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6 Meter Skywave Excitement is Waiting for You

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Contributors

  • Gordon West WB6NOA

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    6 meters, the magic band. Here is some
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    sky waves skipped that we're picking up
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    in Southern California with a station in
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    Florida talking to a station on Long
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    Island This is
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    the
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    6 meter band from 50 to 54 megahertz for
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    you to enjoy full privileges as a brand
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    new ham operator.
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    Now here's our station on Long Island
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    She sounds like a New Yorker, doesn't
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    he?
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    He's giving his grid square, and you'll
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    read about that in my yellow technician
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    class book. Okay, my name is Bob,
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    bravo Askabravo, and I need to call him.
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    It's C-O-R-A-M, it's about middle of
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    the island. My pal Ken, WB2-AMU,
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    calls 6 meters, the magic band in his
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    book, because you never know what's
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    going to happen to signals between 50
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    and 54 megahertz Well there, I got
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    somebody tuned in here. And on 6 meters,
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    the band will come and go over 30
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    seconds, much like the waves lapping on
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    a shore. It'll be strong, and then
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    they'll recede. There they go, now
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    they're nice and strong, and then they
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    recede. And we're hearing someone
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    calling C-Q in Morris Code on the 6
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    meter band
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    Now take a listen and hear how
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    relatively clear The tone is of the
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    signal
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    and that's our buddy Ken making a
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    response to that call but in a few
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    seconds the six meter magic band is
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    going to do something that will really
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    surprise us all.
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    Wow what's going on here?
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    Let's turn the beam toward the north and
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    that's what Ken is doing with this
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    recording WB2 AMU and we're picking up
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    CW signals that have a raspy sound
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    off of an aurora. This is called aurora
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    communications, and it's typical on six
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    meters whenever we have sunspot produced
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    auroras.
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    Wow, listen to that, there's no tone
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    at all recovered on receipt.
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    If we tune around a little bit on six
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    meters
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    We hear some with a little bit of tone,
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    but these are signals reflected off an
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    aurora borealis to our north.
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    Well, let's tune up the band and see
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    what voice sounds like.
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    Wow!
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    All of this, thanks to the ionosphere,
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    charged up by sunspots and auroras
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    creating all of this excitement on the
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    magic band, the 6-meter band.
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    Now where do you find the excitement on
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    6 meters? Well, tune 50125 on 6 meters
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    and likely if the band is open, signals
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    refracting off the ionosphere, you're
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    going to hear signals coming in. That
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    is the calling channel 50125.
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    Remember, on the 10-meter band, our
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    calling frequency to stake out for band
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    openings is 28, 400, 284 MHz, but up
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    here on 6 meters, 50125.
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    Now, if you're looking for DX stations
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    coming in a long way away on 6 meters,
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    tune
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    50110. And when we come up on solar
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    cycle 24 peaks, we should begin to hear
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    more exciting transmissions on 6 meters
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    from thousands of miles away like this.
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    Hawaii on 6.
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    Wow, so 6 meters has plenty of
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    excitement for you using CW or single
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    sideband. Now, another way to tell
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    whether or not the 6 meter band is
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    skipping all over the country or all
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    over the world is to tune into the
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    propagation beacons. And the
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    propagation beacons are down in the
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    beacon subband 50060
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    to 50080.
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    Oh yeah, there are beacons. In fact,
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    one beacon sounds like it's identifying
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    itself coming from Australia. Okay,
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    Victor, can you watch this year, Oscar,
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    a
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    CDH of Singleton, 200 kilometers north
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    west of Sydney, in near South Wales,
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    Australia. Wow! Now, that's pretty
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    exciting on the 6-meter band using
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    single sideband, but you know there's a
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    lot more to 6 meters than just SSB with
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    an elaborate SSB radio, you can buy a
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    handheld, and when hooked up to an
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    outside antenna, operate FM on 6 meters
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    and make some local repeater contacts on
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    frequency modulation, with either a
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    handheld FM radio or a mobile FM radio.
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    Station, antenna is key. Yes, that's
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    right. FM frequency modulation on 6
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    meters going through relay stations
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    called repeaters available for all
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    technician class operators, brand new
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    to ham radio.
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    So you can drive around and make
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    contacts with a hand held on an outside
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    antenna through the FM repeaters or a
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    mobile radio as well on 6 meters FM.
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    Now something else occurs to FM on 6
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    meters and that is occasionally the band
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    will open up via sky wave skip and
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    you'll hear other 6 meter stations
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    coming in on the national simplex
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    frequency
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    52525 FM. But listen that their FM will
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    be clear and then via ionospheric skip
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    sometimes go into a mush sound and then
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    be clear again. Let's tune into a sky
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    wave station thousands of miles away
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    coming in on 6 meters simplex
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    Nice and clear,
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    now very noisy,
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    wow that's amazing, that is 6 meters FM
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    where sometimes the signals are loud and
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    clear and other times they get very
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    garbled due to phase distortion of that
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    6 meter signal, but it's sky wave
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    coming in from Stonehidge,
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    Massachusetts, wow! I tell you, there
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    is no end to the excitement on 6 meters,
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    let's go to the top of the van and wait
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    a minute, what in the world is that,
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    that's radio control, did you know as a
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    technician class ham radio operator,
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    you can operate radio control up to a
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    watt output. on the six meter band,
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    and you can get off of those garage door
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    frequencies and have your own radio
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    control channel on six meters.
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    Very strange. I'm here at Julian's
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    house and he's got these big antennas
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    aimed up at the sky at the moon and he's
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    transmitting
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    Let's listen again.
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    Wow that's a signal coming off the moon
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    from his own transmitter and you can do
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    that down at the bottom end of the six
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    meter band and did you ever wonder what
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    signals off the moon beside this echo
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    sound like? Well take a listen to these
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    CW signals coming off the moon on six
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    meters.
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    That's moon bounce on six meters
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    hearing signals coming off
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    Wow, there's plenty of excitement on
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    the 6-meter van, huh?
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    Alright, how about something more
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    challenging on 6-meter's meteor scatter?
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    That's a signal coming off of a meteor.
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    And there's the response by our
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    transmitting station and then listen for
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    the dit-dah-dit on the receiving station
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    via meteors.
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    Okay, listen carefully. Here it comes.
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    Ha ha! Got 'em did audit. So plenty of
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    excitement on 6 meters, the magic band