A while back, several posts on the CWOPS reflector caught my attention. They mentioned openings on 6M during the weekly CWOPS Mini-tests. That reminded me that my K3/10 has both 6M capability and a suitable preamp for that band.
I am not ready to replace my rotatable antenna (a 2-element delta loop for 10 and 15M), so I looked for sometiing simpler but ideally omni-directional. I settled on the Omni-Angle for 6M from PAR Antennas, as it seemed well constructed, got good reviews and was not too expensive.
Assembly was straight forward. PAR Antennas has a video available which helped me with adjusting the antenna 'match'. Since it was so small and lightweight, I elected to put it stepladder height on the tower and give it a try. Here is an image:
And below is another image from the rear. Mom and Pop Mockingbird were building a nest between the Omni-Angle and the tower brace. I can imagine them saying, "There goes the neighborhood!"
Dustin, much younger than WB5BKL, climbs for me. Here is an image of him, several weeks later, almost done with mounting the Omni-Angle at my designated height. Dustin reported that there were three eggs in the mockingbird nest. We tried not to disturb them.
So far, I am very pleased. I used my FA-VA-4 antenna analyzer to adjust resonance to 50.090 MHz at stepladder height and Dustin made very slight changes when it was up in the air. (Note that the camera was tilted, not the tower. 😉)
I made a couple of contacts with the antenna at stepladder height and then had fun in the ARRL VHF - making 8 contacts in very casual operation with the antenna up in the clear.
At 5W of course. QRP CW.
Now I watch 6M for openings!
cln
WB5BKL
