Radios & Antennas For Technicians

KI4POT · Feb 26, 2021

WB1CDG said: ↑

I've never assumed that Tech plus VHF equals repeater (you must be referring to someone else). On my cross country trip, I'd pre-programmed all of the repeaters along the route (from the ARRL Repeater handbook) and included the old standbys of 146.52 and 146.94 (common simplex frequencies) as well. Didn't hear a single simplex signal at all. CB radio was MUCH more useful.
Above, I just agreed with the general proposition that there a lot of fun in HF contacts that you can't match with local VHF contacts. Sure you can take a 1.5W handie and rubber duckie up a mountain and make impressive contacts a hundred+ miles away (I've done that), but it's hard to do that from your den after a long day of work and you only have an hour of "ham time" before bed. You can get into a daisy-chain repeater network and talk to someone a great distance away, too, but that's as exciting as a cell phone contact. But being able to flip a switch and play with HF propagation from the convenience of your man cave makes it a lot easier to be a ham. Congrats on your VHF successes! If a new tech finds it more exciting than VHF, all the better! But I suspect more new hams would find HF more "magical" -- at least I did. Fortunately ham radio is big enough to accommodate HF operators, SOTAfans, and all the crazy new digital modes. We're a broadband bunch. Group hug!
73!
- Dave
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I assumed you didn't try simplex because you specifically referenced repeaters in your trip report.

I'm not a VHF zealot, I actually use HF more than VHF. I took my KX2 for a walk in the woods yesterday to try a bit of "pedestrian mobile" for a POTA activation.

My concern is threefold:
1. We bemoan the lack of knowledge new Generals and Extras have.
2. We worry about losing spectrum in the VHF, UHF, and SHF ranges.
3. We talk about nobody ever using VHF or UHF and how quiet the bands are. This one is specifically a self-fulfilling prophecy (the bands are dead, get on HF).

Benefits of encouraging more use by those who are limited to those bands:
1. Techs spend more time exploring their access rights and RF in general before upgrading resulting in better informed and knowledgeable folks on HF.
2. We would have more users in the VHF/UHF/SHF space, making it easier to argue against the seizure of our spectrum.
3. Folks would be operating in those spaces, making the "quiet band" comments moot.

Chris

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