2 meter ham

although i have many, many years in the scanning hobby, i have run across a situation that i can;t fix, or figure out by myself. i have had a radio shack 197 in the closet up on the shelf for a couple of years now and decided to put it to work. i set it up to search the 2 meter ham band continually. been running now for over 3 weeks without a peep. and yes the scanner does work, i can pick up my counties p25-1, weather, vhf hi and lo, uhf high and lo the scanner works, and am using the supplied antenna. it sits on the 2nd story of the house against an out side wall with the rest of the radios. my location is about 20 miles stright line shot due west of flint, michigan. several years ago the 2 meter band was a very busy place, today not so much. soooooo what am i doing wrong, or what am i not doing correctly ? i am open to all suggestions. thanking all of you in advance for your help and assistance.

You may not be doing anything wrong. Some parts of the country the 2 meter band can be pretty quiet.

If you can hear the NOAA broadcasts, then your radio is likely working, although it's usually a pretty strong signal. If the sensitivity is down on the radio, picking up strong signals nearby may not be an issue. Maybe try seeing if you can get a more distant NOAA broadcast.

Finding someone local who knows the active 2 meter repeaters in the area may offer some help. Knowing which ones to listen to during rush hour might be helpful.

If you can't hear 2-meters, count your blessings. There is not much intelligence on the ham repeaters anymore.

Same here, and I'm also in Michigan. It used to be that a local repeater was going constantly and everyone on it talked about the most lame a boring stuff! If a thunderstorm they all went crazy driving around calling in fake or highly exaggerated severe weather warnings like it was the second coming of Christ! Then they'd have their swap meets where everyone would be trying to sell their hacked-crap for twice what it was worth! Now it's pretty quiet. It's no wonder people lost interest. They were very cliquish;

Adj.1. cliquish - befitting of characteristic of those who incline to social exclusiveness and who rebuff the advances of people considered inferior

Several of my friends were hams and tried desperately to convince me to get my license. But I never felt a need or desire to use 2m based on what I was hearing. Six of my friends still have their license, none of them use it anymore.

radio3353 said:

If you can't hear 2-meters, count your blessings. There is not much intelligence on the ham repeaters anymore.

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I agree.....

imonitor, your comments about storm spotters point out how poorly you understand the role of trained spotters. I have been involved in 3 tornadoes and a derecho. Yes, there may be some useless chatter, but when a condition red is called (tornado warning to commoners), knowing what to report is paramount. You can sit in your easy chair and listen and laugh, but the spotters are out in the real world trying to prevent loss of life.

jaspence said:

imonitor, your comments about storm spotters point out how poorly you understand the role of trained spotters....... .

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Or, he clearly understands the role of trained spotters, but this is what he has witnessed. I've been to two Skywarn classes in 11 years, and will attend one next weekend. Trust me, I have witnessed what imonitor described, and more. Crosscut of society, like anything else.

jaspence said:

imonitor, your comments about storm spotters point out how poorly you understand the role of trained spotters. I have been involved in 3 tornadoes and a derecho. Yes, there may be some useless chatter, but when a condition red is called (tornado warning to commoners), knowing what to report is paramount. You can sit in your easy chair and listen and laugh, but the spotters are out in the real world trying to prevent loss of life.

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Well maybe I generalized too much but one time a spotter reported a giant wall cloud in my front yard and there was nothing at all, just a normal thunderstorm. I've also heard some of these guys get chewed out by their own spotter groups for embellishing what they see, so trust me it happens.

I respect and appreciate the spotters who take their responsibility seriously and are not worried about getting their 15 minutes of fame.

aside from the storm spotters.....
I am so glad that i dont live where you all do
here on the west side of WI and the east side of MN folks are generally quite polite
and answer calls on many of the repeaters (we still have to damn many repeaters)
travelers passing thru the area can almost always get a contact/chat even on simplex
on the AllStar linked systems we have folks from all over

and for the OP try UHF as many areas for whatever reason think UHF is the cool place to be

jaspence said:

imonitor, your comments about storm spotters point out how poorly you understand the role of trained spotters. I have been involved in 3 tornadoes and a derecho. Yes, there may be some useless chatter, but when a condition red is called (tornado warning to commoners), knowing what to report is paramount. You can sit in your easy chair and listen and laugh, but the spotters are out in the real world trying to prevent loss of life.

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I don't think imonitor is too far off the mark. I remember having a friend over one summer evening when a strong thunderstorm rolled in. I turned on the scanner to demonstrate the local SkyWarn repeater to him. All we heard were people in their cars screaming "I see rotation, I see rotation." Needless to say the storm quickly passed with no problems. I was so embarrassed over what went on by the spotters. Not an isolated incident.

radio3353 said:

If you can't hear 2-meters, count your blessings. There is not much intelligence on the ham repeaters anymore.

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All I can say is speak for yourself. Yes, there are some newbies that may present as not knowing much but then were are the elmers to help them out? And then there are the people that feel no one should use repeaters, that only simplex should be used. Well, why not use repeaters? The areas covered by repeaters is much greater than simplex which would allow many more users to hear and learn how to properly use repeaters. I find that with so many people needing to work today, repeaters are quiet during the day except when there are amateurs driving to and from work. Then for an hour or 2, some repeaters are busy. And it seems with most peoples jobs starting so early in the AM, there are not many people up during the evening hours to be on repeaters. But this varies from city to city. I have been in cities where repeaters are busy for 6-8 hours at a stretch.

Being in the UK, I have noticed something growing in the US. People are using amateur radio because it offers a simple and easy to access method of providing radio comms for groups, and even families

This just doesn't happen in the UK. If we had storm spotters, or preppers, or marine groups in any quantity, they'd set up their own networks. In America it seems that people have a need for comms, so take their test and use amateur frequencies. No wonder people get fed up in the busier areas if repeater traffic is all about a different hobby. The nearest we ever had in my area was when for a few years the repeater was taken over by fishing talk - and it infuriated people. In this example, they were hams first, then discovered the common second hobby. In the US, you have your main interest, then take a ham exam to get longer distance comms. Probably because the US is considerably bigger, I guess. Worldwide - repeaters originally existed to put mobile users in touch with each other, and gradually have become the prime mode of operation.

Now, with all the other modes available, repeaters are becoming vacant again in many areas. IP connected systems don't require training and exams - and many people move to these because they're simple.

2m in my area is totally dead - the nearest repeater 30 miles away with limited local access, so the band is empty. 70cm has a new repeater, the old one being dead for a long time - but the usage is terribly low.

HF people and the boundary pushing people up in the microwaves are doing interesting stuff. 2/70 just doesn't offer very much.

If you tune your radio to 144.390 MHz you should hear APRS digital signals, that should at least assure you that your radio is working in the 2m band.

Out here 2m is very quiet except for rush hour. Also in the evenings between 7 - 8 pm some nets start up.

robertmac said:

All I can say is speak for yourself. Yes, there are some newbies that may present as not knowing much but then were are the elmers to help them out? And then there are the people that feel no one should use repeaters, that only simplex should be used. Well, why not use repeaters? The areas covered by repeaters is much greater than simplex which would allow many more users to hear and learn how to properly use repeaters. I find that with so many people needing to work today, repeaters are quiet during the day except when there are amateurs driving to and from work. Then for an hour or 2, some repeaters are busy. And it seems with most peoples jobs starting so early in the AM, there are not many people up during the evening hours to be on repeaters. But this varies from city to city. I have been in cities where repeaters are busy for 6-8 hours at a stretch.

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[Bold emphasis added by me]
I stand by my comment. And of course I am speaking for myself...who else would I speak for? The current state of 2-meters (or any other ham band - 75-meters for example) is not caused by nor limited to newbies. Your attempt at profiling is incorrect IMO.

Here in Lex, SC we many repeaters active. A lot of times it’s a lot of good friends getting on there shooting the breeze... without the 2mtrs in my area I wouldn’t hardly know any of the GREAT guys here. 2mtrs has created a close group of Ham operators in my area! We also use it for club nets, ARES nets, etc...In my opinion 2mtrs is great!

2 meters

radio3353 said:

I don't think imonitor is too far off the mark. I remember having a friend over one summer evening when a strong thunderstorm rolled in. I turned on the scanner to demonstrate the local SkyWarn repeater to him. All we heard were people in their cars screaming "I see rotation, I see rotation." Needless to say the storm quickly passed with no problems. I was so embarrassed over what went on by the spotters. Not an isolated incident.

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Just like anything else in our society, there are groups that have no discipline or pride. A well trained and led spotter group works on what and how to report. I came from an area where severe weather was taken seriously and rarely did net control have to ask someone to limit traffic for trivial chat.

Another reason 2 meters is quieter is that DMR on 440 has become very popular and affordable and a lot of the chit chat takes place there. You don't even need a local repeater to talk world wide.

Back to the OP's original question. Maybe the attenuator is turned on, and/or the squelch is simply set too high and those stations can't break through?

Testing to see if NOAA WX can be received would at least confirm the antenna and radio are both working properly.