Sunday, June 17, 2018

6m vertical on the tower

Placed the 6m/UHF/VHF Watson W2000 (Diamond V2000 clone) antenna in the mast this weekend. It is not on it's final place but so far on top at 16m height. Didn't have much time to play with it though so really don't know how it performs. SWR is the same as on the low 6m long mast. I did receive a 4X4 (Israel) station on FT8 and some europeans. As soon as I made a CQ on FT8 I was spotted in Spain, Denmark and Germany. At least I made one QSO with a station in Germany. I don't think there was much ES at that time...however 6m can open within 10 minutes and close in the bext 10 minutes. Propagation can be very local, it is possible I work DX and a station 50km south of me does hear nothing at all. 6m is a strange and unpredictable band. And because of that it is attractive to radio enthousiasts.




I have changed my shack setup a little. Had to find a place for the rotor controller. Besides that you see 3 switches on the right side. Switching the digimodem, audio NIR-10 filter and a antennarelay at the bottom of the mast. Missing the voicekeyer in the picture since I didn't use it anymore so sold it. Well, the Icom IC-706 looks a little small in that space. Hopefully I will replace it by a IC-7300 in the future. The extra connectors you see are the jack plug for the footswitch and the mini DIN for the computer voicekeyer.


Next step is to install the 5 element 6m ZX-Yagi. I'm cleaning it and have to make some repairs. Hopefully I find some time to install it in the mast this week.

9 comments:

PA7DA said...

Gebruik deze antenne met veel plezier, maar de grote jongens met grote alles, zullen je overtreffen. Probeer eens de DL6DBM Deltaloop. Gebruik het veel als ik in 4X actief ben. Daarmee flinke DX van meer dan 6000Km kunnen maken met 25 Watt PEP

PA7DA said...

Sorry DL5DBM HI!

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Ja Jaap, ik weet het. Toch is er met deze vertical best leuke DX te maken. Zo heb ik al eens verbinding gemaakt met Puerto Rico met 5W op 6m. En werd ik vorig jaar gehoord in Zuid-Korea. Toen stond de antenne wel 10m lager. Alles hangt af van de condities. Overigens zit een 5 elements yagi in deze mast in de planning. 73, Bas

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hallo Bas, mooi werk, en met goede propagatie dan is bijna alles mogelijk ook met een vertical. 73 Paul PA0K

Hans said...

Mooi Bas, dat je de V2000/W2000 in de mast heb gemonteerd. Toevallig dat ik vanmorgen de V2000 hier ook heb aangesloten op de FT-897 en even over de 6m gedraaid. Het was muisstil. Maar zoals jijzelf al beaamt, 6m kan er zo zijn en ook zo weer wegwezen. Gewoon standby laten staan. Ik ben benieuwd als straks de 6m beam er in hangt. Spannend! 73 Hans, PE1BVQ.

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Paul en Hans, het is altijd een verassing wat 6m bied. Op digimodes FT8 (e.a.) zie je eigenlijk altijd wat. Tenminste dat is mijn ervaring. Misschien is het ook nog interessant om (als uitzondering ;-)) op 2m eens wat te proberen. Want daar kan ik nu ook uitkomen natuurlijk...73, Bas

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hallo Bas, zo nu en dan check FT8 op 2 meter. Dus... 73 Paul PAØK

Photon said...

6m is subject to ionisation that is shaped into something like the surface of the sea - lots of waves. These propagate from the surface and grow to huge sizes by the time they are at upper D and E height. That's why you get different propagation conditions between closely spaced stations. Sometimes, you can actually hear the effect of the waves on the radio as the signals come and go.

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Very clear description - explanation which I experienced yesterday and very often. Thanks John...73, Bas