Friday, 18 November 2011

6m Virgin no more!

Last Sunday, I was chatting to John, ZS6JON on 20m. We had a nice long chat, and he told me that I should get a 6m antenna here in Zambia, because I'd be very popular.

Well, last night I had a great opening on 10m to the USA, and was on the air on 10m till about 19:15 UTC.

John had suggested that he usually puts his 6m rig on 50.110, and monitors that for openings.
After the last 10m QSO I decided to put the radio there, even though I only have an 80 - 10m Off Centre Fed Dipole, up about 12m, fed with RG58.

Imagine my surprise when I heard 9A2AA calling CQ the minute I tuned to 50.110!!

Well, to cut a story about a lot of fun short, I worked 88 QSO's with 14 different DXCC countries. Quite a few stations worked me on SSB and CW.

Stations sound "different" on 6m to me... I assume that's due to the different propogation encountered on that band.

At 20:40, as if someone flipped a switch, the band went quiet, and I went to bed.

This is fun! I'll really have to get a REAL 6m antenna. I better start hunting for a small yagi I can transport easily up here.

73

Chris

2 comments:

  1. Hi Chris,

    I think (hope) I have found the problem with not being able to place a comment. I was using IE now I am using Mozzila Firefox...

    I think you will be very popular on 6M be ready for March/April 2012.

    Have FUN !!

    de Pierre ZS6A

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris - Great to work you for the first time today (12m CW). Nice sigs on my Hexbeam up at 10m high here in RI USA. Tnx for your support of LoTW & DX CofC. Hpe cuagn and enjoy being the DX in 9J2. Cool blog...73 Bill W1WBB

    ReplyDelete