What are the most common 70m simplex frequencies that are used?

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Danny37

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I want to punch in some frequencies for a ham bank I'm putting in my scanner. I understand that 446.000 is the national calling but are there any more that are commonly used for simplex communication? Particularly in the 70m band.
 

gewecke

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I want to punch in some frequencies for a ham bank I'm putting in my scanner. I understand that 446.000 is the national calling but are there any more that are commonly used for simplex communication? Particularly in the 70m band.

In certain regions, 447.000 is used.

73,
n9zas
 

w2xq

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446.500 is a known simplex frequency, but in all my travels over the years I've never heard anyone on it.
 

gewecke

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Have not heard traffic on 446.5 but have heard balloon-hams on 447.000 but could not get a reply from them, due to a unknown tone.
No specifics as to altitude or direction but I tried several times. :(

73,
n9zas
 

zz0468

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I want to punch in some frequencies for a ham bank I'm putting in my scanner. I understand that 446.000 is the national calling but are there any more that are commonly used for simplex communication? Particularly in the 70m band.

446.000 is the only nationally recognized simplex FM frequencies on the 440 band. As stated before, 446.500 is commonly used as well. If you had SSB cabability, 432.100 is the SSB calling frequency. The rest of the band is repeater inputs and outputs, amateur television, and point to point links. There isn't much demand for UHF simplex frequencies, so none of the local coordinating organizations have allocated more than a small handful, and that would vary by area.
 
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n9mxq

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446.000 is ARRL's simplex calling frequency, if that makes it "nationally recognized", OK. But simplex can be found anywhere not occupied by a repeater or other full time service.

Each area has their own layout of how things work. Contacting a ham in your local area would be your best bet.
 

zz0468

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Wait 447 is used as a national calling in some regions?

Not that I've every heard of. In the western U.S., it's either a repeater input, or output in most locations. Since it's on the band edge of the ARRL national bandplan, it could be considered "unpaired".

Frequency use in many of the VHF/UHF ham bands is planned and coordinated locally, so what one person tells you here may or may not be even remotely true where you're listening from. Tell us what area you're interested in, and you can get more accurate information.
 

zz0468

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446.000 is ARRL's simplex calling frequency, if that makes it "nationally recognized", OK.

What makes it "nationally recognized" is that virtually every local bandplan in the country shows it as a simplex channel.

But simplex can be found anywhere not occupied by a repeater or other full time service.

On a hit and miss basis, yet. And much of this scattered simplex traffic ends up interfering with either links or repeater inputs, and the people using simplex have no clue just how far and wide they're being heard.

Each area has their own layout of how things work. Contacting a ham in your local area would be your best bet.

I enthusiastically agree.
 

Danny37

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I'm in the NYC area so, in the TRISTATE area if anyone knows of most common simplex frequencies used for northern NJ, NYC and the surrounding counties and southern CT. I would really appreciate it.
 

KB7MIB

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I believe, but could be mistaken, that 446.100 is a secondary simplex channel in Arizona. 441.000 is also a good possibility. Google your state/regional frequency coordination body and look up their bandplan for 70cm.
 
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KB7MIB

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www.metrocor.net and/or www.qsl.net/metrocor for NYC/LI and NNJ
www.ctspectrum.com for CT
These are per the 2010-2011 ARRL Repeater Directory.
 
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Spankymedic7

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70cm Simplex Frequencies

Hello,

Here are some of the common 70cm simplex frequencies that I have in all of my radios...

445.975
446.000
446.025
446.050
446.075

Like others have mentioned, I'm sure that simplex frequencies vary by region, but these do fall within the 70cm band plan as "simplex" frequencies.

I hope this helps.
 

zz0468

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Here are some of the common 70cm simplex frequencies that I have in all of my radios...

445.975
446.000
446.025
446.050
446.075

Like others have mentioned, I'm sure that simplex frequencies vary by region, but these do fall within the 70cm band plan as "simplex" frequencies

I'm curious what band plan shows those as simplex frequencies. In the southwest US, those are all repeater inputs or outputs, with 446.000 being the one exception.

My concern is that dissemination of really local info in a nationwide forum might mislead people into thinking it's wide open for simplex use everywhere. It's already bad enough with new hams not being aware of local band planning.

To add to the confusion, Southern California is on 20 KHz channel spacing, not 25 KHz. This serves to illustrate just how local UHF bandplans actually are.
 
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jhooten

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ARRL Band plan:
442.00-445.00 Repeater inputs and outputs (local Option)
445.00-447.00 Shared by Auxiliary and control links, repeaters and Simplex (local option)
446.00 National Simplex
447.00-450.00 repeater inputs and outputs (local option)

According to the ARRL band plan they are valid simplex freqs.
 

gewecke

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I'm curious what band plan shows those as simplex frequencies. In the southwest US, those are all repeater inputs or outputs, with 446.000 being the one exception.

My concern is that dissemination of really local info in a nationwide forum might mislead people into thinking it's wide open for simplex use everywhere. It's already bad enough with new hams not being aware of local band planning.

To add to the confusion, Southern California is on 20 KHz channel spacing, not 25 KHz. This serves to illustrate just how local UHF bandplans actually are.

On the contrary, I just put those simplex suggestions in my radios since I prefer the quieter simplex frequencies over the "beep-boop" repeaters any day.
I'm by no means new, but I have become calloused to the 21st century repeaters since they seem to have every feature imaginable activated. :(

73,
n9zas
 

aspicer

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Have not heard traffic on 446.5 but have heard balloon-hams on 447.000 but could not get a reply from them, due to a unknown tone.
No specifics as to altitude or direction but I tried several times. :(

73,
n9zas

They probably weren't talking if they were experimenting with balloons. It was probably telemetry data. I doubt the hams were on balloons flying around talking simplex on 440.

It's like the balloon payments for your house ... they keep going UP!
 
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