Louisville, KY repeaters

[BT]

Good afternoon, I hope everyone is well. I have a Yaesu Ft-65, and have been entering frequencies in to try to hear something. I’ve gotten them from this page:Louisville Area Repeater Directory, Louisville Amateur Radio Repeaters, Kentucky Amateur Radio Repeaters, Louisville Ham Radio Repeaters, Kentucky Ham Radio Repeaters, Southern Indiana Repeater Directory, Kentuckiana Repeater Directory. My question is, when entering tones do I need to enter them on the receive and transmit side? Obviously if it says in and out or none that’s easy. But if it says Just 103.5 for example, which side needs the tone?

on another note, is ham radio very active in the Louisville area? I’ve listened on my scanner for activity and of course on the ht but I’ve never heard anything.

thank you,
Brent

 

[k6cpo]

If just a single tone is specified, the understanding is the tone will be on the signal you transmit to the repeater.

 

[BT]

Ok, that’s what I thought I rememebered, but frankly I haven’t been involved in ham all that much, even though I’ve had my license for some time. Thank you.

 

[chief21]

In many areas, amateur repeaters are most active during the morning and evening drive times.

 

[rapidcharger]

My question is, when entering tones do I need to enter them on the receive and transmit side? Obviously if it says in and out or none that’s easy. But if it says Just 103.5 for example, which side needs the tone?

At the very least you need to transmit the tone. (T)
Decoding it (CTCSS) on your radio is strictly optional however it makes for a better user experience.
Unfortunately you can't count on all repeaters that decode PL tones to also encode them. If you have those set up as encode and decode (CTCSS) in your radio that will result in you not hearing the traffic on the repeater.

As for activity in Louisville, I don't know about that but what I can say is that some places have a much more active repeater scene than others. For example, Chicago, IL is far more active than say Atlanta, GA . I don't know why this is but I've been scratching my head about it for a long, long time. Back in the day, drive times were periods of heavy activity on repeaters but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

In the event that there just isn't much activity, you might check out things like Echolink where you can connect to repeaters in other cities and conference server hubs and also some of the more modern digital voice modes such d-star and fusion.

 

[kd4bas]

Sorry, not meaning to jack this thread,
BT, Which would be the most active 2 meter/440 Mhz frequencies to program in to my handheld, I'll be staying in downtown in the hospital region. I'm coming in from the west using a HT with a 35 watt amp with trunk mount antenna.