I decided to become active on the 6m band this year. This 6m Sporadic E (Es) season was in full swing about a month ago when I got active on 6m. The picture above is from the DXMAPS website and shows one of the daily openings we’ve experienced on 6m in the US during the last month. The DXMAPS website is a good tool for monitoring VHF/UHF band openings (10m and higher). The site collects and plots real-time cluster spots and propagation mode information on a world map. This includes spots from CW Skimmers, which monitor beacons on the VHF and UHF bands. This allows one to determine when a VHF/UHF band is open and the directions for possible QSOs from one’s location. As you can see from the picture above, there was a solid 6m opening on this particular day from my QTH in New England to the Midwest, the Southeast, and the Caribbean! You can also see the beginnings of an opening into Europe.

The graphic above shows spotting cluster data (we use the DXLab Suite at our station). You can see the details of the stations being spotted during the opening.

The 6m band is often called the “magic band” because it exhibits many different propagation modes, including Sporadic E (Es), Tropo, Aurora, Iconoscatter, Meteor Scatter, and even Earth-Moon-Earth (EME or “Moon Bounce”). You can find a good introduction to the magic band, its propagation possibilities, and some ideas on how to get started on 6m on these sites:

• ON6MU’s Magic Band Page
• Six Meters: An Introduction on QSL.net
• The Six Meter Band FAQ Page on QSL.net
• The UK Six Meter Group Site
• K1SIX’s 6m Sporadic E Information page

I would also recommend Six Meters: A Guide to the Magic Band by Ken Neubeck, WB2AMU. While the equipment information in this book is somewhat dated and it can be a little had to find, it contains excellent information on propagation modes and operating on 6m.

Many of the 6m propagation modes can be very short-lived so one must be prepared to make short contacts at the start of a QSO. The typical 6m exchange would include callsigns, signal reports and grid square (more on grid square below). The 6m band is typically very quiet and will easily support QSOs that do not move one’s S Meter even with the rig’s preamps on!

We planned for 6m operation when we built our station a couple of years ago. Our primary antennas for 6m are our SteppIR DB36 yagis at 105′ and 65′. These antennas are used separately on the 6m band (we can run them as a 4 over 4 array on 10m – 40m).

Out SteppIR DB36 Yagi’s feature, a 36-foot boom and have a 6m Passive element Kit installed which provide two additional elements on the 6m band. The resulting gain and front/back performance are in the range of typical 5 element 6m monoband antennas. Having two independently directional antennas for 6m has turned out to be quite useful in contests and when monitoring for 6m openings. These antennas have 6 elements on 6m and are pretty directional. Typical operating setups at our QTH would have one antenna pointed to the West or toward Europe while the other is pointed south to monitor for openings to the Southeast and the Caribbean. In these configurations, we can instantly switch between two directions using our microHAM Antenna Control System.

Both of our two operating positions are 6m capable. They both feature Transceivers with good receivers (a Yaesu FTdx5000 and an Icom IC-7800), and both have PW-1 Amplifiers, which provide 1KW output on the 6m band.

Before the 2014 Spring Es Season, we had only done limited operating on the 6m band. I did participate in the 2013 ARRL June VHF Contest and operated on a combination of the 6m, 2m, and 70cm bands during that contest. I also did some 6m operating as part of the 13 Colonies Special Event 2013. In total, I had made about 200 QSOs on 6m and had worked 10 grid squares by the beginning of 2014. Most of these 6m contacts were with stations in the US, with a few to the Caribbean. My longest DX up to that point was a few contacts 6m stations in the Canary Islands on the northwest coast of Africa.

At the start of the 2014 Spring Es Season, I decided to get serious about earning an ARRL VUCC Award on 6m. This award requires one to work and confirm 100 grid squares on the 6m band (also available for 2m and higher bands). I began by studying 6m propagation modes and monitoring the calling frequencies on the 6m band. We work a combination of modes on 6m, including SSB Phone, CW, and digital (using JT65). The CW and JT65 modes are very useful on the 6m band when the propagation conditions are marginal. We recently upgraded to Joe Taylor’s WSJT-X software which supports both the JT65 and JT9 weak signal modes. This WSJT-X software and JTAlert software from HAMApps integrated the JT65 and JT9 modes very well with the DXLab suite we use for logging and other DX’ing work at our station.

Some exciting times were on the air during the early part of the Es Season this year. Two that stand out were my first double hop Es contacts with hams in California and several openings to the Midwest and the Southeast, where the band went from dead to active in 5-10 minutes! This is typical for the 6m band, but it’s quite an experience to go from calling CQ with no answers to being in the middle of an almost instant small pileup!

I also decided to again operate in the 2014 ARRL June VHF Contest this year. I only decided to operate in the Single Operator, High-power Category on 6m. I was able to make a little over 300 6m contacts in this contest and managed a score that was significantly better than my 3-band effort in this contest last year. My QSOs were primarily using SSB phone mode, but I also managed a number of contacts in CW mode and a few digital QSOs using JT65.

As you can see from the screenshot from the N1MM logger that I used for the contest, I was able to work quite a few grid squares. We had a very nice opening to the Southeast and Florida during the contest period, resulting in lots of new 6m contacts and even some small pileups at times!

By the end of the contest, my total grids worked was up to 98, and this put me very close to my goal of earning a VUCC on 6m. At this point, I was hooked on 6m!

A couple of days after the contest ended, I took a look at the DXMAPS website and saw that a good 6m opening was occurring into Europe. I got on the air and was able to make my first ever contacts into Europe on 6m. The opening was a “spotlight” one (covering a limited area) that involved double hop Es propagation in Spain, Portugal, France, and Morocco. Over the period of about an hour and a half, I made some 30 contacts into these countries. A very exciting time on the air that I will not soon forget!

With the opening to Europe and some continued operation on 6m, I am currently at 122 Grid Squares worked (with 91 confirmed so far. My 6m QSO count stands at 755, with 112 new grid squares and approximately 550 QSOs made in the last 30 days.

The website used to plot the grid squares worked and confirmed in the previous pictures is WG7J’s GridMapper site. It’s a nice tool to visualize whether the grid square one has worked or still needs to work.

At this point, I am totally hooked on the 6m band! While a Yagi antenna with 5 or more elements helps a lot on 6m, I have found that it does not take a big station to have fun on the band when it’s open. I have worked many stations in the US that were using wire antennas and verticals with 100w or less. See the following YouTube video for an example of a simple 6m setup. Another good 6m intro video can be found here. If you have not given 6m a try, I encourage our readers to take a look at the band. It is really quite a lot of fun.

– Fred (AB1OC)