Yes, summer time not only means cricket on the radio, it also means dx on the magic band; and the band is open for business! The last two weeks have seen opening right around the country and over to ZL and FK8.
I've never been much of a VHF operator, but with a simple vertical antenna on six and blowing the dust of the 50mHz button on my IC736 I'm up there working dx. Unfortunately, my experiment with a 1/2 wave "bazooka" antenna on six hasn't gone my way, so I have been using my 1/2wave, centre-fed from 28mHz...and guess what - it works!
You see, the beauty of six is that you don't need a super antenna system to begin with. One local Brisbane op was telling me about working FK8 some time ago on 5w into a 5/8 vertical cut for 2m. Yep, when the magic band is open, it's open for almost all comers.
Now that's not to say you should stay with a vertical. In my case I'm in the process of building a single element delta loop - a bit more gain and largely incognito for the xyl and the neighbours. A really simple antenna with all the dimensions calculated by KA1FSB's website on loop antenna design.
Well, got to get back to the workshop bench, finish the delta loop and listen to Kerry O'Keefe and the fifth game of the Ashes.
