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DF3CB on Six Meters
Header DX

DXing on Six Meters

     
1A0KM
3DA0FR
5R8FU
5T6M
7O/DL7ZM
8Q7KB
9E1S
9M2JKL
9M6BAA
AP2AM
BM6GJL
C98DC
CE2/VE7SV
CY0X
D68C
E21EIC
E30TA
FH/TU5AX
FY/W7XU
HB0/DF0FA
HC8N
HH4/W3CMP
HP1AC
JA9IPF
JW/DL3NRV
JX7DFA
K6MIO/KH6
K7JA
KH7R
KL7KY
NH7RO
OA4TT
ST0R
ST2SA
SV2ASP/A
TG9AJR
TJ3AY
TS7N
TU2T
VE7SL
VK6JQ
VU2ZAP
XE1KK
XT2OW
XV3AA
XW0X
YA4F
YI9OM
ZD8SIX

Perseverance - Patience - Propagation

What does Six Meters mean? Speaking of the 48th latitude basically waiting and waiting and even more waiting. Waiting for the one one- or two-minute opening that might happen (mostly not). Six meters is a challenge of its own because propagation is not at all or hardly predictable and you "have to be there" at the right time.

I like to call it the Tragic Band, when you live in latitudes with rare good openings and when others, just a few kilometers away, work the DX and you hear nothing at all because propagation can be so extremely selective. But there are always unexpected surprises which compensate the frustration of an empty band with no signals for long periods of times. Many people then speak of the Magic Band. I call it rather Sexy Meters.

So you first of all need the three P’s: perseverance, patience and propagation. Some hardware can also be quite useful.

DF3CB station

Current setup: M² 6M8GJ, YAESU FTDX5000MP, microHAM KEYER III

My radio neighbor Thomas, DL7AV, got me interested in 6 Meters, since he devoted most of his radio career to that magic band and I began my activity on Sexy Meters in October 1998 after purchasing an ICOM IC-706 and installing a 6-meter 5 element M² Yagi on top of my highest tower.

Objectives

My main interests on Six Meters are the DXCC for the DXCC Challenge, the WAZ (Worked All Zones) award and chasing grids for the VUCC award. Completed my WAS (Worked All States) award in 2022 and all prefectures for the WAJA (Worked All Japan) award on Six in 2021.

Antennas

I've been using a 5 element M² yagi on top of my highest tower from 1998 until 2007 with great results. However, escpecially in years of low sunspot activity and no F2, every dB counts and we took it down:

The 5 element M² had a 5 meter boom and I wanted to try out a 10 meter boom yagi:

On July 7, 2007 we installed a new 6m yagi, a 7 element I0JXX design antenna on a 10m boom. First QSO was 1A0KM on July 13 as DXCC entity #172.

I was however never happy with the quality and performance of this antenna and installed a M² 6M8GJ, a 8 element on a 13m/42’ 8“ boom in June 2011. It is mounted above the Force 12 interlaced 3 element 40m and 6 element 20m yagi.

This is finally a very, very good antenna. Click here to see more pictures of the assembly and installation.

DXCC

I set my goal to achieve DXCC on 6m. In late October 2000, after a very good DX season, I had worked 26 WAZ zones and reached my 100th DXCC entity after a QSO with Nodir, EY8MM. Nodir visited us in August 2005.

6m DXCC DF3CB

The winter 2001/2002 season brought another bunch of incredible F2 openings into Asia, Central and North America which increased my country total to 136 DXCC entities and 32 zones.

I've reached 200 current DXCC entities (plus two deleted) on June 23, 2012. See my 6m QSL Collection and the table on the right. Some of the most remarkable openings were on March 29th, 2002, when we were able to work KH7R, K6MIO/KH6 and NH7RO long path in a 40-minute opening, on July 8th, 2003 my first Zone 3 contact with VE7SL, with KL7KY on July 3rd, 2014. See the specials page.

You have to be there at the right time but in real life you can't. So I missed a few DXCC entities and some of them by just a few minutes, for example VQ9, V73AT and others.

WAZ

6m WAZ DF3CB

I've confirmed 37 WAZ Zones, all terrestrial contacts, no EME.

6m worked zones DF3CB

The last two new ones were Zone 12 in 2012 (CE2/VE7SV) and Zone 1 on July 3, 2014 (KL7KY). We have had propagation to ZL (Zone 32) on Feb 3, 2002 SP coming as close as S5, 9A and I1 but the signals didn't make it to here. The first time I could decode Zone 32 was FK8CP on March 10, 2023 and 3D2AG on May 30, 2023.

WAS

6m worked states DF3CB

I have reached the 6m WAS #1653 in 2022 with 49 US states confirmed in LoTW and one paper QSL from Nebraska after a very successful sporadic-E season 2022.

Grids Squares and VUCC Award

I started late but I began to collect grid squares for the VUCC Award in 2022. Currently 107 fields worked and 1070+ squares. I have applied the VUCC 50 MHz Award in August 2023 with 900 LoTW credits.

6m worked fields DF3CB

Next goals

  • Zone 18, 19 and 32 (ZL, 3D2, FK)
  • Africa: 9U, S7, S9
  • Asia: 9V, S2, XX9
  • North America: 4U1UN, HR, KG4, YN, YS
  • South America: CP
6m DXCC
1998
1 DL
2 TZ
3 EA
4 9G
5 ZS
6 CT
7 C5
8 G
9 OH
10 SM
1999
11 OE
12 OK
13 F
14 EU
15 ES
16 UA
17 7Q
18 5H
19 S5
20 EA9
21 I
22 9H
23 5A
24 V5
25 LZ
26 ER
27 5B
28 SV
29 LA
30 LY
31 OY
32 EI
33 VE
34 K
35 4X
36 KP4
37 GI
38 KP2
39 SP
40 9J
41 OM
42 UR
43 3C
44 5X
45 TR
46 GD
47 HB
48 UN
2000
49 Z2
50 LU
51 PY
52 YO
53 ZA
54 CT3
55 GM
56 OD
57 SV9
58 Z3
59 ON
60 PA
61 GW
62 ZD7
63 ZC4
64 CN
65 EA6
66 FH
67 JY
68 9A
69 3A
70 4L
71 JW
72 OH0
73 YL
74 OZ
75 HB0
76 5V
77 XT
78 J2
79 VR
80 FR
81 E3
82 ET
83 ST
84 VK
85 XU
86 DU
87 FY
88 CU
89 A4
90 E7
91 9M6
92 BY
93 EY
94 9M2
95 ZD8
96 3V
2001
97 D6
98 SU
99 TT
100 EK
101 FG
102 ZB2
103 OJ0
104 SV5
105 GU
106 HZ
107 TA
108 5R
109 IS0
110 GJ
111 C9
112 3DA
113 JA
114 EA8
115 HP
116 YV
117 UK
118 VU
119 D4
120 XW
121 YB
122 XE
123 HC8
124 TG
125 6Y
126 * PJ2,4,9
127 P4
2002
128 8P
129 FM
130 9Y
131 6W
132 YU
133 JT
134 EX
135 LX
136 3W, XV
137 5N
138 7P
139 KH6
140 D2
141 JX
142 FS
143 YI
144 PY0F
145 3X
146 9L
2003
147 4U1ITU
148 T7
149 TF
150 A6
151 C6
152 YA
153 S0
154 5T
155 A7
2004
156 7X
157 SV/A
158 J7
2005
159 HA
2006
160 HI
161 C3
162 VP2V
163 V4
164 VP5
165 CO
166 4O
2007
167 HV
168 V2
169 VP2E
170 * PJ5-8
171 J8
172 1A
2008
173 CY0
174 ZF
175 FJ
2009
176 TN
177 OA
178 TL
179 4J, 4K
180 8R
181 J3
182 VP9
2010
183 A9
184 9K
185 E4
186 PZ
2011
187 TJ
188 PJ2
189 PJ4
190 OX
191 PJ7
192 PJ5,6
193 Z8
194 TY
195 TU
196 EL
2012
197 6O,T5
198 CX
199 3B8
200 TK
201 CE
202 HH
203 HL,DS
204 5U
2013
205 HK
2014
206 ZP
207 KL7
2015
208 9Q
209 3B9
210 5Z
2016
211 BV
212 HS
2017
213 AP
2018
214 Z6
215 KH2
2019
216 UA9,0
217 J6
218 TI
219 4S
220 V3
2021
221 HC
222 9N
223 J5
2022
224 9X
225 7O
226 JD-O
227 FP
2023
228 VP2M
229 8Q
230 VP8
231 A2