"If every Ham in the world (or at least the USA) took the time to monitor and make calls on simplex, there would be a more universal feel to the VHF allocation rather than tiny little cells and haunts or local repeater groups."
If ham rigs had decent priority scan, I'd monitor it more often. But scanning on a ham rig means missing traffic, so I rarely use it. I'd need a second radio, as I'd typically have the local 2m repeater on the VHF side of my dual bander, and the countywide UHF system on the other side.
Now that I'm active on DMR, I've mostly given up on analog. Time marches on.
I've been monitoring 146.520 while RVĂng in the US the last weeks, but only once got some traffic on it. Same for the (wide area) repeaters I've programmed in my set, only 1 QSO in 3 weeks (and I've been announcing that i'm listening on almost every repeater).
If I come back to the US I will not bring my VHF/UHF rig, but maybe my IC7000 and do some HF. Hope that is better.
Only interessting foor the USA.
ReplyDeleteIn Europe the 2 meter band only goes from 144 up to 146 MHz.
True - he mentions that in the article, but I neglected to point that out. Thanks.
DeleteIf ham rigs had decent priority scan, I'd monitor it more often. But scanning on a ham rig means missing traffic, so I rarely use it. I'd need a second radio, as I'd typically have the local 2m repeater on the VHF side of my dual bander, and the countywide UHF system on the other side.
DeleteNow that I'm active on DMR, I've mostly given up on analog. Time marches on.
VHF/UHF simplex is dead even on field day...
ReplyDeleteI've been monitoring 146.520 while RVĂng in the US the last weeks, but only once got some traffic on it. Same for the (wide area) repeaters I've programmed in my set, only 1 QSO in 3 weeks (and I've been announcing that i'm listening on almost every repeater).
ReplyDeleteIf I come back to the US I will not bring my VHF/UHF rig, but maybe my IC7000 and do some HF. Hope that is better.