KQ2H repeater NY

[KE5FRF]

Hey folks.

Well, I just got my new DC to Daylight Yaesu FT857D and was playing around, scanning the bands, looking for signals. I tuned up my antenna for the 10 meter FM segment to program the rig for some of the regional repeaters listed in the ARRL directory. I wasn't able to bring any of these repeaters up (Of course, since Hurricane Katrina, I'm not even sure of the status on these repeaters)

Anyway, as I scanned through, I found this was THE ONLY repeater I heard, and it was registering S9 and over at times. I heard it ID, and looked up the PL tone, programmed it, and was hitting it with 50 watts and a horizontally polarized dipole antenna cut for 20 meters and tuned to 10. I had one fellow who heard me come back, but he wasn't able to keep the repeater up long enough to be intelligeable.

So, I would like to know more about this repeater. I found this website (http://www.geocities.com/aa2ls/kq2h.html) and it indicates that it used to be on the World Trade Center, and when the towers fell, new equipment was purchased and moved to a tower, in the photograph. They claim to be the "preimier" 10 meter repeater in the USA, and when I heard the repeater ID, it was keeping a running log of how many times the repeater had been used (I imagine it just counts each time the thing is keyed up)

Anyway, with the band conditions at a low in the cycle, is it still common to hear this repeater? Is it INDEED deserving of the title "premier" repeater in the sense that it can be heard even in marginal conditions? I checked later in the evening yesterday, and I heard nothing.

I find the idea of working 10 meter repeaters (DX) kind of cool. Are there any awards for QSOing through 10 meter repeaters? I mean, it would be neat to work as many as possible.

[WB2WIK]

No awards for repeater work, since the repeaters are doing most of the work.

The KQ2H repeater is definitely "big," and I can often key it up from here on the west coast, via double-hop E-skip, even when the band sounds very dead.

For fun and awards, try 10m FM simplex on 29.6 MHz. When the band pops open it gets very busy, so QSOs must be quite short. The JA FM simplex frequency on ten meters is 29.3 MHz, and when the band pops open, that frequency also gets very busy with JAs that I can hear and work pretty easily from here in CA.

Hearing/working KQ2H/R on 10m FM is common almost every place in the country, when there's a bit of sporadic-E going on. It's obviously well sited and runs enough power to get out very well, and of course the ionosphere's doing most of the work anyway, once users are beyond tropo range.

I also commonly hear repeaters in NC, TN, VA, GA, FL and sometimes Boston on 10m FM via double-hop E-skip, especially over the past four or five weeks.

WB2WIK/6

[w8cbc]

There's also a repeater around Boston at 29620. I hear both of them mixing together quite often. I've hit 'em as well. As WIK says, no challenge.

Is there a common "secondary" in the 29200-29300 area aside from the JA calling freq? Lately when 10-metre FM is working, there's already something in progress at 29600 and I don't want to interrupt. Calling further down seems pointless if nobody's listening.

[KE5FRF]

Yeah, well it isn't about the CHALLENGE, it is about working ALL of them, or a bunch of them. I mean, what I am saying is, it would be cool to look down my logbook, at all of the 10 meter repeaters I've worked, and then look at the ARRL directory, which is only a few pages long for the 10 meter repeaters, and say "Wow, look at that, I've managed to work all of the repeaters in the country,...or heck, even HALF of them would be a cool benchmark.

And yes, I understand that the challenge of working through a repeater isn't nearly that of simplex, but you have to admit, there is a little difference in working a 10 meter or 6 meter repeater with multiple hop propogation from working a 144,220,or 70 cm repeater across town.

Anyway, just a thought.

[w8cbc]

When I was running 2-metre mobile last summer there were occasional tropo openings wherein distant (>100 mi) repeaters worked better than the locals. There would be two or three of them coming up at once on-frequency.

At first I thought it was neat. Then I got to thinking there are too many of the damn things. Most of those around Cincinnati lie idle. They're there but nobody's using them.

[ve2nsm]

I hear this repeater very often in the Dominican Republic, along with the one in Texas on 29660.

[N4AUD]

Quote[/b] (ve2nsm @ June 20 2006,10:58)]I hear this repeater very often in the Dominican Republic, along with the one in Texas on 29660.
I hit both from here in Virginia recently on several different days.