6 meters

6 Meters is a popular ham radio band. It ranges from 50 to 54 MHz in the United States. The 6 Meter band is part of the VHF spectrum but contains some of the HF propogation mechanisms and because of this peculiar behaviour it is sometimes called Magic Band. It is primarily used for more local communications, as opposed to the HF bands. The 6 Meter band is not as popular as 2 Meter band because of legal, frequency and power restrictions. It is illegal to use in some countries because it is also a popular military communication channel. Also some countries have reserved this frequency for TV usage because it is in VHF I frequencies reserved for TV. On the other hand almost in all countries TV transmissions have moved to UHF and even these are being planned to be phased out as soon as possible.

Since 6 Meter operation is not that common, it is usually not that easy to obtain transceivers which operate at these frequencies. Although most recent super-HF kits like FT-847 or Kenwood TS-2000 contain 6 meters as well as HF and some handhelds are tri-band, usually these equipment are prohibitally expensive. As a result, there is a reasonably active market in buying cheap ex-military equipment and modifying them for amateur usage but this is much smaller than PMR to Amateur UHF conversion market.

In United Kingdom, it is legal to use 6 meters between frequencies 50 to 52 MHz, with some limitations at some frequencies. In UK, 50 to 51 MHz is primary usage and the rest is secondary with power limitations. The detailed band plan for UK can be obtained from RSGB Band plan documentation (PDF).

Many organizations promote regular competitions in this frequency to promote its use and to familiarize operators to its quirks. For example RSGB VHF Contest Committee has la number of contests on 6 meters every year.

Because of its peculiarity, there are a number of 6 meters operator groups. These people monitor the status of the band between different paths and promote 6 meter operationship.

The most famous of these groups are as follows:

• United Kingdom 6 Metre Group
• 6 Meter Group World Wide

Common Uses of 6 Meters

• FM Simplex (direct, radio-to-radio communications)
• FM repeater operation
• Packet radio
• SSB voice operation
• Morse Code (CW) operation