Posted: 4/11/2014 3:10:16 PM EDT
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I called CQ on 50.125 for kicks and see what would happen.
Someone from the south end of Miami answered lol. Probably less than 30 miles away. The signal was like talking to Australia (which I haven't) on 1w 
I had to mess with the gain and NR and all that as though I was trying to pull a signal from the depths of HF. But he could hear me a bit better than I could hear him. We managed to talk about my antenna and how my endfed wire was oriented N-S and he was saying E-W is much better. But I think a beam of some sort will be better regardless on 6m. Otherwise it was pretty interesting. 
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You may be addicted already!
I put up a rotatable that did 6 and got on 50.125 and asked if the frequency was in use. A guy a few miles away came back to me at 20 over S9. Five minutes later there were a couple more locals, and within a week I was working E-skip like crazy! It's maddening and lots of fun at the same time. |
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Quoted:
I called CQ on 50.125 for kicks and see what would happen. Someone from the south end of Miami answered lol. Probably less than 30 miles away. We managed to talk about my antenna and how my endfed wire was oriented N-S and he was saying E-W is much better.
But I think a beam of some sort will be better regardless on 6m. VHF/UHF DX is all about weak signal work. And weak signal work means gain antennas. If you can put one up, do it. I've gone ghetto long enough with 100w and the loop. Time to step up to the plate. |
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End fed wire? Are you using an HF antenna, or something tuned for 6m?
As far as having to have gain, I almost have VUCC on 6, with nothing but a dipole antenna made from broken TV antenna parts up about 25 feet, and only working occasional VHF contests the last few years. 2m is a better band for local SSB than is 6 it seems. |
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Quoted:
2m is a better band for local SSB than is 6 it seems. There have been times where on 2m FM the S meter is 40 over then when we switch to 6m SSB I can barely copy net control. Net control runs from the same QTH about 35 miles away. Dude has the antenna and amp to make it happen. 6m propagation just doesn't lend itself well to local comms of 50 miles or less. From all the putzing with VHF/UHF simplex we've done over the years I've come to the conclusion that for local comms of 50 mile or less radius you can't beat 2m FM using a 50w mobile as base rig and a vertical as high as you can get it. With that you can do 90% of what you want to do. For the last 10% add a moderate gain yagi or log periodic. The club has run a 10m net for local participation for years and I've given up on that. 10m for local makes 6m look good. Now 40m on a low dipole, that can give you some excellent local coverage. |
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http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=NA&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=S
Or just look at the spots on the cluster. http://www.dxwatch.com/dxsd1/dxsd1.php?f=111 
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