VHF/UHF contesting?

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W8OSP

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Anyone here into all bands of the VHF/UHF and up and contesting? I am starting back up again into radio from a 2 year hiatus. I want to get into 220, 900 and 1.2 and wondering during contest is there much activity in FM mode compared to SSB? Reason I am asking is it is easier to get FM rigs for 220, 900 and 1.2 than getting SSB.
 

w1wra

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Here in the north east during contests, most activity especially on the bands you mentioned are SSB. When I contested , I slowly added transverters for bands like 222 and 900. I was using a Kenwood ts2000x which covred 4 bands out of the box.

You may talk some people into trying an fm contact, but it maybe on the weak dignal portion of the band, and their antennas will almost certainly be horizontally polarized.

Whatever your decsion , have fun!

Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 4
 

KG4NEL

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Anyone here into all bands of the VHF/UHF and up and contesting? I am starting back up again into radio from a 2 year hiatus. I want to get into 220, 900 and 1.2 and wondering during contest is there much activity in FM mode compared to SSB? Reason I am asking is it is easier to get FM rigs for 220, 900 and 1.2 than getting SSB.

Most serious VHF/UHF'ers are going to be running transverters for those bands, using an HF rig as the IF.

Downeast Microwave, DB6NT and others sell ready-to-go units, so I don't know about FM being "easier"...cheaper, very likely :p
 

zz0468

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The vast majority of VHF/UHF contesting is on SSB and CW. Without those modes, you'll miss out on 98% of the activity.
 

zz0468

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Downeast Microwave, DB6NT and others sell ready-to-go units, so I don't know about FM being "easier"...cheaper, very likely :p

Even the "ready to go" transverter modules will take considerable work being integrated into a working station. Virtually all contest work above 1200 is done with transverters, so there's a wealth of information how to get started. But buying a ready made transverter module isn't cheap. Building your own can be almost free, if you know where to shop.
 

N2MRG

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I have a question about the VHF contest this weekend. I only have a functioning UHF FM radio. What frequencies should I program in? Am I likely to find anyone on 70cm?

446.00 ?
 
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N8IAA

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I have a question about the VHF contest this weekend. I only have a functioning UHF FM radio. What frequencies should I program in? Am I likely to find anyone on 70cm?

446.00 ?

Since you bumped an eight month old thread, unless the UHF radio is equipped with SSB as mentioned in the above posts, not too many contacts will be made.
When I used to participate in those contests, quite a while ago, I had an Icom 2m FM, SSB radio. Only made one contact on FM. The rest were on side band.
Larry
 

krokus

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The calling freqs are supposed to be avoided, in most contests.

You can program in other standard simplex freqs, and see what happens when you call "CQ contest"

Do not be too disappointed if you do not get much FM activity.

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902

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This is my favorite ham radio event!

I was up on 6, 2, and 432 this weekend. Got about 80 6 meter contacts with maybe 40 grid squares. Got 1 432 contact (on a vertical antenna) and 2 2 meter SSB contacts. 6 meters took a while to open up. Swept from the east coast to about Texas and then *poof* gone.

Maybe it'll open again in a bit.

I did one FM contact, and the majority were SSB and maybe 15 CW contacts at the height of activity. BTW, repeaters don't count for the contest.
 

Ghstwolf62

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Yeah they had some big thing out here this weekend too and a bunch went up to some nearby mountain. I picked them up on 144.204 something on USB.

They must have been busy, they never stopped talking. LOL
 

902

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Yeah they had some big thing out here this weekend too and a bunch went up to some nearby mountain. I picked them up on 144.204 something on USB.

They must have been busy, they never stopped talking. LOL
You probably would have enjoyed it if you stopped in. For a ham who's a scanner hobbyist, too, it's the best of both worlds. At least that's why I enjoy it a whole lot more than Field Day.

My older daughter got roped into being one of the organizers for Field Day for the local club. I think I might be out of the area for much of it, but she likes the activity for that event and usually ends up doing the cooking.
 

Ghstwolf62

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Unfortunately my days of camping out are over. Also I couldn't pick them up on my 8800. Had to use SDR off conversations I heard over regular channels. I suspect they have some specialized equipment in order to do side band on regular VHF and UHF channels.

It did sound interesting. Several of them were talking about what all was going on over a couple of local repeater channels so could follow a tiny bit of the fun they were having. :)
 
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