6m radios

[Gary Chatters]

Tom Azlin, N4ZPT wrote:
> There is one 6 meter repeater up in Maryland, the MARC 53.270 repeater, 
> that we were using for an activity night. Was some activity before the 
> summer simplex on 52.51 just below the 52.525 calling frequency.
>
> 73. Tom
>   

There should be a small increase in 6M activity on the north side of the 
Potomac in the near future.  A small group of us who frequent the 
Goddard ARC repeater have been buying and converting old commercial 
radios to 6M and 10M.  The primary model of interest is the Motorola 
Syntor X.  This is a heavy trunk mount style radio capable of 110 watts 
output.  One feature of particular interest is the fact that it is 
rather broadband and will cover both 6M and 10M.  You can program in 
both 6M and 10M channels and switch between them without any retuning.  
The antenna is more of a problem. 

The Syntor X uses EEPROM modules for programming.  Thus, it is necessary 
to have a EEPROM programmer and you have to compute the bit patterns.  
But you do not need any Motorola software.  More recently some of us 
have been working on the Syntor X9000.  This version is software 
programmable.  It has an advantage in having an 11 character 
alphanumeric display so you can program in something indicative of the 
actual frequency rather than just having a channel number.

We have been working on these for quite some time and are just now 
getting to the point of actually using them.  One guy recently installed 
one in his van.  One has his set up in his car up in Pennsylvania.  I am 
occasionally getting on from home and will eventually get one in the car.

We are only starting to learn about the level of activity.  Here is my 
current impression:

Simplex:

Use of simplex seems to be more popular on 6M than on 2M ("seems" as in 
I can not really quantify it yet).  The national simplex frequency, 
52.525 MHz, has some activity here in Maryland and I have heard one or 
two users down in Virginia. 

Repeaters:

Here are the repeaters that I have been able to keyup from Greenbelt.

51.86  Fredericksburg
53.13  Alexandria
53.25  Ashton
53.27  MARC Germantown

I have also heard activity on 53.47 Catonsville, but can not key it up.
One of the other guys has keyed up the 53.09 Westminster system.

73,
Gary
WA9ZZZ

> Mike O'Dell wrote:
>   
>> so is there a 6m repeater around, or is it all point-to-point?
>>
>> btw  - i'm at a meeting with Jimmy Trebig - "Mr. Six Meters"
>> his 6m eme station has four of the 70' boom M2 antennas
>> mounted in a quad array on an M2 alt/az mount on a 125' tower.
>>
>>      -mo
>>     
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