30th Aug 2018, 9:37 am | #101 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Tonbridge, Kent, UK.
Posts: 686
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
West Kent ARS have a weekly 2m Monday evening net except for the second Monday which is the club monthly meeting.
Gordon G7KNS |
30th Aug 2018, 4:40 pm | #102 |
Dekatron
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Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
2 stations heard on my handheld this afternoon and at good strength.
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31st Aug 2018, 10:56 am | #103 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Dukinfield, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,037
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Things have certainly changed since I got my licence in 1984. All I had was an SX200 scanning receiver and a homebrew 750mW FM transmitter, my first successful synthesised project. 'Horizontal FM' was in favour with those who fancied something different, so I erected a Jaybeam 4 ele on a rotator on the chimney stack and worked all over the country. It's amazing how well low power FM can work if you have a willing partner at the other end.
Re the comment about SSB above (post 72). One of the things that drove me away from 2m SSB was the fact that an awful lot of more recent licencees hadn't the foggiest notion of how to use their radios. I'd stumble across an SSB QSO and tune in carefully, only to find that his QSO partner was off-frequency. It would quickly become apparent that one or both of them was using the 'receiver independent tuning' to do the final tweaking, rather than netting properly with the VFO. This meant that if I called in, one or both of them would tell me I was off-frequency. So I was left with a dilemma - either don't call in at all or call in and try to persuade them to get on frequency properly. Realising that barging into a QSO and giving lessons on tuning their own radios would probably not go down well, I would stay quiet. It seems modern users are obsessed with dialling up the exact frequency (to the nearest KHz) so that their whiz-bang digital displays read exactly the same, then using the RIT so as not to disturb it. Perhaps I'm a bit anal.... Sorry, bit of a rant.
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Andy G1HBE. |
31st Aug 2018, 12:27 pm | #104 |
Dekatron
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Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Not really come across that problem Andy,or not yet.
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31st Aug 2018, 1:10 pm | #105 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Solihull, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 4,872
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Back in the good old days I had a crystal which put me on about 144.73kHz. People with their new-fangled shop-bought transceivers could receive me on 144.725kHz and then tried to tell me I was 'off-channel'. I sometimes said that I was not on a channel but on a frequency.
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31st Aug 2018, 1:47 pm | #106 |
Hexode
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 479
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Similar here, I used a xtal for 144.72MHz on an old Pye Vanguard, I was also told I was "off frequency."
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31st Aug 2018, 2:09 pm | #107 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,998
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Quote:
The problem was that if I left the TX VFO running all the time its harmonic desensitized the receiver. I fixed the problem in what I thought was a cunning way: leave the TX VFO running all the time but on receive use a diode-switch and small capacitor to pull the TX VFO down by around 50KHz so the harmonic was no longer on the RX frequency. |
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31st Aug 2018, 10:24 pm | #108 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Olympia, Washington, USA.
Posts: 664
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
99% of the 2M activity in my area is on repeaters. Very little L.O.S. anymore, anywhere.
6M is almost totally dead. Some activity on 220 & 440. Mostly repeater stuff. This is in the U.S. though. Also many repeaters went to tone encoding to access, as the illegal ops/ CB'ers were jamming the repeaters. |
1st Sep 2018, 10:48 am | #109 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Great Barr, Sandwell, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 589
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
I live on high ground in the West Midlands and rarely hear much scanning 2m these days except people calling to see if their friend is listening and the odd QSO between club members. It's not often a CQ call is heard. I do remember the days when it was difficult to find a vacant simplex channel to move to off S20, so there has certainly been a step-change in activity.
Listening on the Hack Green VHF/UHF SDR this morning (Saturday) 2m is busy up in N Staffs with 3 simplex QSOs, one repeater in use, a Raynet operation, SSB calling freq in use and two stations in the USA chatting on Echolink. Martin G4NCE / G8XRY |
4th Sep 2018, 7:36 am | #110 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Martin
You and I must have worked back when 2m was busy. I was G8YJI in Dudley David |
4th Sep 2018, 9:41 pm | #111 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Great Barr, Sandwell, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 589
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Yes indeed David, in Oct 80 and on page two of my first logbook.
In week one I worked 33 different callsigns on 2m. Not sure that would be possible today? Martin |
4th Sep 2018, 11:46 pm | #112 |
Moderator
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Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,869
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Back in the mid-1980s, GM4WZP, a collegue, carted a radio, battery and antenna up every single muro peak and got at least one QSO from all but a few.
Also not possible any longer.. David
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Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
4th Sep 2018, 11:48 pm | #113 | |
Dekatron
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Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Quote:
I filled my first standard RSGB logbook between 1969 and ~1971. My second RSGB logbook still has lots of space in it. B
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5th Sep 2018, 7:34 am | #114 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 998
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Thanks Martin, I'll check my logbook too. Nice to close the loop, so to speak.
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5th Sep 2018, 9:35 am | #115 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 3,601
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
I worked three last night! A station in Bournmouth wanting a signal check, then joined by a mobile in North Dorset somewhere, plus a station somewhere the other side of Salisbury, had quite a little net going for about half an hour. But it's the exception rather than the rule.
Peter |
5th Sep 2018, 9:57 am | #116 |
Dekatron
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Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Keep it up!
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5th Sep 2018, 1:56 pm | #117 |
Dekatron
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Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK.
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Last weekend I attempted a 2m 'sked' from one of my preferred locations on the North York Moors with a colleague who was due to pop up in my normal location - Tyneside. That failed miserably because of some problem with his setup, but while waiting for him I heard dozens of stations, some of them callsigns I have not heard for many years, feeding back to the GB2RS newsreader. Then after the failed 'sked' I heard the RAFARS net start up and that was also well attended by stations in and around the Tyneside area.
Finally, I put a CQ call out myself and was answered by a station near Alnwick, Northumberland, some 60-70 miles away. I'd have gone on to try for a few more contacts but I received a summons from on high telling me we needed some grocery items. For some reason I, as the person already out and about in a car and doing nothing much, was deemed the most suitable candidate for this task... so I had to come down off my lofty perch and back to real life. |
5th Sep 2018, 5:22 pm | #118 |
Rest in Peace
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Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 2,234
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
Just had a quick chat using 2M simplex with someone doing the SOTA thing while on my way home from work. (I pulled over). So yes, there is still activity out there, but someone has to make the first move. Most of the activity I hear seems to be on the 2 metre calling channel from SOTA stations. I suppose the high ground helps as I often hear stations calling from the Lake District or Southern Scotland while at work or travelling on the A68 which has long stretches in the hills. I always monitor the local repeater (HA) and the 2 metre calling channel S20 on 145.500 while at work.
Alan. |
6th Sep 2018, 9:10 am | #119 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 3,601
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
I shall be in north Yorkshire in at the end of the month, will have to take a handy with me, although mine aren't very handy they are Brick shaped.
Peter |
6th Sep 2018, 9:51 am | #120 |
Dekatron
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Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 11,556
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Re: Users of 2 metre Amateur Band?
You are strangely mirroring my movements earlier this year as I was in Dorset (among other places in the south west) in July. I didn't do much on the radio but when I did put a radio on it was a 4m radio, which I put calls out on from Whiteway (?) car park on the down above Tyneham. I got a call back from a G6 on 4m, so there is life even there.
On the evening of the same day I went up to the Hardy monument (my first ever time there) and was baffled to find the car park gated and closed even in the late afternoon in July. I had planned to sit there for an hour or so putting out calls while enjoying the view, but instead moved on to somewhere less hostile to visitors. |