I was first introduced to six meters way back in the late 50’s by my mentor Don, W4GVY (SK) at that time we had really great propagation to all parts of the world. The sunspot count peaked well over 200 and of course we thought it would never end.
My friend Don decided to try six meters and purchased a set of Gonset Twins, now Gonset was in business for several years and the G50 twins were the hottest item for six meters.
By today’s standards they were simple and to the point, remember that transceivers did not exist during that era, you had one box for a transmitter and the other box was your receiver. The transmitter was amplitude modulation mustering about 50 watts output, the receiver was nothing special and qrm killing adjustments were only a thought that someone had in their dreams.
Don also purchased a three-element six-meter beam, we had the entire package, one fine Saturday afternoon we erected the antenna on the roof of his house. The beam was turned with a TV rotator, so after running rotor cable and coax to the shack we fired up the rig to see what was happening. The beam sat about 35 feet above the ground and with 50 watts on six we were ready for anything and everything.
Much to our disdain the band was dead, nothing in any direction and we could not raise a local at all. You would have thought a city the size of my hometown of Louisville there would be someone listening on six.
I was not favorable impressed, not only a dead band, but nary a local for a signal check, I walked a block to my house and quickly turned on the rig and got on 15 meters. The band was open to Europe and I jumped right into the pile for new stations, I gave six very little thought for the next few days. My feelings were if that is the upper bands, why all the fuss to operate them, I can be on 15 and have loads of stations to work.
A couple of weeks went by and then one Saturday evening around 7 pm my phone rang, it was Don telling me the band was open and drop in his shack if I had time. Well, my curiosity was up, so I wanted to hear some benefits of the fruits of our labor. So, I walked one block to Don’s house, at the time of my arrival he was in contact with some one in the Northeast.
Once Don finished his contact what I heard next was the biggest cacophony of noise you could ever hope to hear. Keep in mind this was the days of A.M. and if you had two signals beating against each other you had a heterodyne. Imagine a large group of stations calling all at once, each creating a separate heterodyne, the racket level was astounding!
Don and I took turns at the Mic working stations for over two hours, everyone had the same story, first Kentucky and please qsl. It was almost like we were on some rare island country and the whole world was calling us.
However, this did not cause me to go out the next day and buy a six meter rig, for one I could not afford it, plus fifteen was still my band at that time and I wanted to work as much dx as I could.
A few weeks went by some of my local buddies were buying a hot item from Heathkit, namely was called the “Benton Harbor Lunchbox” these were five watt AM units for six, or two depending upon the model you chose. Pretty simple rig, good for just chatting with your buddies on six, or two, maybe a little DX if the right antennas.
You can find these rigs today at hamfests for a modest price; however, I did not have one at the time of this entire craze, I soon found out there were at least two dozen stations around in the Louisville area alone that owned these little rigs.
I did some trading and found one of these little units so decided to play with it, back then the local frequency was 50.7 so I strung up the simplest of six-meter antennas a dipole in my back yard. It appeared the interest had spread and a large number of hams from Louisville and the surrounding towns of New Albany, Jeffersonville and Clarksville, Indiana were also checking in with some pretty good signals.
I held on to my six-meter rig for a few weeks, chatted with a few locals and then someone offered me some money for the rig. I had wanted a larger rig for HF, so I gladly parted company with the Heathkit and never saw it again.
About a year later I was doing some antenna work for the local Red Cross, I had another ham working with me who had a mobile six meter rig. At the Red Cross center they had a fixed rig for six and they monitored the local channel of 50.7 at that time. Six had apparently gone dead again since there was nothing on the frequency during the day, or evening. The craze for the Heathkit rigs was over, the band was dead, well not much interest peaked for the next few years.
Around 1968 I was visiting my former brother in law Tom, WA4ZVL (SK) in Hopkinsville, he had an interest in six meters and installed a three-element beam on his rooftop. We men left the wives for girl talk and made a venture upstairs to his shack to see what we could raise on six.
Tom swung his antenna around to the Southwest just to see who was out there, we heard nothing, so he called a general CQ hoping to raise a local station. What we both heard was a signal rising and falling rapidly with qsb. The signal peaked to about and s2 then down in to the noise then back up again. All we could hear was a definite accent, with a partial call of VK, Victor Kilo, then down into the noise. We returned to the signal, made a quick report and listened again, same results call was VK something, but faded away and never heard again. To this day I certainly believe that the caller was an Australian, but we could not raise anything again on six for the rest of the evening.
I put six in the back of my mind for a long time until 1990, I had purchased an Icom 736 and it had the six-meter band on it. I was in the process of installing new antennas for twenty and made a decision to also install a six-element six-meter beam over my mono bander twenty-meter antenna. The sixer rests at 78 feet, at the time I had heard six had come to life, so let me see what all the fuss is about and work something on the band.
Prior to getting the antenna on the tower I had placed it on a stepladder, to my amazement I worked a few stations in the Northeast with ease. I thought, well, if I can work the Northeast on a stepladder just think what this antenna will do on the tower.
So my six-meter journey began, that was in the 1990 era, since that time I have worked and confirmed 49 states, twenty-five countries and lots of grid squares. I am mobbed every time I work six, it seems that Kentucky is a rare state. My best dx on six has been Japan several times, amazing signals when the band opens. Europe is also very good when six is open and of course other areas of the world are there when this old band decides to favor us.
I had hoped to make 100 countries on six, but propagation has been poor and this venture has been on hold for some time. It may be some time before we have good openings on six for an extended period of time, be patient check the band often. Look at Dxscape for spots and see if the stations spotted, or doing the spotting are within your area, or at least the same state, or to the North of us. Sometimes you never know with six, just at the time you think the band is dead; it may come alive for a short time.
In the last year, not much, but spring is coming so let’s see what happens?
Catch you on six, make some noise and you might be surprised who is listening.
