Antennas for 6 Meters?

[KB2WIG]

During openings, I've worked double hop into Ca and Wa from C NY. The antenna was a 1/2 wave dipole stapled to the cedar siding at about 6 feet off the ground.

When its open, its open.

klc

[KM1H]

I have a similar problem here in NH and my TX antenna is a modified oldie CC 6el Boomer and now 8 el on a 35' boom. YO says the gain is 13.6dBi and the F/R is in excess of 40dB from 50.0 to 50.4 as I designed it to get rid of a lot of noise sources over the full 180 degree rear when working DX toward EU and AF.

On AM I run a Clegg Zeus at about 120W out and could raise a QSO most any evening when beaming from RI and up around to the Albany area on an otherwise completely dead frequency. It is pretty sharp and does not make for spread out roundtables.

For that I have a pair of 2 el horizontal collinear elements (2 half waves insulated and fed in the center, about 9' long) skewed about 45 degrees or so and stacked a half wave. Feed between them is OWL and a coax balun to 75 Ohm coax. A bit of gain, close to omni directional, and do the job. Lots of info in old hand

A turnstile is circular polarized so there is a built in 3dB loss to V or H antennas and maximum radiation is straight up. It would be better to feed them in phase and tune out the reactance.

Many also use an 80M dipole with decent results, Ive worked 10W stations over 50 miles with one,  and Europeans and West Coast NA when the band is open. That big yagi and a hilltop is a good equalizer

Carl

[Pete, WA2CWA]

A turnstile is circular polarized so there is a built in 3dB loss to V or H antennas and maximum radiation is straight up. It would be better to feed them in phase and tune out the reactance.

Carl

If the turnstile dipoles are both mounted in the horizontal plane, at right angles to each other, and one fed out of phase with the other, the antenna exhibits an omnidirectional pattern in the horizontal plane. If you mount one of the dipole elements vertically and the other horizontally, the antenna exhibits circular polarization.  

[VE1IDX]

I believe Clark's talking about a knob, rather than a menu setting.

My 857 has RF power adjust, but without having HRD or some other 'rig control' software going, it's a pain in the arse to adjust.

Clark, there IS an easy fix for this.  Use the same control you use for dialing the ALC back.  I run my carrier at 100 watts AM out of the Yeasu, and then use the ALC defeat (-5 volts on the ALC pin) to adjust to the carrier I want.  This also works on SSB.  Once you set it for a certain amount of power, it will sit there.


--Shane
KD6VXI

I find it only takes a couple seconds to change the power level in my FT-857. Push a switch, rotate a knob, rotate another knob to set the power, press the first switch again and that's it. Since the menue is in alphabetical order it is easy and fast to get to the RF POWER setting. YMMV.

 I do however like the idea of a fixed ALC voltage as a safety factor. I plan to use that idea when I get my Larcan module geared up on 6m with the ALC voltage obtained from the amp as soon as it is turned on as that way drive will automatically be reduced whenever the amp in on.

[W9GT]

One of the most popular horizontally polarized mobile antennas back in the 50's and 60's for the Saturn 6 Halo antenna. These still pop up at hamfests on occasion.



Here is the first Halo antenna invented by W1MUX back in the "good old days":



Several manufacturers today still make similar "halo" versions in single loop or square versions. There's also numerous design articles on the web. The 6 meter version really isn't that big. Find one, build one, tie a rope to it; use a rope to hoist it up high from a tree branch, feed it with RG-58, and you're good to go horizontal on 6 meters and no rotor required.

Another simple horizontal antenna, and no rotor required, is the turnstile antenna. It can also be mounted just like the halo above.

I have a Saturn 6 at 73 ft off the side of the tower.  It works great!  I'm going to also try a pair of stacked Cushcraft Squalos and see how they work at the same height....actually to top antenna will be at about 75 ft and the center of radiation between the two will be about 69 ft.  Should work well, but I'm not sure if the gain will be apparent or not.  There is also a little distortion of the pattern...being side mounted.  Six meters is loads of fun and we have quite a large amount of activity in NE Indiana.

73,  Jack, W9GT