Posted: 6/10/2013 5:32:30 PM EDT
| I've been calling CQ (I know, I know) on 146.52 every 15-20 minutes for about 2 hours the past few nights and have gotten exactly zero responses. I realize it's highly regional but do any of you monitor this freq in your QTH? Any one in FM17 want to try to schedule my first simplex QSO? |
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Call again, I'm listening on 146.52 Just called, any joy? ETA: Calling CQ arfcomm now, hopefully nobody thinks that's too goofy. Nothing heard... what part of FM17 are you in? I'm near Richmond so we may be too far away. My simplex range with this setup is around 15 miles if the other station has a good antenna. |
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Call again, I'm listening on 146.52 Just called, any joy? ETA: Calling CQ arfcomm now, hopefully nobody thinks that's too goofy. Nothing heard... what part of FM17 are you in? I'm near Richmond so we may be too far away. My simplex range with this setup is around 15 miles if the other station has a good antenna. Not sure how closely I should guard my sub-grid, let's say somewhere in the neighborhood of FM17SB, definitely too far from Richmond for simplex. Can you open the KB4ZIN repeater from where you are? (KB4ZIN - 146.760 -offset (transmits 118.8 tone)) |
| Rarely if ever. If i'm in the shack, I monitor HF nets. If I'm in the truck, I monitor the HF nets. If i'm in the other vehicle, that only does 2m/70cm monitor the local repeaters. The only time I monitor simplex is if I'm on a road trip with only 2m/70cm radios. |
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I spend a large portion of my day on the interstate commuting to and from work. I've tried what the internet suggests instead of CQ for the local repeaters "<callsign> monitoring" but I haven't gotten any responses. What's a good way to get someone interested in talking to me? I'm fairly sure others are out there as the repeater is quite busy and our weekly nets will get 30+ checkins. I'm hesitant to play the "new ham card" but if that's what it takes I'll do it. Mostly I just don't want to come off as a lid/want to use my ticket.
Thanks for any advice. |
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Call again, I'm listening on 146.52 Just called, any joy? ETA: Calling CQ arfcomm now, hopefully nobody thinks that's too goofy. Nothing heard... what part of FM17 are you in? I'm near Richmond so we may be too far away. My simplex range with this setup is around 15 miles if the other station has a good antenna. Not sure how closely I should guard my sub-grid, let's say somewhere in the neighborhood of FM17SB, definitely too far from Richmond for simplex. Can you open the KB4ZIN repeater from where you are? (KB4ZIN - 146.760 -offset (transmits 118.8 tone)) Just a little out of my reach unfortunately. |
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Call again, I'm listening on 146.52 Just called, any joy? ETA: Calling CQ arfcomm now, hopefully nobody thinks that's too goofy. Nothing heard... what part of FM17 are you in? I'm near Richmond so we may be too far away. My simplex range with this setup is around 15 miles if the other station has a good antenna. Not sure how closely I should guard my sub-grid, let's say somewhere in the neighborhood of FM17SB, definitely too far from Richmond for simplex. Can you open the KB4ZIN repeater from where you are? (KB4ZIN - 146.760 -offset (transmits 118.8 tone)) Just a little out of my reach unfortunately. Thanks for trying pilotman. I sometimes head up to the Richmond area to visit friends, what's the repeater up there? edited for format because I failed. |
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Over the winter I made round trips from IN to Charleston, SC; Raleigh, NC; St. Paul, MN. I had my 2m rig parked on 146.52 the entire time, close to 5000 miles. I'd call when I thought about it, usually at least 1-2x/hr. I got exactly zero responses, and only has someone distant break squelch three times (which scared the crap out of me when it happened). |
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Over the winter I made round trips from IN to Charleston, SC; Raleigh, NC; St. Paul, MN. I had my 2m rig parked on 146.52 the entire time, close to 5000 miles. I'd call when I thought about it, usually at least 1-2x/hr. I got exactly zero responses, and only has someone distant break squelch three times (which scared the crap out of me when it happened). I wonder how 2m would sound if the S ever HTF. |
| I have a dual band Kenwood. One side scans and the other is parked on 146.52. Very rarely do I hear anyone. I travel a LOT too. If I'm in the car, rig is on. Did 65,000 miles last year and had 2 QSO's on 520 in the panhandle of Florida. In MS I talked to the same guy 3 times and once I spoke to a guy in Jackson . That's it. |
I'll definitely look in to the HF net once I get the money together for a transceiver and an antenna. Of course, that will be ar-jedi's fault.
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Sometimes I'm on scan on 2m, which is a few local repeaters, 146.520 and the arfcom frequency. Not a lot of activity on anything it seems like these days.
I do occasionally talk to someone on 52, sometimes hear some folks chatting from the home station antenna. |
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I have my radio programmed to scan the 2m/70cm simplex frequencies only (repeater frequencies are skipped) here at home. It's quiet 99% of the time doing that. That's why the simplex repeater in Kerrville caught my attention during the band opening last weekend.
I put out a call on 146.52 every couple of miles on an Illinois interstate one time. Was about to give up when someone answered. We had a nice chat for several minutes while the signals lasted. I think a device that put out your call every couple of minutes would be nice while traveling. Sometimes everyone's listening, but nobody's talking. |
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The 75W VHF radio in my dd only gets turned on if I'm traveling. Usually I just repeater hop with it but there's usually 100 miles or so between repeater coverages so throw my call out on .52 occasionally. Otherwise, my dd's UHF radio never gets turned off (I've yet to turn it off since I upgraded from a 8-channel to a 128-channel last month) since I'm always bouncing around the spectrum from 440-470 MHz. I've never called on 446.000, have a local simplex net on 445.000 occasionally but I'm generally always tuned into repeaters.
Often those areas that don't have VHF repeaters I tend to find semi close UHF repeaters. |
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Driven across country both ways. Made exactly 2 contacts on 145.62 - a couple of guys outside of St. Louis and a guy in Cincinnati. I know around Louisville, KY there is a group of folks that regularly monitor 52. Infact, I've had more 52 conversations there than on the local repeaters.
I have it in my scan rotation, but I've only heard activity on it maybe twice since I've lived in NoVA. |
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Check into the nets. Best way to break the ice. Soon as the locals recognize your calll they will answer back.
2 meters is kind of odd in some places. People will go out of there way to QSO you on HF. Same peson will not talk to a stranger on 2 meters. Simplex or repeater. Never could fiqure that out . |
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Check into the nets. Best way to break the ice. Soon as the locals recognize your calll they will answer back. 2 meters is kind of odd in some places. People will go out of there way to QSO you on HF. Same peson will not talk to a stranger on 2 meters. Simplex or repeater. Never could fiqure that out . Thanks for the suggestion. I've been checking in to the monday night net on my closest repeater, and I visited both area radio club meetings for june. Hopefully after field day they'll warm up to me a bit more. |
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Here in central Ohio it seems to get quite a bit of use. Seems to be that in Westerville north east of Columbus it is the Go To frequency.
Called CQ one night and got the "Hey old man there is a QSO on here." Seems I had the beam pointed away and didn't hear them at first.. I get a response at least 1 call in ten. Check into nets.......................Breaks the ice with others. |
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There shouldn't be a QSO on 520, it is a called a CALLING freq for a reason. After establishing contact, parties are supposed to move to an unused, mutually agreed upon simplex frequency. it's like the left hand lane. If somebody wants to pass, move over. I agree, but it is nice to call CQ and regularly get a response. The guys truly need to move off 6.52 to another frequency. |
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There shouldn't be a QSO on 520, it is a called a CALLING freq for a reason. After establishing contact, parties are supposed to move to an unused, mutually agreed upon simplex frequency. it's like the left hand lane. If somebody wants to pass, move over. I agree, but it is nice to call CQ and regularly get a response. The guys truly need to move off 6.52 to another frequency. Depending on the area I may or may not agree with you. If you have a lot of simplex traffic yes. If not I don't see the point. The opposite in fact. In St. Louis metro there is a group who meets on 520. It has caused a lot of people traveling hrough to call them. People who may not have called at the right time. They dont have to say they drove coast to coast without one contact on .520 |
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I monitor 52 almost any time Im in my personal vehicle with one side of my dual band . One of the local repeater owners will monitor 52 with his repeater to tell people traveling about his repeater . That's actually not a bad idea. Setup a device on .52 that tells people about available repeaters in the area or what the locals tend to monitor. |
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I'm on 146.52 if I'm on anything, and not already talking to someone.
But I really rarely use my 2M anymore, and when I have used it, it's been to figure out what's going on in bad traffic. I find it does tend to work in those situations, you find every HAM in a reasonable distance doing the same thing. I agree, though, locally you usually are better off monitoring a Repeater. |
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Around here it gets a small amount of use everyday. On Sunday and Tuesdays the Mormon church take it over for about an hour for one of their nets. What area? I run to Kent from Spokane 5 nights a week and have been carrying my Ht trying see what's going on on that side of the state. I've put in all the repeater frequencies I can find but I have yet to hear anything past Ellensburg. Of course, running in there in the middle of the night probably doesn't help. 
As to the general theme of this thread. This is one thing that really bugs me about hams that bad mouth CB for travel communication. I've been all over the country and I've found no place that I can't get somebody on the CB with minimal effort. There's no way I could suggest somebody rely on ham radio for travel communications due the difficulty in making reliable, local contact if you aren't from the area, know the repeater frequencies and tones, and which ones might actually be active. |
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If you've got the hardware give this one a try.
Went down to Destin FL this week for a conference. I had the rig on .520 and heard 4 different QSO's. Then heard one tonight getting home in Jackson MS. So those two places were active. Destin/Ft Walton beach have been active anytime I have been there. Wednesday nights at 2100 Central. 146.520 FM. Vertical polarization. Net control in Jackson, LA. We have a 2m FM simplex net with anywhere from 10 to 20 checkins. Toss in a bit of Tropo ducting and we've had checkins from far east TX and southern AR. There's a frequent checkin from Jackson, MS. Once this net is over it's a 6m net on 50.170 then 2m SSB on 144.270. |
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I run to Kent from Spokane 5 nights a week and have been carrying my Ht trying see what's going on on that side of the state. I've put in all the repeater frequencies I can find but I have yet to hear anything past Ellensburg. All I can suggest is to scan all the potential repeater outputs along the way: 145.110 .. 145.490 (20 kHz channels) 146.620 .. 147.380 (20 kHz channels) 223.820 .. 224.980 (20 kHz channels) 442.000 .. 444.975 (25 kHz channels) http://spokanehams.com/Repeaters/Repeater-Information |
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I live in Spokane so I've already got all the repeaters around here. I've been trying to find active repeaters between here and Kent Washington.
Since I drive nights, conversation is a great tool for staying awake. It's one of the reasons I wanted to get in to HAM radio. Unfortunately VHF seems to die after about 9PM and even during the day there isn't much "conversation" going on. |
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I live in Spokane so I've already got all the repeaters around here. I've been trying to find active repeaters between here and Kent Washington. Since I drive nights, conversation is a great tool for staying awake. It's one of the reasons I wanted to get in to HAM radio. Unfortunately VHF seems to die after about 9PM and even during the day there isn't much "conversation" going on. For wet-side Washington, try: Tiger Mountain (I-90 just before Issaquah. covers entire greater Seattle area.) 145.330 - pl 103.5 PSRG Seattle Repeater (they have a 9:00 A.M. & P.M. net) 146.960 - pl 103.5 Squak Mountain 146.820 - pl 179.9 |