Posted: 6/18/2026 1:33:41 PM EDT
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Never really looked into getting on 60m, but now that I have radios that will do it (FT-710/891) I might like to give it a try. thoughts and inputs welcome from those that know something. |
MIA: M/SGT James W. Holt USSF 2-7-68 SVN
"Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from you."
-A. Wilkow
"Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from you."
-A. Wilkow
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I have not, but I'm just a lowly tech... In efforts to learn a lil something, What's the interest in 60m vs 40 or 80m? |
LARUEMINATI
NRA Endowment Life Member
Originally Posted By Boom_Stick:
""AKs are for villagers you have to tell not to shit in their water supply.""
NRA Endowment Life Member
Originally Posted By Boom_Stick:
""AKs are for villagers you have to tell not to shit in their water supply.""
It's a great band for when your afternoon or evening rag chew with the boys is not working on either 40 or 80  100W limit. It's channelized. I don't remember off the top of my head the de facto and entirely unofficial band plan, but one channel tends towards FT8, and others toward voice. It's obviously not as popular a band as others, but it works perfectly well. It's a great band to have when the optimum NVIS freq. is between 40 and 80. |
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum."
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I love 60 meters. It has a 100 watt limit, but not from the transmitter, it is "100 watt Effective Radiated Power relative to a 1/2 wave dipole", which as 2.1 db gain relative to an isotropic antenna. So isn't very clear to me, but I think it means you need to radiate no more than 100 watts in the main lobe of the antenna. If the antenna is a 1/2 wave dipole in free space ( which none of them are ) you have to add the power applied to the antenna and multiply it by the gain. So that means you can subtract the loss in the transmission line. With a zero loss transmission line, zero loss of a tuner you can apply 61 watts to the antenna that has a 2.1 db gain ( 1/2 wave dipole ) and have an effective Radiated Power of 100 watts. If you are tuning the antenna and lose 3 db of power in the tuner and coax you can transmit 122 watts and get 100 watts ERP. Of course nobody actually does this. I think most people make some pretty generous estimates on tuner and coax loss and compensate for those estimated losses and under estimate the antenna gain, because i see a shit load of splatter from amps on 60 meters  For example, I tune my 270 foot doublet fed with 600 ohm open line to 60 meters. I estimate the loss in my tuner to be 1.5 db and assume I have many small lobes and just pick the biggest one and estimate that to be 1.5 db so I transmit 100 watts from the amp and hope for the best, in minecraft.
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Mach
Nobody is coming to save us.
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Nobody is coming to save us.
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Originally Posted By Prolix: I transmit 100 watts from the amp and hope for the best, in minecraft. Brother, we will do our best to come see you on visiting days and keep some money on your books for commissary. |
Mach
Nobody is coming to save us.
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Nobody is coming to save us.
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I've made some contacts on 60 Meters, CW. Not usually much going on there CW/ SSB wise, so I don't seek it out. On my 84' endfed it seems like 80 Meters Lite as far as propagation goes (<600 miles) and awfully noisy to boot. I keep the pre-amps off if I'm on 60. I thought there was a rule change in effect for 60M beginning in January? |
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I tried to get the weekly net to try 60m during the winter when 40m often goes long by net time but nobody seemed interested. The little international band that was approved has a One of the major purposes of the band was supposed to be interoperability with gov/mil during disasters but that has never been done other than one test that was done years ago. Originally Posted By Prolix: If whatever effort that went into creating a 60m amateur allocation had been expended on enlarging our 30m band and adding phone, we might be getting somewhere useful. At least to me, a Sad Ham. After Hurricane Maria hit PR and the communications issues that resulted from that, and the 60m interoperability test that was done I made just that point - that a few 30m SSB channels were needed, even if they were limited to disaster-only use. There are some frequencies that were previously used by MARS that could readily be repurposed into designated disaster channels with interoperability as well. I'm not in charge of anything but if I was, that interoperability test would be done on an annual basis in conjunction with Field Day - have some specified times when the mil stations would call a net and just check in once for bonus points on one of the 60m (and/or additional 30m etc) interop channels just like the previous test was done. |
This is...a clue - Pat_Rogers
I'm not adequately aluminumized for this thread. - gonzo_beyondo
CO, MI, OR - Please lobby your legislators to end discrimination against non-resident CCW permit holders
I'm not adequately aluminumized for this thread. - gonzo_beyondo
CO, MI, OR - Please lobby your legislators to end discrimination against non-resident CCW permit holders
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I think I'm just going to start out listening, see whats going on... this is what the ARRL has to say about it: https://www.arrl.org/60m-channel-allocation |
MIA: M/SGT James W. Holt USSF 2-7-68 SVN
"Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from you."
-A. Wilkow
"Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from you."
-A. Wilkow
|
After Hurricane Maria hit PR and the communications issues that resulted from that, and the 60m interoperability test that was done I made just that point - that a few 30m SSB channels were needed, even if they were limited to disaster-only use. My gist was that a 100kHz allocation on 30m with ~80kHz available for SSB would be an orgasmically good band for us phone guys, especially QRP/portable types. I'd gladly give up 60 and 12m to get it. Hey - I can dream, and thread-slide... |
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Got my first 60M SSB contact tonight. A very prolific POTA activator who is typically within 200 miles of me, went out this evening and activated on 40M. I could not hear him. Then I saw he was on 60M, but he was spotted at 5373.0. He was actually at 5371.5. Due to my ignorance of the 60M band, I had to figure out that it is USB, and what the actual channels are. My IC-7300 will transmit on them, but it sure doesn't know about 60M. Although I could not hear him on 40M, I did get him at 55 on 60M. The antenna was a 40M EFHW, flat top, which my MFJ 993B tuner promptly made a 60M antenna. He was about 150 miles from according to my logging software.
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Originally Posted By TVille: Got my first 60M SSB contact tonight. A very prolific POTA activator who is typically within 200 miles of me, went out this evening and activated on 40M. I could not hear him. Then I saw he was on 60M, but he was spotted at 5373.0. He was actually at 5371.5. Due to my ignorance of the 60M band, I had to figure out that it is USB, and what the actual channels are. My IC-7300 will transmit on them, but it sure doesn't know about 60M. Although I could not hear him on 40M, I did get him at 55 on 60M. The antenna was a 40M EFHW, flat top, which my MFJ 993B tuner promptly made a 60M antenna. He was about 150 miles from according to my logging software.At least that is what I do. |
Mach
Nobody is coming to save us.
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Nobody is coming to save us.
.