W8JH (Ohio) wrote: "I have not had ANY luck on 6 meters with K3 # 1713. I had been listening with my 80m horizontal loop, which my Palstar BT-1500 tunes to a flat SWR on 6m. Nothing heard over a full year. Since I still couldn't hear anything I built a 6m dipole a couple days ago and still no luck."
===== As the Real Estate people say: the three most important things are location, location, and location. When people call 6 meters "the magic band" they never say whether they mean "white" or "black" magic. My k3 (which I assume is an "average" K3) is a very good listener on 6. I do have the external preamp, but don't use it more than about 20% of the time.Sometimes it seems as if you can work stations on 6 with a dummy load, and that is true...I once (successfully) worked a 10 hour opening on 6 meters with the coax switch set to my tribander! (The dummy load in that case was *me*.) I do notice that dx-Sherlock never shows much in the way of end points in the Ohio area. Local noon +/- is a good time to listen, and I do work into IN and IL from western MA, FN32, but I can't recall working OH in the last month or so. I don't ever hear the beacons in that area. Black magic! If all else fails, you could check the K3 with a calibrated signal generator and attenuator pads. There has been some general discussion of antenna height. My 6 meter beam is at about 25 feet, therefore well over a wavelength above physical ground. No doubt a 110 foot tower would lend some advantage, but my tolerant neighbors might not like me so well. I think my collapsible flagpole/TV rotator gives a good account of its self. John Ragle -- W1ZI ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
