The AM Forum

Gentlemen,
     Got an old Lafayette HE45-A, 1961-era transceiver for 6 meters. Does anyone have any experience with this little rig? I wondered if it's worth fixing up and wondered if there is any 6 meter activity on AM. Any ideas appreciated.   ---Marty, KK4RF---

Yeah, thars 6m AM activity.   I've got one of the he-45 s.  It works........  i would not spend much on it.....

I've got a Lafayette HA 460. A much nicer rig with a vfo along with the crystal osc.

  Most activity is around late spring into august. Theres also another 'spurt' this time of the year. Check out the 6m sticky for propig ation.


klc

     Thanks for the info. I'll do some monitoring with my TS-570S to see what's going on before I tear into the HE-45A. ---Marty, KK4RF---

Steve K4HX and I have talked about the possibilities of some 6m AM action locally. He's up your way, I'm in NC just north of Raleigh. Probably a bit too far for ground wave without an amp. I think the Zeus will only do 120 watts or so.

There's a group over in the SW part of the state who frequent 6 too. Gene WA4PGI told me about them a while back. Might actually get an aerial up for that band in the next couple months.

A couple of us have been getting on 50.4 locally as a chat channel in hopes of spurring some renewed AM activity. We're around Ithaca NY in the central part of NY state. So far I haven't heard anyone else around on AM.

As with fone operation in the 80m portion of the band, activity begets activity. Once you get a few folks on regularly and word gets out, others will join in. Keeping the activity going is the challenge. 6m coverage adds to the challenge.

That will probably tell you very little unless you monitor 24/7. A sweep once or twice up and down the band once in awhile will generally show zero activity. Propagation is a very active part of 6 meter activity. I've been on 6 meters for about half a century. A decent beam makes a world of difference. 5 or 10 watts and you're generally just noise in someone's receiver unless they're very local.

Try pointing the antenna in different directions and call CQ on 50.4 at 9PM local. With about 6-10W dont expect much coverage with no openings but tropo will sometimes give a good boost.

Im in Southeastern NH and can work just about all of NE and into NYC/LI and E NY with a Zeus and a 8el yagi at 60'.  Living on top of a hill helps but I still get over bigger ones and the mountains in CT, WMA, and NH/VT.

When I got back on 6M AM around 1990 it was with a HA-460, then a G-50 and the Zeus/Interceptor has been here since about 94.

Carl

Gentlemen:
     Thanks to all that replied. I'm only able at present to make a listening antenna for 6 meters and it will be indoors. The old HE-45a belonged to my Dad, W8ZLC, who became a SK last year. It  hasn't been operated in 35 years or so. I remember he had a lot of fun operating it in the Cincinnati area for local work. Thanks again to all.---Marty, KK4RF---

  " 50.4 locally as a chat channel "

K,

Whatt is a 'good' time??

klc

I think my FLEX is capable of 6M.....
It would be interesting to check that band out and listen for any magic.

Fred

Very little happening in the way of openings on 6 meters for the Northeast U.S. in the last several months. A decent beam, and 25 watts or more, will allow you to tickle ground-wave propagation for some contacts. MUF today is only at 34 MHz.

I looks closer at my smugg FLEX and discover it only has 500MW outpoot.
That ain't gonna do much.
Not many amps around, or any, that will boost 500MW to something usable. Seems like a couple 100 watts and a beam, might start to do something, by the descriptions of 6M.

Had a friend who had a 4X150 amp that caused his solid-state radio to stop transmitting(found out that it was a leaky coupling cap feeding voltage back into the radio). Once we fixed that, we could get decent power out of the 4X150 with as low as 250 mW drive. That is the way I would go with the Flex.
                                                     Joe W4AAB

http://tesystems.com/50-54.htm

If you want to do some serious diddling with the SDR-1000 on VHF and UHF frequencies, here's a good web page for info: http://www.km0t.com/pages/sdr.htm

Thanks Pete
I bookmarked the KM0T stuff. A lot of neat stuff. Some people go wild over this radio thing.

Marty, sorry about your father. Don't expect much from that HE-45, its not a serious 6M rig in my experience with one of those. Ok if you have a very local group. I'm not saying don't play with it, it is radio after all, have fun. Just don't expect much, the rx is not sensitive, is drifty and unstable, and very low xmit power. 6 is a fun band, it's great for local ragchewing and exciting when a good band opening comes. .........Larry

Larry,
     Thanks for insights on the HE-45a. I had thought of trying to rehab the little rig, but right now I've got so many other projects going that I'm not sure when I ever will get to it. My TS-570S does have 6 meter AM capability, so I'll just give that a try when I do get some sort of antenna up. Thanks again.---Marty, KK4RF