17/5/23 8pm How to work DX on 6m – Chris Deacon G4IFX
Chris G4IFX represents the UKSMG and will be giving a talk about the just-beginning summer season on 50MHz. This band needs some prior knowledge before speding too much time, effort and money on it – contacts can amaze, like a HF band, yet other times be a total disapointment. Chris will be aiming to help us get the best out of the band, when and how.
UK Six Meter Group (UKSMG) aims are:
- to encourage operation on the Six Metre Band,
- to publicise and exchange information relating this band with other users,
- to bring to the attention of appropriate official bodies any special aspects associated with Six
- Metre Band operation which merit attention.
The about us page states this:
The main aim of the Group is to encourage 6m activity in all countries throughout the world. In the early 1980s most European countries did not have a 6m allocation. Citing the UK as an example, many European amateurs were writing letters to their regulatory bodies in an attempt to persuade them to give access to 6m. A common request to UKSMG has been for material to help them with their cases and significant work was done by the UKSMG to support local applications for licenses.
An area of major activity for the Group is the supply of beacons and equipment. Many beacons have been constructed by enthusiastic amateurs and shipped to various parts of the world. Most of these beacons remain active today.
Another focus area for the Group and an increasingly important one is the provision of financial donations to 6m operators activating new countries, usually through the mechanism of a DXpedition. Sponsorship takes the lion’s share of our funds after the cost of producing and distributing Six News.
The annual Sporadic E contest held in early June has proven to be the main contest of the year on 6m. The contest is open to members and non-members alike and has been particularly successful when the contest has coincided with sporadic-E as it has done several times in the last few years.
Six News, the Group’s quarterly newsletter and the UKSMG website have been the backbone of the Group and Six News in particular is the reason many members join the Group. There have been several editors since it’s inception but since the 1990s it has developed into a singularly impressive quarterly magazine. The web site has also changed over the years culminating in what we hope is a user friendly site carrying a wealth of information about the 6m band.
In June 2019 the UK Six Metre Group comprised 573 members world-wide who pay subscriptions each year; these go towards the activities listed above. This undoubtedly makes us the largest organisation anywhere focusing on 6m in the world today. Our ambition is to increase membership and interest in the ‘Magic Band’. Help us to achieve this ambition and become a member today. If you would like to find out more about the Group, check out the links on this page
