In August this year, the 50th anniversary occurs of a radio
contact made from Adelaide to Hawaii, at the height of Sunspot
Cycle 18, between VK5KL and W7ACS/KH6, a distance of 9000 km. It
appears appropriate to celebrate the making of this contact and
what better way, than to tell the story of how the six metre
band developed, from what was regarded as another useless bit of
real estate to pass on to the amateur service, into a truly
international band with a world wide following. Much of the
research of documented DX contacts and the frequency changes
that occurred to the amateur allocation, were carried out by Ken
VK3AKK and Eric VK5LP, without whose assistance, this article
would have not been written. The search for documentary evidence
was as a result of an ulterior motive, to find the two way QSO
reported to have been made between VK3 and ZS1, in the late
1950s. Thanks also to the Geelong Amateur Radio Club, who
provided the Amateur Radio magazines from 1950 to 1960, and the
DX contacts and spectrum inf