I am a very casual 6M operator, but, living in Michigan with a sister in Columbus, OH, I can give a bit of ground truth.
I have a FT8900 (and sometimes FT100) in my car and have yet to get into the Toledo 6M repeater even when driving right through Toledo. The Lima, Ohio repeater is good, but would probably be out of range for you. Unfortunately 6M has many conficting band plans. In Ohio, repeaters are -1.0 MHz. In Michigan they are -0.500 MHz. There are also states where they are 1.7 MHz. With a Yagi at 25 ft, you should be able to make contacts when the band is open and there is someone at the other end of the open band. Most of my 6M contacts have been using just a mobile whip. This is enough for some contacts when the band is open. Last summer I repaired the antenna for someone who does much more 6M than I. She just used a coax fed 160M dipole about 40 feet up. That is admittedly higher than you, but when you figure in the coax loss, I would think you have better. Big towers and mast mounted preamps do help in marginal openings, yes. But some of the magic of 6M is that sometimes you get really GOOD openings where you don't need any fancy equipment. The thing is that there will often be days when you hear nothing. The most important thing is to listen for the openings. Of course, if everyone is listening and no one calls CQ, nothing happens, so give that a try sometimes too. Other than that, if you want to do something else, the first thing I would check is your coax... But now 6 should open to Florida or Texas for you fairly often. Ken McGuire KC8LTL -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/6-meters-Newbie-tp5244084p5248776.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ 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
