Observe Yankee grabbing attention not far away (6)
I believe the answer is:
nearby
'not far away' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'observe yankee grabbing attention' is the wordplay.
'observe' becomes 'nb' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'yankee' becomes 'Y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'grabbing' is an insertion indicator.
'attention' becomes 'ear' (having someone's ear is having their attention).
'nb'+'y'='nby'
'nby' enclosing 'ear' is 'NEARBY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nearby that I've seen before include "A short distance away" , "Adjacent" , "somewhere close" , "Around the corner" , "Close at hand, not far away" .)