So...Is 2m and 70cm dead?

[Les White]

From my house I can hit the 2m and 70cm repeaters in Farmington, on Sauratown Mountain, Yadkinville, and Statesville. I never get a response, never hear anything when scanning - other than an occasional kerchunk. Nothing. I added the Salisbury repeater today (145.410) today and heard a brief clandestine conversation, but that's it.

 

[Lawless]

When I am up that way, I hear a net sometimes and the occasional conversation. The Mt. Airy 440 repeater 443.425 is part of the HEARS network and goes to other repeaters north to south. I don't think it's dead at all for being a more rural area. I do not think I have ever heard much on the Sauratown repeater but the Mt. Airy 2m 145.130 is fairly active at times, That showoff Howard htperry was able to hit it from Charlotte with his beam once when i was up there

The Raleigh repeaters here are dead sometimes during the day, but come alive in the afternoon and evenings. When are you checking Brian? What radio and antenna are you using?

 

[Jaysq]

Several months ago, I purchased a 2 m/70cm HT and was very surprised at the lack of traffic. I joined the local club and we have a couple nets a week but even then the traffic is light. I live in a small town, maybe the larger cities have more activity.

 

[RFMan]

They pretty much do (more populated areas having more traffic). Lots of 2m/70cm activity around the Triangle, but when I go down to Saluda County...dead as a doornail.

 

[Les White]

When I am up that way, I hear a net sometimes and the occasional conversation. The Mt. Airy 440 repeater 443.425 is part of the HEARS network and goes to other repeaters north to south. I don't think it's dead at all for being a more rural area. I do not think I have ever heard much on the Sauratown repeater but the Mt. Airy 2m 145.130 is fairly active at times, That showoff Howard htperry was able to hit it from Charlotte with his beam once when i was up there

The Raleigh repeaters here are dead sometimes during the day, but come alive in the afternoon and evenings. When are you checking Brian? What radio and antenna are you using?

I scan during the evenings and weekends. Using a tram1480 on the roof and a uv5r, although I can hit all those repeaters with a rubber duck from *inside* the house. Not really interested in investing a bunch of money on dead air.

 

[Lawless]

I scan during the evenings and weekends. Using a tram1480 on the roof and a uv5r, although I can hit all those repeaters with a rubber duck from *inside* the house. Not really interested in investing a bunch of money on dead air.

Can't blame you if the goal is "talking with new and interesting singles available in your area"

Get some of your buddies to get their ticket, buy a Bfeng and get on the air.

 

[backwoodsshooter]

From my house I can hit the 2m and 70cm repeaters in Farmington, on Sauratown Mountain, Yadkinville, and Statesville. I never get a response, never hear anything when scanning - other than an occasional kerchunk. Nothing. I added the Salisbury repeater today (145.410) today and heard a brief clandestine conversation, but that's it.

No 2m is not dead. 70cm might be.

see if you can pick up the Asheville repeater. It's on top on Mt Mitchell and the coverage area is crazy. Also try Charlotte and Spencer mountain. Even North Wilkes repeater.

Sauratown has a rag chew chew net in the afternoons. Winston is hit or miss. Never heard much on yadkin, Salisbury or stateville myself.

get you an antenna up in the air and your reception will in increase 10fold. I have a uvb6 and unless I have it hooked up to an outside antenna it's trash unless I am on top of a mountain with clear los

 

[InvisibleOne]

I monitor sauratown 145.470 when I'm in my truck, and occasionally check in with the Vagabond Net that comes on M-F 2:30-4:00pm. Around the house, it depends on when I'm in the mood for it.
I can hit a lot of repeaters on 2m, some on 70cm, most hold nets at some time or another, so I started a spreadsheet to keep up with which freq/time/day each occurs. There's something every day.
As far as unscheduled comms, it can be hit or miss. Most of the time I hear someone throw their call out, they get a reply within a minute or less. I think commuter time and evenings may be best if you're just looking for a short qso. Don't give up on vhf, lots of good folks on there!

73's
IO

 

[noway2]

If you can pick up the Wilkesboro repeater it has traffic quite often. W4NC in Winston Salem occasionally has some traffic too.

 

[Dave951]

2m can be a bit of hit or miss. I also check in on the Vagabond ragchew from time to time. There are informal ragchews that I have monitored, but they're usually after a formal net exercise.

When I lived in the CLT area, 2m was pretty active on the Denver machine, but mainly during morning/afternoon commute. I used to commute from CLT to Winston and could carry that machine full quieting till the Yadkin river bridge on 85. A mile or so after the bridge, I could hear it, but couldn't get in.

Now I'm running an Alinco dual band, but I have yet to hear much on 70cm.

 

[Lawless]

I was scanning around tonight and found a new repeater that I previously had never heard.
Chatted a little on it and saved it in the radio memory. 65W and a great receiver make a lot of difference over Chinese HTs.

Howard told me a while back that you don't know what you don't know when it comes to better radios vs. the cheaper stuff.
This is becoming very apparent as I get better equipment. New KW HT before long.

 

[htperry]

A major part of what you get in quality equipment is a better receiver. You never know what you didn't hear until you have something that will hear it.

 

[noway2]

A major part of what you get in quality equipment is a better receiver. You never know what you didn't hear until you have something that will hear it.

Agreed. A LOT of effort goes into a great receiver that is capable of resolving the weak signal and discriminating it from the noise. Mathematically the systems that do so have to become more precise and this pushes the limits of both stability and the physical capabilities of the hardware.

As an example, I'm pretty sure my KW HT is better at receiving than my Icom mobile in the car based upon experiments as I've noticed I can often times transmit farther on my Icom and be heard clearly though the receive end is starting to crackle. Then again, the reciever on the repeater doesn't have the physical obstructions that the ground unit does. I guess I will need to check out the specs on the two.

in both cases, an antenna that is tuned (resonant) at the desired frequencies will help as they will pass into the detection circuit with lower loss and less nearby interference, but it's more important for transmitting as you want to get the electrical power into radiation rather than heat.

 

[Lawless]

Agree, and I may put my 2M antenna higher as I play with simplex more.
The repeaters at multiple hundred feet high are easy but station to station is more challenging.
I bet if i put it up at about 30 feet it would do well.