Issue #25: Heard on the 2m Band . . .

Hey Doug -- this is why I wrote the article and thank you for chipping in to tell us what it's been like since you got your ticket. First off, congrats. Anyone who gets a ham license deserves that "congrats" from others! Hope you'll persist in the hobby until you work your way into the HF bands and discover the true core of the Amateur Radio Service. But there is still a lot you can do with your license grade, as others here have said better than me. HANG IN THERE and persist, despite the fact that 2m is often so "slow on the switch." Perhaps just your call sign every hour or two with a "W7DGJ monitoring" or such call-out. Have fun, Dave

 

Well i remember back in the good ole days on 2 meters , There used to be round tables on the way to work, and on the way home , with a break so someone could call the hiway patrol for help for a stranded motorist. This was great. Then along came the damned cell phones, now instead of meeting your buddy on the repeater, you would call him on the CP. Next somebody got the idea that 2 meter repeaters would be used for just emergencys, which put a stop to conversations on 2 meters. If you tried to have a talk with a friend, Sombody would come on and say "this repeater is for emergencys only" well that was the end of a friendly talk. Now we have a bunch of 2 meter repeaters setting idle waiting for something to happen. SO everybody moved to 440. Now you had better start looking over your shoulder for the FCC looking for dead space that they can auction off tho the highest bidder, and ther goes 2 meters. we may understand that a notice has been posted on what is left of the 220 band use or loose it. The FCC wasn't happy enough with the upper partof the 220 band that they gave to UPS. SO lets get something going again on 2 meters before we lose that too. I have been a ham for almost 50 years and had lots of enjoyment from ham radio so lets keep what we have. Doug K7WYR

 

i love surprises! i'm sure it gave the new guys a lift, too.

 

It's so rare to just catch HT-to-HT . . . lots of fun!

 

Pet peeve here. FM and repeaters did wonders to populate VHF. Can’t deny that. But the repeater culture seriously obscures all the cool stuff those bands can do. Before FM, if you got on two, let alone 432, your station was as effective as you made it. You built stuff. You tried stuff. You paid attention to your own coverage area and worked to improve it. You also worked occasional DX. Now? It’s like what it is. Transplanted business band.

 

i have an arrow-brand leo sat antenna and a tripod. i have some publications on
the subject. i have an '817. i have some kind of sat tracker on my telephone.
what i don't have is a human guide or the smarts to operate the antenna.
near as i can figure, the iss works with schools for schedules. i'm not
finding fault with that. kids are the future.
i do watch sats at night with binoculars. very cool.

i just had a thought- will look on qrz for a sat forum. maybe i can find someone
fairly near (50-75 miles) who will be a mentor (or tormentor, snort).

thanks for the stimulation!

 

right on, brother man!

i am a multi-path learner. read-watch-listen-hands on-mix and match for the
moment. sometimes it takes a bit of time to get the correct (for me) mix
to absorb info. i'm still trying to figure how to work my telephone. it isn't
a smart phone, but it does do things i can't imagine why anyone would want
to do. at least it doesn't talk to me.

 

check!

 

Cool. Please report back here your findings!

 

roger that!

 

If anyone is worried about the very real effects of band degradation, than a donation (even a small one) to the ARRL Spectrum Defense Fund is not a bad idea. As I said at the bottom of my article, this is the only organization really rallying behind our bands and always backing us up. Check it out at this link. Thanks, Dave W7DGJ

 

So.. Wanted to add one more thought...

My friend got his ticket, after a frustrating, yet short, wait from the FCC. I had the opportunity to help him set-up his radio - yes, Baofeng - and while I was there, another buddy of his was there who got his ticket a while back for the 4x4 group. The friend had never had anyone explain the repeater network and how open they are (here in AZ they're wide open whether you're in the club or not). We all talked a bit about simplex too since we live within about 10-15 miles from each other. Seems like the 4x4 groups were more interested in the radios but using FRS - so understood the concepts, but I explained that moving into the ham part of the band and taking to licenses hams would be a much better experience.

In reading the discussion here... another "thing to do" is to provide your radio set-up file -- with the programmed simplex frequencies including the simplex call frequencies. As we all know, these cheap radios are more difficult to set frequencies on the fly since they have no VFO knob. My new ham friend and I were driving home one evening from different events but within about 5 miles from each other in the city. My old Kenwood has a couple of receivers and flips memories and to call easily, the Baofengs are not necessarily so easy, but because he shares my set-up from my Baofeng experiment radio, he had the 2m 5.2 call simplex call frequency as well as others to move to. We had a good time working through simplex issues while driving - but was tons a fun.

As others have done in the past, maybe its time for some of us to step-up as "elmers" and look for opportunities to engage and engage in these different ways to perpetuate these practices and concepts.

Just another 2 cents... 73's!

 

In the mid-1970s I began working ham satellites with 2 meter uplinks and 10 meter downlinks. Working satellites was and remains a fascinating aspect of VHF.

I also began operating 2 meter SSB and CW on the low end of the band doing weak signal work in the 1970s. I worked 32 states from Michigan. No repeaters. No satellites. Just fascinating QSOs over hundreds of miles during band openings. Later, I moved to KY where I worked 40 states on SSB and CW. Took a 12-year hiatus from 2 meter weak signal work, but returned to the low end of the band on June 28 of this year. In that time, we had a tremendous opening on 2 meters covering much of the eastern half of the country. It lasted for 5 days. During that time I have worked 100 grid squares and 29 states.

While 2 meters is dead in parts of the US, it’s rather active on modes other than FM and repeaters. FM on 2 meters is not the only game in town. 73, Dave, N4KZ

 

Thanks Bruce. I've been on 2m again and hopefully others have a

Great post Dave, thanks. I had no idea you could find band openings like that. We need to get new hams interested in true long-distance communications via modes other than FM on a Baofeng! Dave, W7DGJ

 

Dave,

For years, SSB and CW and now FT8 have been used on the low end of 2 meters to make contacts hundreds of miles away. During the most recent opening, I saw W1VD in Connecticut work WQ0P in Kansas on FT8 in the middle of the afternoon. That was a 1500 mile contact on 2 meters.

My longest QSO during the opening was almost 1100 miles to Colorado.

Propagation like this usually occurs in October and November. Mid-August was very unusual for such an opening. My first two years as a new ham in the late 1960s saw me obsessed with HF DXing but as the solar cycle declined I looked around for new on-air challenges. I read the VHF column in QST and immediately realized the concept that VHF was only for line-of-sight local contacts was only true part of the time. At other times the VHF and UHF bands see propagation that permits long distance contacts over hundreds of miles. Now, you won’t make those contacts with an HT and rubber duck antenna. At least not usually.

Off and on for several years I have run about 200 watts and a 13-element beam on 2 meters up on my tower. I also use a receive preamp. My station is fairly modest but I get out nicely when the band is open. And even when it’s not contacts out to 300-400 miles are typical. Personally, I find many exciting things to do on 2 meters. And how many QSOs did I have during the recent opening? It was 160 on the nose. Low by HF standards but quite a bit more interesting than listening to a dead- sounding repeater.
73, Dave, N4KZ