6m antenna polarization question
Chris Bauer
One of the reasons I purchased my FT100 was to start exploring 6 meters. My
question to the group is this: which antenna polarization is more popular??
I'm assuming horizontal--of course, I have a 50-50 shot at this. If it is
horizontal, has anyone had decent luck with a dipole, or should I look
around for a commercial 6 m antenna?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Chris
K2CJB
Howard Karse
Chris,
If you intend to work sideband than horizontal is correct. A dipole
will work decently, and you can be on the air quickly with it. My
best result was using the 1/4-wave matching stub/balun described in
the ARRL Antenna Book (Chapter 26 of the 17th Edition). Took a few
hours to build & put up (I only had it up about 10 feet, suspended
between the eaves of my home and garage) and worked many single hop
contacts in the 700 to 1000 mile range during Sporadic-E conditions.
My suggestion is to make a dipole and use it while you decide which
commercial antenna you wish to use. Would hate to see you miss out on
any action while shopping 8-}
Good luck & 73,
Howard KE6MAK
Ralph Mowery
horizontal and in the FM area (usually above 52 MHz) it is
vertical. You will have to have two antennas to get the best of
both modes. When 6 meters is open for skip, it dose not seem to
really make much differance what is used. One problem with 6 meters
is that the band is wide enough that most antennas will not work
without a high swr over the whole band. Decide if you want to work
the local ssb stuff out to about 250 miles or work the FM mode and
put up an antenna for that part of the band. Six is alot like 10
meters, if the band is not open, you need a good high antenna to
work very far unless you are in a good location. When the band
opens, you can work the areas is it open on almost nothing. My
first contact was when I had just finished up a transverter running
about 10 watts and decided to hook it up to a 40-10 meter trap
dipole just to see if I could hear anything. The band was open and
I worked a Canadian from North Carolina. Put up a dipole that I
culd rotate and could work to about 50 miles from where I live. I
am on a small rise that is about 200 feet above the average ground
height and only have my antenna up about 25 feet. Put up a 5
element beam on a 16 foot boom now and it seems to wrok fine but
like I said it is cut for the ssb area and is only good for about 1
mhz before the swr goes up too high. That is not a probelm for me
as I only operate ssb and most contacts are made on 50.125. Seems
that from 50.1 to 50.2 is where all the ssb activity is unless the
band really opens. The DX calling frequncy is 50.110 and you may
hear some becons from 50.0 to 50.1.
Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.
The other posts to your question answered it fairly accurately!
I am chiming in to let you know what antenna I use and how it operates
both horizontal and vertical and at both ends of the band on the same
antenna with low swr.
You can pull the plans from my web-page
http://archimedes.galilei.com/raiar if you like.
I use an all copper mirror-image-J, it is two full size J-Poles in
height, center mounted on a PVC boom, thus it can be turned from
vertical to horizontal, mine is automated using a free solenoid,
cobbed from the brake of an old norge washer and two screen door
springs to make the counterbalance and overcenter return loading to
pull it back to vertical.
I normally use the antenna in the vertical position, even on sideband
when the band is open, however, in the vertical position, swr is a
little high in the 50 dot area but quite low 1.5 to 1 in the 52 dot
area. If I swing the antenna to horizontal, I have the opposite
effect, swr is 1.3 to 1 in the 50 dot area, and much higher 2 to 1 at
52 dot.
I really don't know if it was dumb luck, the location, or the nature
of the beast that makes it work as it does. I can get the swr down to
1.1 to 1, but doing so throws the other end of the band over tolerable
limits. So you load it up vertical and set it as low as you can get
it, then swing it to horizontal and set that as low as you can get it.
Then make your final adjustment 1/2 way between those two points.
There is one small glitch at 51.135 the swr spikes at 7 to 1 but is
perfectly fine at 51.125 and 51.145 where it is around 1.8 or 1.9 to
1, needle does not hit the dot under the 2.
The cost to make this antenna is around $7.00 in copper and a buck in
PVC. It is a side mounted antenna so it does not take up valuable top
real estate on the tower. It can be mounted from an eave, the side of
a tower, into a hole in the tree, almost anywhere really. Since it is
soldered together it won't vibrate apart, and it just slips into a
hole drilled through the PVC pipe using the tuning stub as the mount,
solder the pipe cap on after placing the antenna in the hole and it
won't walk away some night.
TTUL - 73+ de Gary - KGØZP
Chris Bauer
"abc" from my email address to reply that way....ooops.
Anyway, sounds like I need to be able to work the band both H and V. No
problem. Can't wait to start tinkering around with this one. I was working
a guy in Chicago tonight on 10 who said 6 was open midwest to east. He
suggested a Mosely 6m beam. I think I may just experiment with the antennas
for a bit. It's been a while since the hobby has given me that opportunity,
and 6m antennas are relatively small and easy to work with.
Thanks again everyone. 73
Chris
K2CJB
Rick Kissell
Chris Bauer wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> One of the reasons I purchased my FT100 was to start exploring 6 meters. My
> question to the group is this: which antenna polarization is more popular??
> I'm assuming horizontal--of course, I have a 50-50 shot at this. If it is
> horizontal, has anyone had decent luck with a dipole, or should I look
> around for a commercial 6 m antenna?
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice.
>
> Chris
> K2CJB
Polarization depends on mode. FM uses vertical, the other modes use
horizontal. I can tell you from personal experience that using the "wrong"
polarization will severely limit your local groundwave work, although it's much
less significant during band openings.
If you're new to Six, you might want to consider purchasing a copy of "Six
Meters: A Guide to the Magic Band" by Ken Neubeck, WB2AMU. It's available
on-line at http://www.wr6wr.com or via the mail ($14 postpaid) from:
Worldradio Books
Box 189490
Sacramento, CA 95818
73 de WB9GYT
Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.
I have both a 3 element beam and the mirrored-J, most of the time, the
mirrored-J outperforms the beam on DX, but on local, the beam do make
a big difference.
So if you plan on doing mostly DX, when it's in of course, you may
still be better off with a vertical.
TTUL
Gary