Six Meter Presentation @ ARRL Learning Network

It was fun to share my six meter insight yesterday as part of the ARRL’s Learning Network. These 30-minute webinars provided by members to members are intended to help hams become more active, involved, and engaged in amateur radio.

My bit was to provide some insight into working the six meter band. My overall goal was to get people to press the “six meter” button on their HF+6 meter rig. With that in mind I kept the presentation at a basic level and tried to first share the magic and then how to get on the air to experience it first hand.

Kris Bickell, K1BIC, the ARRL Lifelong Learning Manager, worked with me on the development of the presentation and served as moderator during the session. He reported that 175 attended the session, which was pretty good based on their earlier sessions.

I liked his poll at the beginning of the session. The question was “Have you ever operated your radio on 6 meters?” The responses: 14% – yes regularly, 43% – yes but infrequently, 42% – no. So it appears that the level of my presentation was right on the mark.

I’m hopeful that I was able to provide some insight and motivation to get on the air. I tried to point out that putting up a dipole is a great way to get started. It is amateur radio and you get to try things out in whatever way works. If you like it, you can build upon your experiences and add to your equipment. If you don’t like it, you can try something else amid the wide array of options within our great hobby.

You can find the recorded webinar along with the Q & A session at http://www.arrl.org/arrl-learning-network#recordings

You can also download the PDF version of the slides at this link K5ND Six Meters ARRL

I did find that there was a bit of interest in my rover push-up mast. I found that I had covered it on my website but it was buried in an article discussing one of my rover efforts. So I broke that out into a new post to help those who were interested. You can find it at K5ND’s Fiberglass Push Up Mast.

I’ve also provided a VHF Contesting presentation for the 6 Meter Front Range Group as well as the Irving TX Amateur Radio Club. You can find it at VHF Contesting Presentation – K5ND’s Pitch on this website. Online club meetings, webinars, and the QSO Today Expo have been great ways to keep engaged in amateur radio despite our COVID Stay-at-Home era.

Finally, for those who are interested in more information on six meters, I’ve published a short eBook with more insight. Download it below:

Here’s the latest version.