What is the 6-meter Band?                                                6m beacons EU
(c) Randall Rhea, KR5RR
 

The 6 meter band is a portion of the  radio spectrum around 50 MHz allocated to amateur radio.  If you like a challenge, this is it!  If you want reliable, easy, worldwide ham radio communication, stick to 20 meters.  If you enjoy a  challenging band that changes moment to moment, 6m is for you!

What attracts hams to this unusual band?
 It is fascinating because just about all types of propagation pop up on 6m at one time or another: Sporadic E (Es), Tropospheric Ducting, Aurora, Meteors, even F2 skip like an HF band... they're all here. 6m is an acquired taste: a few hams work the band regularly, but many   never work it at all. Once you acquire the taste, you tend to be hooked for life. The band has become more popular in recent years,  thanks to several new 6m-capable radios. There two types of 6m operators: the ones who use FM or packet for local work, and ones  who work DX with SSB.  

HOW DO I KNOW IF THERE IS A DX OPENING?
 Of course, the best way is  to check for an opening is to listen to 6m.  Many beacons operate around the world between 50.0 and 50.1 MHz; check the ARRL Repeater  Directory.  Monitor 50.110, 50.125, and 50.200 for SSB openings. You can  also monitor 28.885 MHz, the "10 Meter VHF Liaison Frequency", where hams report VHF openings and schedule contacts. You'll hear some of those  "pros" you see in QST with the huge antenna farms like W5UN (the first  ham to work 100 countries on 2m!) on that frequency.


DO I NEED A BEAM ANTENNA?
If you want to win contests, yes. You can have fun with a vertical during openings, (I do with an Icom 706 in my car) but the pros use beams. Most serious operators are horizontally   polarized, but cross-polarization does not matter for Es, F2, or Aurora.  A few stations use 3-element beams, but a 4 or 5 element beam is so small  that a LOT of people use them. Quite a few people have Cushcraft 6-element "Boomers".

IS 6M NOISY?
External noise is fairly high at 50 MHz. It overrides
 the front-end noise figure on about all the rigs on the market today unless you have a LOT of cable loss or a VERY quiet location.

 
I LISTEN TO 6M OCCASIONALLY, BUT I NEVER HEAR ANYONE.
Openings on 6m are rare, especially during low points in the sunspot cycle. For  hams in far northern latitudes (say 50 degrees and above), aurora openings are common. The most common openings in middle and southern latitudes are a result of sporadic E (Es), which occurs most often  in June. F2 openings occur only when the solar flux is high. The frequency where you are most likely to hear someone is 50.110 USB.
 

HOW OFTEN ARE THERE F2 OPENINGS?
 F2 propagation, the kind that we  know and love on 20 meters, occurs rarely on 6m. Only at the peak  times of the sunspot cycle, a few years out of each eleven, does the
  band open up for F2. When it does happen, the band becomes a frenzy of activity, and behaves similar to 10 meters. In the last cycle,  there were many openings in 1989 through 1991, but that cycle had an  unusually long period of peak activity.  Cycles average 11 years, but the last peak happened only 8 years after the previous one.  Openings occur most often in December & January during the daytime when  the solar flux is at least above 150, preferably 200.  


HOW IS TROPO PROPAGATION ON 6M?
 The ordinary ground-wave tropospheric ducting range on six isn't quite as great as on 2m.  There are a number of reasons. Since there are so many other  propagation modes on six, people don't try very hard on tropo. Antenna  gain often is higher on two. Noise is lower on two. At least in the summer, stations like W3BWU (Pittsburgh), W3IDZ (northern NJ) are  easily worked from Maryland with the beam pointing at them, and can  be heard at almost any pointing. They are in the 150-W class.

 
HOW IS AURORA?
It is much easier than on two. SSB is usually  intelligible, but CW is easier to work.  Point north about dusk,  most commonly in March and October/November.  (In northern Europe,  hams report Aurora peaks around dusk and again around midnight.)  Lots of people in the far northern latitudes work this mode when it  happens.  Aurora can occur as far south as the mid-U.S. during bad  solar storms.  The March, 1989 storm was so powerful that Aurora was visible in San Francisco and power was knocked out all over Canada.

WHAT ABOUT SPORADIC E (Es)?
Es is the most common propagation mode on 6m. The term "sporadic" is accurate: stations can pop in and out and then fade quickly. Studies (see March, 1993 -QST- Magazine) have  shown that Es has nothing to do with the sunspot cycle; it is much more a function of the time of year. Es can occur anytime, but is most common around the solstices (June 21 and December 21).  In the  southern latitudes, the peak occurs around Christmas with a minor peak in June.  The northern latitudes find peak times in June and July with a minor peak at Christmas.  February is the low point, but e.g. in 1997, we even had a good opening then.  In addition to the common single-hop range of 500 - 1500 miles, there are quite a  few double- and-more hop contacts on 6m.  The VHF contest in the middle of June is also a good time to work Es. Within two weeks of the Winter and Summer Solstice (June 21 and December 21), you should be  monitoring 50.110 as often as possible; this is the most common time  and frequency for Es.  If the stations on 10m are 500 miles away, you can be  virtually certain that 6m is open.  Likewise, a station on 6m from 500 miles away means Es on 2m is possible.

Provisions for 50MHz (6m) operation
in Austria

Since 1st of August 1996 test-operation within the frequency band 50-52MHz outside of a defined reduced protected area  has been allowed.  

 

Technical features for operation on 50 MHz in Austria: