6 meters

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 08:52:42 -0400, jim breeyear wrote in :

Not yet.

I've had about ten flights on 04 this season. Not a lot of data to go by. I hope that my TX would override any signals floating in from the ionosphere. ;o)

Marty KC2NEB

| On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 08:52:42 -0400, jim breeyear wrote | in : | | >The six meter band has been having sporadic E openings lately. Worked | >lots of grid squares. Anyone noticed that it seems someone else is | >flying your airplane while on 6 meters?

I haven't. All the mistakes were clearly my own! (No mistakes serious enough to cause a crash, however, though I did smack my plane's stab with my hand during a winch launch sunday -- I'm lucky I didn't break it! But I can't blame that on the radio ...)

| I've had about ten flights on 04 this season. Not a lot of | data to go by. I hope that my TX would override any | signals floating in from the ionosphere. ;o)

Yeah, me too. Considering that the only signals that are right on our frequencies ought to be from other R/C transmitters, anything that floats in from a long way off ought to be several orders of magnitude weaker than our own transmitter's signal.

The receiver you use to make your 6 meter contacts is probably much more sensitive than our R/C receivers, and it probably has a much better antenna. I assume you can tune it to the R/C part of the band? Can it do FM? (If not, I guess CW or SSB would work, but the signal would sound distorted) It might be interesting to see how far away your R/C transmitter can get and your ham rig can still detect it's signal. I suspect it can go quite a bit further than a R/C receiver ...

Supposedly a bad sunspot time right now. I havent noticed any hits on 6 meters but havent actually flown in several weeks...

No more than when ducting is occurring on the four meter band.

Ed Cregger

Well, I have been flying on 53.4 for decades...and no problems...using both JR late model stuff and some older Ace Silver Seven AM receivers, too. Sunddenly lately I have been knocked all over the sky..this never happened...but now it is terrible.I could not fly on this channel at all. An IFR spectrum analyser showed nothing at the field on this channel...there was a strong signal on 52 mhz from an airport marker beacon nearby..but nothing on a monitor or the IFR anywhere near oron the low end of of 6 meters..or on or near 53.4. Gave up and moved everything to 00 and 07 and JR was very good about changing my numerous JR 53.4 receiver and TX modules over to 00 and 07 and I just retired the 53.4 Silver Seven and 53.4 EK stuff that has served me so well.... I have no explanation for this problem but I barely got my planes back when on 53.4...and I tried a number of receivers and so on...always with unexplained down elevator, snap rolls and so on...very scary... Frank Schwartz AMA 123 and W4KFK (Since 1946) in Hendersonville, TN...flying R/C on 53.4 since the early 60's..up until now....

Ed...and all....well, it is hard to figure out. Our field is pretty much in an isolated area...not much going on for half mile any any direction...so...after getting all my JR stuff that was on 53.4 changed over by the fine fellows at JR and flying a new scratch built

40 size plane with one of those new RCV or whatever british four strokes, with retracts...and on 07 with as new module in the tx and the newly factory fixed receiver...I got bumped all over the place yesterday.......dadgummit!!! I give up. I am going to put all my six meter stuff aside and fly on channel 34 andf 52 and the like where I never get a glitch...maybe by fall whatever it is that is polluting the air at our field will pass and I will try it again...I have a beat up trainer that I use as a test plane for radios. I bought two of those Sombra Shadow 3 receivers on 72 mhz at Toledo and they checked out in my test plane like gang busters...super good range and all that..plus three fail safe modes available in a package the size of a paper book of matches. Plus I am also going to order one of those Polks radios.. Saw them atToledo but didn't have the money then... Six meters will have to wait.... Regards... Frank Schwartz

Sorry to hear that the six meter problem persists. Did you try the low end of six? Or was your gear checked out and returned on the high end of six meters? Just curious.

Like I mentioned before, I tend to stick with four meters these days, but I haven't had any problem with the low end of six meters. I just like to be able to hand someone a transmitter without worrying about the legalities of improper use of six meters and the possible effect it could have on our insurance and my ham ticket. Probably none, but I worry about stupid stuff every day.

It sounds as though you may have been a ham when I was in high school, Frank.

Ed Cregger

Ed...and all: Yes: I have been a ham...and active, too...since I returned from WW2..I got my ticket in 1946...Had been a radar/radioman on a PT boat..among other posts,in the Phillippines during the war..Later aboard a PCE (small like a destroyer) I found an ARRL Handbook and became fascinated with ham radio. Then when the war was over, before I returned home, I used to monitor the ham bands from out in the Pacific and probably the first thing I did when I got home, besides trying to find civilian clothes, was get my ticket and set about building my first transmitter. I had been building model planes, rubber and gas, since I was a small boy and I remember, when I as in boot camp being taken out to the lake front (Great Lakes, IL) and a target drone (OQ-2) was flying and we were supposed to shoot it down...I really didn't want to hit it and see it "go in"..I tried to get transferred to one of the target unitsafter I got out of electronics school..but no luck...went out in the Pacific where the Japs were trying to kill us...if we didn't get them first. Once back home, along with ham radio, I started experimenting with radio control...got my first successful flight in 1948 (it went up and we got it back) and built my own stuff until digital equipment came along...I could tell you the "rest of the story"..but probably would be boring to most readers....anyhow...remember I was flying with bad results on 53.4 and had my equipment changed over by JR to 00 and

07...flight two days ago on 07 was just as bad.... haven't tried 00 and have some Futaba on 00 that I have not tried. FWIW the JR is single conversion and the Futaba is double conversion....so for the time being, I will be flying on 72..and 27..and 27 with excellent results...nobody there but me...for information on the 27 mhz equipment available l(plenty of it and very good, too)(my own little secret)..I can share it with you readers, or if it is just you, ED, give me your email and I will send you the "rest of the story" and the 27 mhz information which might be of real interest to you...or other R/C'rs.. Best to you and other readers...a great 4th of July to everyone..God Bless our Country. Frank Schwartz AMA123 W4KFK in Hendersonville, TN

Wow, you were a ham the year I was born, 1946. Neat.

My first R/C systems were on 27.195 MHz. In the metropolitan areas, I don't know if I would want to chance running that band with 72 MHz available. Then again, I haven't checked out the CB scene in quite a while. It may be empty on that band, except for the truckers.

If you don't mind sharing the thoughts that you have on the group, I would be interested. If you do, send them to me at snipped-for-privacy@homtail.com. Reverse the m and the t, please.

Thanks for the bio. There are some very experienced and knowledgable people on the newsgroup.

Ed Cregger, NM2K

Frank, Do you possibly have hits from a radar installation?? I used to live near a SAC base and at times i could hear the search antenna magnetron pulse in some of my ham receivers. The current crop of search radars may be operating differently today ....i dont know. It has been a long time

40 plus yrs since i have had anything to do with military radar and hf. I used to have a high pulse noise level in the GRC 26 vans from the radars. Just a thought. Jim W1HRM

Jim: No, there is nothing nearby...EXCEPT an airport marker beacon on 75 mhz..dead on...I can see a weak signal from it on 52 mhz, but it is steady and has no modulation. The beacon is aboout 1500 feet off the end of our field runway...and has been there for years...we have never had a problem with it. No spurious signals otherwise. The whole scenario of no longer being able to fly on 53.4 or o7 with the JR radios is really strange, to say the least. Now, I know the JR is single conversion and also the old Silver Seven 53.4 AM units I flew with were all gettiing "hits". I have some Futraba on 00..dual conversion, have not tried them yet...but will this weekend... I have decided to "temporarily retire" my JR 6 meter stuff until fall and see if propogation or something else that might have been bothering the radios has passed...or something... In the meantime..I am flying on 72 mhz..and 27 mhz, too...nobody on 27 any more but me!!! Getting great results and no hits on 27..also I can give anyone who isintersted the stock number of the Futaba module that fits the 7UAF and 5UAF and later transmitters to get on 27 mhz..and receivers are on ebay , four channels that work with it for about 25 bucks each...and I have tested all this and flown it...and am flying it...works just great... Goodbye 6 meters..for a while.. Frank Schwartz W4KFK