What's going on with 2m?

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GrumpyAeroGuy

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OK, so I am going to test for my Technician tomorrow. My last ticket went up in smoke some 10 years ago --- never re-newed due to life happening.

Been listening (via my PSR500) to 2m and other UHF HAM bands on local repeaters around my neck of the woods.... and......well

ain't hearing much.

Many moons ago, every 2m repeater in the area was clogged with HAMs jackin' back and forth 24/7. IS this a local phenomenon that I am seeing, or is it a general trend that HAM isn't as popular as it once was.... or....... (???)

The repeaters are still there according to repeater maps I find on-line, I hear them boradcasting their call signs via CW all the time, but it seems that actual radio traffic is little and far between anymore.

What gives? Or is this a fluke over the last couple of weeks.

I know noone can see into anyone's head, but.... just kinda wonderin'.:confused:

I am in SW ohio...
 

WouffHong

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The worm turns...

OK, so I am going to test for my Technician tomorrow. My last ticket went up in smoke some 10 years ago --- never re-newed due to life happening.

Been listening (via my PSR500) to 2m and other UHF HAM bands on local repeaters around my neck of the woods.... and......well

ain't hearing much.

Many moons ago, every 2m repeater in the area was clogged with HAMs jackin' back and forth 24/7. IS this a local phenomenon that I am seeing, or is it a general trend that HAM isn't as popular as it once was.... or....... (???)

The repeaters are still there according to repeater maps I find on-line, I hear them boradcasting their call signs via CW all the time, but it seems that actual radio traffic is little and far between anymore.

What gives? Or is this a fluke over the last couple of weeks.

I know noone can see into anyone's head, but.... just kinda wonderin'.:confused:

I am in SW ohio...

Myself and others have gammed on this phenomenon and the sad conclusion is that Ham Radio, particularly on the old reliable 2M/440 communications have given way to "depicable-them T^2" Tweets and Textings, passing responsibilities for reliable communications in the world from individuals to the mercy of the Phone companie$$. :roll: :( :(

Da Sad Wouff
 

fineshot1

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OK, so I am going to test for my Technician tomorrow. My last ticket went up in smoke some 10 years ago --- never re-newed due to life happening.

Been listening (via my PSR500) to 2m and other UHF HAM bands on local repeaters around my neck of the woods.... and......well

ain't hearing much.

Many moons ago, every 2m repeater in the area was clogged with HAMs jackin' back and forth 24/7. IS this a local phenomenon that I am seeing, or is it a general trend that HAM isn't as popular as it once was.... or....... (???)

The repeaters are still there according to repeater maps I find on-line, I hear them boradcasting their call signs via CW all the time, but it seems that actual radio traffic is little and far between anymore.

What gives? Or is this a fluke over the last couple of weeks.

I know noone can see into anyone's head, but.... just kinda wonderin'.:confused:

I am in SW ohio...

An unfortunate trend around these parts and i suspect other areas due in part to
the popularity of cell phone voice & text capabilities. Its been getting slowly worse
each year.
 

N8IAA

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Grumpy, it used to be good on 2m back in the 90's. When I got down here to GA, it was still active 13 years ago. Now, it's a Sunday nite net, rush hour jabber, and some late night good ol' boys on their way home from work or a ham schoolin session. I have all the local 6m, 2m, 1 1/4m, 73cm repeaters programmed in. Unless the WX gets really bad, the radio is silent. It is truely a sad sign of the times.
Larry
 

mulveyr

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OK, so I am going to test for my Technician tomorrow. My last ticket went up in smoke some 10 years ago --- never re-newed due to life happening.

Been listening (via my PSR500) to 2m and other UHF HAM bands on local repeaters around my neck of the woods.... and......well

ain't hearing much.

Many moons ago, every 2m repeater in the area was clogged with HAMs jackin' back and forth 24/7. IS this a local phenomenon that I am seeing, or is it a general trend that HAM isn't as popular as it once was.... or....... (???)

The repeaters are still there according to repeater maps I find on-line, I hear them boradcasting their call signs via CW all the time, but it seems that actual radio traffic is little and far between anymore.

What gives? Or is this a fluke over the last couple of weeks.

I know noone can see into anyone's head, but.... just kinda wonderin'.:confused:

I am in SW ohio...


Not unusual at all. Around here, you might hear someone during drive-time and during events, but that's about it.

Honestly, I stopped using 2M years ago. There's only so many times that I want to hear about someone's gout or truck problems before I felt like driving my car off a bridge.
 

fxdscon

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Not unusual at all. Around here, you might hear someone during drive-time and during events, but that's about it.

Honestly, I stopped using 2M years ago. There's only so many times that I want to hear about someone's gout or truck problems before I felt like driving my car off a bridge.


Yep, same in my area...

these days, when I do happen to catch some Sunday Night Nets in progress, the people running the net seem to be very pleased to announce "We have 4 check-ins tonight". (usually always the same 4)

Seems not too long ago, 30 - 40 check-ins was an average number for each one of those nets.
 

GrumpyAeroGuy

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I find this all unfortuneate...

Well.............I WILL NOT BE DETERRED (dammmmit) :lol::D !!!

I have too many good memories tinkering with my stuff and enjoying my radios back then. I still remember the first time I figured out how to get an SWR reading off of the antenna I put on my roof and realizing that it was working GOOD.... Heck, I even got out my soldering iron and started playing again. Lost my touch a little bit, but it seems to come back fast.

It may get lonely, but, hey, SOMEONE'S gotta keep trying......:wink:

Plus, call me crazy/old school/old-fashioned, but, I kind of pride myself in trying to get my license back/reinstated/renewed/retested. Any monkey can send a text, but, I like the feeling of self-sufficiency and the feeling of developing some expertise "over and beyond." And, did I mention it is fun and satisfying?

I could still kick myself for letting my ticket expire, but, it was a turbulent time some years ago, and I had my hands full with my job and other stuff like moving overseas for a bit.

Heck, when they announce American Idol winners there's no open cells on my phone to be had as it is.....:twisted:
 

GrumpyAeroGuy

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Not unusual at all. Around here, you might hear someone during drive-time and during events, but that's about it.

Honestly, I stopped using 2M years ago. There's only so many times that I want to hear about someone's gout or truck problems before I felt like driving my car off a bridge.

So what do you sue at all, if anything?

gout..... LOL
 

mulveyr

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So what do you sue at all, if anything?

gout..... LOL

sue == do? :)

Strictly HF digital, these days, unless you want to count the APRS tracker I have in my car on 2M. ;-)

I used to do HF CW almost exclusively, but once again, the repetitiveness got to be a bit much after a while. People using digital modes tend to at least make somewhat of an effort to go beyond Name/RST/Wx :)
 

roadranger

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Feel?

I don't know. I guess that times have changed. I met a guy who still kept his vanity plate on the old pick-up he drove. I asked him if he still used his radios and part of his reply that I remembered most was, "I grew up." The group he was with all snickered. Bunch of IT guys at the computer repair shop next door. Well, I don't let it bother me. I see a lot of Hams on the highways, in cars and Big Rigs. Lots of ham shacks along the interstates. If I could just figure where they talk...
 

gewecke

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I find this all unfortuneate...

Well.............I WILL NOT BE DETERRED (dammmmit) :lol::D !!!

I have too many good memories tinkering with my stuff and enjoying my radios back then. I still remember the first time I figured out how to get an SWR reading off of the antenna I put on my roof and realizing that it was working GOOD.... Heck, I even got out my soldering iron and started playing again. Lost my touch a little bit, but it seems to come back fast.

It may get lonely, but, hey, SOMEONE'S gotta keep trying......:wink:

Plus, call me crazy/old school/old-fashioned, but, I kind of pride myself in trying to get my license back/reinstated/renewed/retested. Any monkey can send a text, but, I like the feeling of self-sufficiency and the feeling of developing some expertise "over and beyond." And, did I mention it is fun and satisfying?

I could still kick myself for letting my ticket expire, but, it was a turbulent time some years ago, and I had my hands full with my job and other stuff like moving overseas for a bit.

Heck, when they announce American Idol winners there's no open cells on my phone to be had as it is.....:twisted:

2 meters has become a wasteland of evolved cb'ers and elderly coffee clutch groups, if you want real operators then tune around from 222-225mhz. or 442-446mhz.

73,
n9zas
 

k8krh

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2 mtrs

Its dead around here in Southern Indiana..but...packet has increased around the area after years of silence, just run to 145.050 and operate/listen for packet, you have a computer and multipsk has free packet in it.
Also try sstv, some activity, and simplex some activity, repeaters are dead...
Hope you pass and get the ticket
DOCTOR795

OK TRY THIS CLUB
http://www.ohkyin.org/sstv_net.php
They use a sstv rptr in town and more activities, I can find.
http://www.ohkyin.org/membership_page.php

http://web.me.com/rmkuns/cfmc/


This will keep you busy
 
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zz0468

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2 meters has become a wasteland of evolved cb'ers...

LOL! They evolved?

To the OP... there are pockets of activity around, but for the most part 2 meters isn't nearly what it was. Part of the problem is the reduced need for it for basic communications, everyone has a cellphone now. Another part of the problem is there is an over abundance of repeaters, so the real activity is spread pretty thin.

But at least in metropolitan areas on the left coast, there is still a great deal of activity on VHF and UHF. I can't speak for the rest of the country.
 

Howdy_All

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Well guys - I got to admit - I don't have the same problems you do, to the extent that you do.

I can remember things going both ways, the noisy repeaters when they were new and everyone wanting to talk all at once and the silence of the lambs the last few years with no one talking on the repeaters.
It was so bad here in western Pennsylvania that I actually had to take a Winegard 8200U antenna and a Channel Master CM 7777 pre amp and hook it to my Uniden BC 890XLT scanner and program in every repeater for 120 miles just to hear something.

A little side note - the Winegard 8200 U antenna is the largest VHF / UHF television antenna made today and the Channel Master CM 7777 has around 23 DB of amplification.

One day while listening, I happened upon a group of people - The Over The Hill Gang - who had their morning meetings on a repeater 50 road miles away. The leader of the pack was a old codger - Bart and he was crying because his wife was sick and he couldn't take care of her or himself and he was going to have to go to the old soldiers home. It was so sickening you could cry.. A Korean War / World War II vet that had 10 kids, yet none of them would help him.
His wife died and he went to the old soldiers home and a month later he died also.
The net was taken over by a couple of old CB'rs who thought they were expert communicators and claimed to be religious.
I think I belonged to that net for about 2 months before I figured those people out and told them off.
There was a lot of bad blood between us.
The bottom line was they put me at the end of the list and as people died or moved away or new people were added, I remained at the end of the list - or the back of the bus as they called it.

At the same time, a linked repeater system gradually came to town.
They took over every repeater that was not being used and they linked it to 30 other repeaters elsewhere that was not being used and they called it the WAN Repeater system. Not VOIP and not Echolink - their own backbone connected to the Target system.

For a while, there were lot's of people to talk to.
It was new and people heard about it and people wanted to try out their old crappy walkie talkies to see if they could still hit the repeaters and could make a contact or two.
Those people quickly diminished to the point of where now the system is only being used 3% of the time.
That's 50 repeaters divided into 24 hours a day and they still can't get more then 50 people on the repeater in a day, even with VOIP and Echolink clients. Average conversation is about 3 minutes.

Starting out with a linked repeater system, the old timers all talking simplex, 30 repeaters sitting idle all day with no one to talk to, I finally got disgusted and moved up to HF.
I have 5 - count em 5 UHF / VHF radios. 2 of them are Yaesu 8900R's that are quad banders - 10 meters, 6 meters, 2 meters, and 440 and still I can't find anyone to talk to most days in the afternoons or evenings.
In my honest opinion - linked repeaters are a monument to the stupidity of man.
They are as bad as Echolink - are designed to get more people to use amateur radio without actually spending money on real amateur radio equipment and are there to give the people who are stupid to pass a 35 question multiple guess test to get their General ticket a place to play where they can act as if they are on the HF using real radios.

They might as well just use Skype or Yahoo Messenger...
 

k3cfc

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Don't feel bad Grumpy i live in Snyder county pa and i am the only one in the county that is a licensed operator.
 

n9mxq

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Mayhaps all those that were on 2 meters 10 years ago have since taken advantage of the no-code HF licenses and have upgraded and moved down to lower frequencies.

Back then, all techs were pretty much sandwiched into the what was then the "popular" band. 2 meters is still highly active around here, but the faces have changed a lot.
 

ScanWV

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Its the same where I live and work. The only time I hear any activity on 2m is on the way to work. And it seems that they are usually talking politics or some hams health problems. Last year we had severe weather with tornado activity and never heard a thing.
I hear some on 2m talking about who they are talking to at the same time on HF freqs. I don't have an HF radio due to there are other priorities in my budget. I've had my license for about 4 years and sometimes feels like a waste of my time. I'll sit in my garage where all my radio equipment is tinkering with antennas. Maybe when my budget allows I can be more active, but for now 2m and 70cm is all i got.
 

N9NRA

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Hey there. Around here in WI, wether there`s any activity really depends on where ya go, now around THIS area (central WI) a lot of the activity on 2M (and 440 too) is going digital, DSTAR and P25, there`s still some analog activity, but it has decreased in the years. But around the SOUTHERN part of this atate there can be lots of chatter to be found if ya know what repeaters/simplex freqs to be on, it really just depends on where ya are, and what freq you happen to have your radio parked on :). 73. N9NRA
 

ab9ws

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i was always told....to many listening and not enough talking.......i always try to keep the local machines warm during the winter and summer....just to let people know im there listening
 
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