"clark" wrote in message
...
hi,

most of the time, no but that just makes it more of a challenge to get
contacts.

if you want DX, you'll need horizontal polarized antenna for ssb/cw
and vertical polarization for FM.

Sure, you can use vertical for ssb/cw BUT you loose 20db from polarization
error.

Higher is better !

here is link for you

http://6mt.com/

good luck on 6 !


Six meters tends to be seasonal for sporadic E skip and June and July are
big months. Listen in or check the packet clusters and the six meter
beacons.

Vertical vs Horizontal antennas. For line of sight communications, cross
polarization attenuation is very apparent. Generally use vertical antennas
for repeaters and horizontal for SSB and CW.

However if you are working skywave, during the height of the solar cycle, F2
skip will give tremendous distances and experts will advise that the
polarization of the wave can be skewed many times, so the polarization of
the antenna is not all that important. .But consensus is - 6M DXers prefer
horizontal antennas. Since we are approaching the bottom of the solar
cycle - forget about 6M F layer skip for another 5 or 6 years. But sporacic
E skip is somewhat independant of the solar cycle

For sporadic E skip, there is some evidence that the wave tends to maintain
its polarization for single hop.

But don't let that deter you from using a vertical antenna if that is all
you can manage. You will work out to 1200 miles or so on single hop sporadic
E and 2000 miles + on multi-hop.

From California, with a vertical antenna (10 feet above ground) and 100
Watts, I have worked 49 states including Hawaii and Alaska, several
Caribbean stations and over 200 grid squares. No biggie, but it takes time
and vigilance. The band can be open one day and totally dead the next day.

And six meter band privileges are open to all license classes except Novice.

Some URL's
http://www.ac6v.com/hambands.htm#50