpoint, but it works, & I’m not changing it. HI!

To support the middle I used a piece of plastic tile edging material that I had lying around, but any lightweight insulating material will do, plastic pipe, or even wood would be fine.

I suffer from horrendous QRM on 6M at home so I relish the opportunity to work 6 Metres from nice locations away from noisy consumer electronics & other such nasties.

I have put some photos on my newly created Flickr page for you to have a look at, along with a few SOTA related photos. I’m not doing too well at my target of activating all 17, (soon to be 16) southern Pennine summits by the end of the year, but I didn’t think I’d have done 5 by now so who knows :wink:

All good fun :slight_smile:

Here are the photos if this thing works correctly :wink:

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As you say, it’s all about experimentation, & of course, enjoying yourself :wink:

Have fun!

73,

Mark G0VOF