VE7SL RADIO NOTEBOOK



6m In 2020

Much has changed on the magic band since the widespread adoption of FT8 as the main mode of two-way work now used on 6m. FT8 is ideal for weak signal work, often found when working Europe or Asia but is really not needed for domestic North American two way contacts! For these, SSB or CW works much better and allows you to actually TALK with another person, exchange station information and learn something about them ... unlike FT8. I would urge more operators to use SSB or CW when the band is open domestically as it is much more gratifying than FT8.


If you do use FT8, please take a few moments to read the next section regarding using FT8 responsibly in a local strong signal environment shared with other amateurs in the local area. Everyone really needs to work together and respect one other:

FT8 And The Magic Band

This section is directed to those that may be new to 6m or new to using FT8 on 6m. Some of the things discussed will make your experience on the magic band better for you and better for your neigbours.

Unlike using FT8 on the HF bands, 6m presents some different challenges, especially if you operate in a region where there may be a lot of other locals also using the band at the same time.

Although the weak-signal capability of FT8 has made it possible for many smaller stations or those with makeshift antennas to take advantage of the unique propagation 6m has to offer, it can also create problems for other users of the band when used inappropriately. In regions of dense population, even small stations can create very high local signal levels, often making it impossible for their neighbours to hear weak signals. This is not deliberately-caused QRM but arises when some operators operate against the flow and transmit on the opposite time sequence to everyone else in their local area. This is usually because new arrivals to the band or new to FT8 operations on 6m, are not aware of the correct sequence to use for transmitting / receiving.

On HF, one can transmit or listen on whatever time sequence they wish. Chosing TX 1st or TX 2nd is usually determined by who you hear calling CQ or who you wish to work. On 6m however, in a densely-populated region of local operators, chosing to transmit whenever you want to is a luxury that can create big problems for your neighbour who may be trying to hear that weak DX signal while you are transmitting!

These problems will not occur if everybody in the region uses and follows the same transmit-receive periods, so that everyone is listening or everyone is transmitting at the same time ... one or the other. Unfortunately, this ideal system falls apart easily when one or more of your neighbours is not using the same sequence as everyone else.

For the past few years, a protocol that seeks to alleviate this problem has become popular and well accepted by those familiar with it. Those new to 6m may not know about it or understand the reasoning behind it.

Above all, I would urge new users of the band, or to the FT8 mode, to first listen carefully for a few minutes, before beginning operation, to determine what the majority of stations in their local region are using for sequencing. If they are using TX 1st, then your choice of TX 2nd will likely cause hearing difficulty for many others, as well as for yourself.

Although there are no strict rules, there is a very successful and well-practiced protocol, and that is that the easternmost station transmits on 1st while the western-end goes 2nd. This is why you will hear most eastern stations in the morning hours transmitting 2nd, as they are usually calling or looking for Europeans to their east, who are transmitting 1st. By the same token, you will also hear western stations transmitting on 2nd, who are also looking for Europe to their east, transmitting on 1st.

This sequencing protocol usually reverses later in the day when signals from Asia become a possibility, and all North Americans then become the easternmost stations and will transmit on the 1st sequence ... unlike in the morning. I can easily see how newcomers to the band could become confused, when they hear both sequences being used! The best thing, once again, is to listen carefully first and then go with the flow.

OK... so you�re not interested in EU or Asia? Then it should not matter to you which sequence that you use and best operating practice would again be to go with the flow in consideration of other users.

A few days ago I saw a prime example of exactly what not to do, in too many respects. I made a posting on the ON4KST 6m chat page that VE1SKY in NS (Nova Scotia) was being decoded here, mainly to alert others in my region that European signals might be coming next, as hearing the VE1s in BC is often an indicator that the European path is building.

In less than a minute, an S9+ local began calling CQ NS on the exact opposite sequence of all others ... effectively blocking the waterfall and any possible hope of hearing weak EU signals. Sorry, but this is just terrible operating procedure, with almost zero chance of success, while showing no consideration for nearby users.

Just like working DX on CW or on phone, the best way, as it always has been, is to listen, listen and then listen some more. You will work FAR more DX by listening and calling at the right time, than you will by calling CQ.

I also see some local stations everyday, calling endless CQs, often for over 60 minutes straight and often with many replies that go unnoticed. With FT8, one can check work 1st, go away, and return later to see who they might have worked. Perhaps this is what these operators are doing, but they should understand that they are also creating non-stop QRM for other users ... those that choose to listen carefully to the band rather than to endlessly CQ. Once again, this is just poor practice.

You may argue that if nobody called CQ, then there would be no contacts made. There is nothing wrong with a few CQs but CQing for an hour? And not to worry, there will always be other stations CQing endlessly for you to hear, even if it is not a great way to operate.

With a little pre-planning for sequencing and consideration for your neighbours, everyone can and should be able to enjoy 6m FT8 with very few problems ... and that is my hope for all of us.

After forty-eight summers of CW and phone on 6m and two summers on FT8, these are some of my initial thoughts on how to best operate for maximum success and consideration for other band-users.

The latter is part of the basic framework upon which amateur radio was originally established, when back in 1914, the ARRL described in their 'Code of Conduct' for amateurs ...

"The Amateur is Gentlemanly. He never knowingly uses the air for his own amusement in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others."

Now, let the magic, and the pleasure, continue!


"6m"

The 'Magic' Band

        And so the magic starts...long ago...on a hot July afternoon back in 1938, as Harry - W6DNS, returns from work to his hillside home in San Diego. Before taking a short pre-dinner nap, Harry tunes across "five" and hears the usual hiss of a dead band. Wakening for dinner, he checks the band once again. Dinner will have to wait tonight. The band is full of signals...more than Harry has ever heard before! He later reports to RADIO magazine, "What a shock I got! The band sounded more like "ten" than "five". W1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, 6's, 7's, 8's and 9's were coming through. The QRM was terrific...."

Twenty-five hundred miles to the east, Nat - W1EYM, in Connecticut, is also carefully tuning "five", hearing mostly stations from the central states and the Great Lakes area. Digging a little deeper he is shocked to hear the S7 phone signal of W6DNS in QSO with a W7! Nat anxiously waits for the two stations to sign before calling the Californian and then holds his breath...he knows that, should he hear a reply, things will never be quite the same on "five" again.

"W1EYM this is W6DNS in California!" is heard through the QRM and at 1810 PDST the first confirmed trans-continental double-hop QSO on the "ultra highs" forever becomes part of history.

Up until this point, "five" had always been regarded as unpredictable with 'quirky' propagation. Amateurs had discovered that for some reason, the summer months would provide sporadic openings out to 800~1000 miles. There had been rumors of W1's hearing W6's and even reports of trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific receptions...but always unconfirmed and often dismissed as "wishful thinking" or "bootleg" operators. But there was no mistaking what had happened on July 24, 1938!

Eventually amateurs would trade "five" for what would become known as today's "magic band"... but I think Harry and Nat had already discovered the magic, back on that warm summer evening so long ago.

W6DNS - Harry Hasenback of San Diego, CA. Harry used a National NC 1-10 super-regen receiver along with a homebrew HK54 parallel line grid circuit oscillator driving a pair of HK54s at 175W input. The power supply and transmitting gear were all located on the roof in a plywood box in order to reduce feedline losses. His antenna for the milestone QSO was a vertical collinear array consisting of 3 half-wave elements with directors on a 50' mast.
(QST Sept 1938)

W1EYM - Nathaniel Bishop of Fairfield, CT. His carefully assembled station consisted of a homebrew acorn tube converter feeding a Hammarlund Super Pro for receiving while the transmitter used the newly introduced 6L6 to drive a pair of 6L6's in the final. Nat also used a vertical array fed with a Johnson 'Q' match.
(QST Sept 1938)

6m From Western Canada

Six meters has been my favorite band for over thirty-five years. I first got on 'six' back in the early 70's using a homebrew FET 'Handbook' converter and a homebrew 6360 transverter at 8W output. I was hooked from the beginning, managing to work 32 states during that first summer on six. I learned very early that openings could easily be predicted by knowing when you were leaving the house, as it seemed (and still does!) that the band is always open when you are not at home. Part of the challenge of six is just being able to be there when the band is open!

PROPAGATION - on six from southern VE7 land is probably about the poorest in North America, with the exception of points to the north (Alaska, northern BC, VE8). The major propagation mode on six is during the summer months and is via "SPORADIC-E" or "Es". Starting about mid-May through to mid-August, peaking around early July, the band can open at any time via this fascinating mode. Typically, Es will peak in the morning and in the late afternoon and evening hours. From south-west B.C., most Es openings are single-hop, and favor the south-western states from California to Colorado. Several times each summer, openings will extend out to the eastern states, eastern Canada and down to the southern states. There always seems to be at least one or two openings via multi-hop Es into the Caribbean each summer but these are usually in the morning and short-lived.
These unpredictable openings are part of what makes six so interesting. Often, signals via Es will reach bone-crushing strength. Often the band will open in an instant, as if a switch has suddenly been thrown into the 'on' position. Listening on the calling frequency (50.125), I have often heard stations suddenly appear in mid-sentence, as the band suddenly pops open for the evening! Since the main generator of Es is now thought to be related to high-speed wind shears, this 'sudden' open band concept is easier to understand.

F2 - the real workhorse mode of the HF bands is much rarer on the magic band. Only during peak years of the solar cycle is six meters likely to support propagation via the F layer. We have been fortunate in that the last three cycles have been 'big' ones and have generated sufficently high levels of solar flux to open six via the F layer. On the other hand, Cycle 20, peaking in the late 60s, was a very poor performer and only one QSO via F2 from western Canada is known to have taken place, when VE7XF worked several KH6s in March 1969 following a strong auroral event the previous day. During the peak solar years of strong cycles, with sustained flux levels in the low to mid 200s, one should start watching for F2 openings starting in late October through to late March. Typical openings from VE7 land will begin towards VE1/W1 and progress from there, following the daylight. Normally the band will slowly shift towards the Caribbean and Central/South America and then out to the Pacific and Japan. On rare occasions, morning openings will take a more northerly direction providing a very rare polar path, while afternoon openings might dip more southerly towards New Zealand and Australia. There is only one certainty....you just never know what the band might do!

One of the most fascinating activities associated with 'solar high' winters is to watch the 'maximum usable frequency' or 'm.u.f.' rise from 10m to 6m by slowly following all of the commercial FM activity in the 30-50MHz range. Paramedics, fire crews and police services can be easily heard, often with sirens blazing in the background, as the m.u.f. climbs towards 6m. New York or Boston accents will usually indicate that six will open to the east coast on the northerly path, while southern drawls should alert you to possible Caribbean signals about to reach 6m. Each morning will be different, with the m.u.f. rising slowly over one to two hours while other mornings it will shoot up like a rocket in a matter of one or two minutes. More often than not, the m.u.f. will climb to 47 or 48MHz and stop, then slowly drop.....no 6m DX on those days!

Magic or Not? - You Decide...

During Cycle 21, I operated 6m from a suburb about 25 miles N-E of Vancouver. My station consisted of a little Yaesu FT-620 transceiver (10W) driving a homebrew 5894 amplifier at about 100W output. My antenna was also homebrew - a 5 element 'W1HDQ' yagi on a 12' boom at 55'. There were many 'magic moments' during Cycle 21, as it was my first exposure to F layer propagation on six.

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One of the more interesting contacts of Cycle 21 was on November 10, 1981. The band had opened to JA in the afternoon and I had worked a number of JA's until the band closed at around 1600 local time. Needing to do a little repair work on the antenna changeover relay on my amplifier, I decided that it was safe to take the amplifier apart, repair it, and be ready for anything that might happen the next day. I disconnected the amplifier and started the repair work, having plugged the antenna into the transceiver to monitor the calling frequency (50.110 in those days). At around 1715 I went upstairs for dinner but no sooner had I arrived upstairs when I heard an SSB signal on the calling frequency. Knowing that the band was 'dead', I ignored it until I heard it a few more times, coming from the basement shack. Going back to the shack, I was shocked to hear VS5DX in Brunei calling CQ! With my amplifier torn apart on the bench, my heart sank as I realized that my 10W transceiver would never be enough to make the QSO...but wait...wasn't this the magic band? Somehow my lowly ten watts found its way to Brunei with no problem (7300+ miles) and VS5DX was worked at 1730 local time, over forty minutes after the November sunset.

One of the most exciting days ever, occured on June 10, 2001, in the middle of the ARRL summer VHF contest. The band had been very quiet with little activity other than locals and the odd signal on scatter from the south. At around 1030 local time, Ralph (VE7XF), had been listening to K7RAT on CW tropo-scatter when he heard the Oregonian calling a European! Listening closer, it became apparent that Tree was running Europeans. Ralph quickly alerted myself and Jason (VE7AG) on two meters and all of us swung our beams towards Europe...and waited hopefully. About fifteen minutes later, ON4GG's 599 signal appeared out of nowhere and was quickly worked. This was not only my first European QSO on 6m but also the first ever "VE7-Europe" contact made on 50MHz since the band was established in 1946. Both Jason, Ralph and Gabor (VE7DXG) also hit pay-dirt that morning as we all worked a number of Europeans before the magic stopped, just a few minutes later!

A memorable day from Cycle 23 was January 4th, 2002. The 'normal' opening to the east coast had failed to appear that day. Apparently what had really happened was that the skip was longer than 'normal' as the first signal to appear was around 1015 in the morning. It was EH8BPX in the Canary Islands! I had only heard Africa once before (in Cycle 21) and had failed to work it. I was determined not to let my next chance of completing W.A.C. on 6m slip away! As it turned out, I needn't have worried... the signal from Africa steadily got stronger and stronger and was in for well over an hour. Several other locals were fortunate enough to be around that morning as well to catch a very, very rare opening from VE7 to Africa on six.
Nothing was heard again until around 1330 local time when I began to hear the OX3 beacon from Greenland. A short CQ on 50.110 brought a thundering reply from OX3OX, running 100W to a dipole! Ole kept CQing for another fifteen minutes with no replies as apparently all of the locals had abandonded the band. For the next ninety minutes I periodically keyed up on .110 and asked, "Are you still there Ole?" and always got a response, as he was quite content to just monitor on .110 while doing other things in the shack. It was truly an interesting day on the magic band.

Working Aurora on "six" is usually fairly predictable. With the beam pointed to the northern auroral zone, the geometry is such that signals from Washington, Oregon and Idaho are usually dominant. Occasionally, signals from further east such as VE5 and WØ will make it here as well. On the night of October 28th, 2000, as Cycle 23 was ramping up, the 'normal' aurora became something very different.

I had been listening to auroral CW signals from Washington and Alberta, with the occasional peep from VE5 when I heard something that sounded too strange to be true....a VK4 calling CQ! I quickly turned my beam towards Australia and listened intently but heard nothing. Bringing the beam back to the north produced the VK4 once again, with a pure auroral "buzz" on his signal. Evidently the signal from down-under was propagating across the Pacific (still in daylight) via the F layer and arriving at just the right angle to reflect from the auroral curtain in northern BC or Alaska, as the signal peaked towards the N-W. Over the next hour, four VK4s were worked on CW, all with the beam pointed towards Alaska! They also reported that my signal had the tell-tale "buzz" of aurora. True to the words of Robert W. Service, "The Northern Lights have seen queer sights...", both the aurora and the magic were working overtime that night.

October 15, 2000 was another day that "six" chose to demonstrate its mysterious charms. A solar flare the day before had put most ops on high alert for anything unusual. There had been little activity on the band since mid September. At around 0850 local, PYØFF on Fernado de Noronha was heard and worked with weak signals both ways. No other signals were heard before or after his sudden appearance. The band remained quiet until a little after 1000 when LU5VV in southern Argentina made an equally sudden appearance. Located in grid square FE48 ( a little over 7000 miles away) his signal was exceptionally strong, peaking 30-40 db over S9...almost as if he were in the next block. He explained to me that he had blown the final transistor in his transceiver and had to make a substitution with the only suitable one in his junk box. He was putting out about 8 watts. Pure magic !

Operating on 6m since the early 70's, I had pretty well thought that there weren't too many more surprises left in the band that I hadn't already run into...until the morning of July10, 2009 when once again the magic would appear. Very early in the morning I had been talking with Jack, OA4TT, on the 6m internet chat page. Jack was located about 110 miles south of Lima, Peru, and a little over 5000 miles south east of me. I had jokingly said that in order to work we would need at last four good "hops". One down to Utah / New Mexico, another into central Mexico, a third over the Pacific Ocean and a fourth down to Lima. I had never worked into South America on summer Es before and I'm sure Jack had never worked into VE7 as well. Since the band was dead, I left the shack a few minutes later without giving the idea much further thought. Around two hours later (almost 1000 hours local time) I returned to the shack to see that Jack had posted a message to the board that he would be calling CQ on CW on 50.115. Having lost track of conditions, I quickly checked the band and found it to be open towards Utah. With little expectation, I tuned the receiver to 50.115 and immediately heard Jack calling CQ on CW! After picking myself off of the floor, I answered Jack and he immediately responded as we exchanged 449 signal reports! Jack signal was weak but steady along with a slight flutter. Once again, the magic band had caught me by surprise when a routine opening into Utah had suddenly become far more than I had ever expected!

Tuesday, July 8th, 2003 started out like any normal summer morning but would soon turn into the most exciting day I have seen in over 30 years of operating on six. The band was already open when I got out to the shack at 0730. For the next hour the band bounced around between the Great Lakes states and Ontario with the odd W2 popping up now and again. The skip was decidedly east-west, favoring the border states. There had been massive Es openings all day in almost every part of Europe, with Es strong enough to get to 2m for much of the day. With the Es building quickly in North America, it looked like things could get interesting.
At 0845 the band suddenly went quiet and nothing was heard for about 30 minutes when the 5x9 signal of VE1YX was heard. The appearance of VE1 via Es is very rare. As he faded out, K1TOL in Maine took over, his 5x9 signal being the only one heard on the band. About ten minutes later, Lefty faded out and VE9DX appeared! It had been an interesting morning but the best was yet to come. As Andy's signal faded away, the band apparently went dead...or had the skip just shifted further to the north? No beacons were heard but a quick check of the 48.250 western European video channel showed a strong signal. The video buzz was continuing to build in strength when suddenly IK2ECC (599) appeared on the band calling CQ! Two more Italian stations were worked before the band shifted to Germany and then to the Netherlands. This amazing propagation lasted for an unbelievable two and a half hours with 44 different European stations worked as the spotlight shifted around Europe from the UK, the Baltics and Italy. Evidently the widespread Es generators in Europe as well as in North America were accompanied with intense Es over the north Atlantic and the polar regions. A later check of the geomagnetic polar activity showed almost nothing happening in the auroral zone - the day was the quietest in several months. I suspect the almost total absence of geomagnetic activity played a large part in the stability and generation of the global Es that developed that day. It was surely a day to remember on the magic band and probably one not likely to ever be repeated!

This last statement continued to ring-true for almost 10 more years...until the 'magic' struck again......

Friday, June 29, 2012, began like most other summer mornings, with a 6 a.m. glance at the ON4KST website to check 6m conditions before my morning bike ride. The ride would have to wait today....Europe was being reported in the PNW! A quick dash to the shack found Joe, CT1HZE, and a few others, CQing on CW. For the next five hours, the band remained open to 'somewhere' in Europe, with signals coming and going..... wave after wave. As the sporadic-E clouds continually shifted alignment, individual signals rarely lasted for more than thirty to forty seconds and contacts were short and fast. All QSO's were on CW except for a short exchange again with CT1HZE, when his loud signal suddenly appeared on 50.110 SSB! The previous day, I had jokingly remarked to Ralph (VE7XF) that my re-tallied 6m DXCC total was now at 77 worked and that I probably wouldn't live long enough to work 100.....Ralph told me to eat more vitamins. I may need those vitamins yet, but the day ended with 7 new countries worked and a significantly shortened climb to the long-sought DXCC. With 31 QSO's in the log (DL, F, SP, CT, ON, GM, IT, LZ, SV, LY, EI, G, S5, I, EA8) it was truly another great day on the Magic Band and, as the 6m QSO map shows below, one never to be forgotten!

For all of the contacts that have been made and for all of the cards that have been collected, I think none of them have brought me more pleasure than the one shown below. It, more than any other, represents what is so truly 'magical' about this part of the spectrum. It is contacts like this that have kept me mesmerized, for over forty years now, by the shear unpredictability of 'six'.

Normally, during the summer Es season, I rise early and check the Internet to see what has been happening on 'six' back east, before heading to the shack to have a listen. More often than not, the band is quiet and the morning regime continues, uninterrupted. On the morning of July 13, 2012, there was no indication that the band was open...in any direction. There were no beacons from anywhere in North America to be heard. There were no 49 mHz videos from the N-E, indicating the very rare polar path to Europe might be brewing. There was but one signal heard.... 4Z1UF, in Lodd, Israel, calling CQ on .087 CW ! Ilya quickly answered my call, with a 'GM Steve' (we had worked each other on 160m the previous winter), followed by a fast exchange of signal reports, and he was gone.....in and out in less than 60 seconds. I give all of the credit for this amazing contact to Johnny, KE7V, a very skilled 6m operator about 40 miles to the southwest of me, and to Ilya. Earlier, during my routine internet check, I saw that Johnny had just posted a QSO with Ilya on 6m about two minutes earlier ! I was stunned, as the only propagation indicated on the map was a small opening between the eastern U.S. seaboard and Europe. I rushed to the shack, turned the amplifier on, and began to tune the band...but nothing was heard. How could this be...a 6000+ mile contact between the west coast and Europe only three minutes earlier and no indication that the band is open...no signals from any direction? I knew that Johnny was too good of an operator to make an error but it looked like I was too late for the action.

One thing noted over the years, between here and KE7V's location, is that very often, we rarely hear what each other is working .... especially on long-haul signals that often land in our backyards with extremely small footprints. However, it seems that those same signals that neither of us could hear earlier, will show up a few minutes later, as the footprint dances to the north or to the south. About seven minutes after Johnny's QSO, Ilya's signal suddenly popped-up...in mid-CQ...and right on schedule! Johnny also reported a very short appearance of Ilya's signal at his location. Thankfully he had been slowly tuning the band while watching the 'Tour de France' bike races on TV, when he stumbled across Ilya's weak CQ...almost hidden by a local 'birdy' at his end. This was true 'heads-up' operating on both station's part and thankfully Ilya continued to CQ into a 'dead band' for some time before his signals drifted to the north and into my own backyard! Ilya reported no indicators of west coast propagation from his end and his only QSO's were with Europe and one east coast USA station....another amazing summer morning on the magic band!




Using 11m To Find 6m Sporadic E

I have found that monitoring the propagation on the 11m band to be the single best indicator of possible Es openings heading for 6m. Unlike 10m or 6m, the 11m (CB) band is populated with several THOUSANDS of stations with many of them running big antennas and high power. Although Es can form quickly throughout the 11m - 6m portion of the spectrum, it usually creeps higher in frequency as the density of the Es layer grows in size. On a normal summer Es opening, the directions that you hear on 11m will eventually arrive at 6m.

I usually put my HF transceiver on Es-watch during the summer, letting it run 24/7 and squelched on 27.385MHz (LSB), a popular 11m DX calling frequency. It seems that even the slightest hint of an Es cloud will produce a plethora of activity on this frequency which can provide a real 'heads-up' for what is coming to 50MHz. Once the 11m alert has been sounded, a quick check of the 10m CW Beacon Band (28.175MHz - 28.300MHz) will provide a few more hints about which direction to point the beam for possible 6m Es. Of course not all Es openings on 10/11m will produce an opening on six, but I have never heard Es on 6m without hearing it on 10m as well. A few CQ's on six will often produce a response on what initially appeared to be a dead band.


Summer E-Skip (Es)


Winter F2 Skip (Solar Peak Years)


MAGIC BAND LINKS


           The ON4KST 50MHz Chat Page  - The best one. Log into the I A R U Region 2 site for North American activity.

           The U.K. Six Meter Group  - Propagation, history plus the latest 6m news.

        G3USFs Beacon List  - Get the latest list of all 6m prop beacons.




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