2 meter simplex

[Rt169Radio]

Hi all,I was reading a interesting thread at the QRZ site about the main 2 meter simplex freq(146.520) and it got me thinking about how many Hams on this fourm use it?

IHRAS Launches "National Simplex Monitoring Team"

Do you listen to it? Do you put your callsign out on it?

 

[gewecke]

I listen to it on weekends but rarely talk on 2 meters, 220 & 440 is more my bag! :wink:

73,
n9zas

 

[n9mxq]

While I was a truck driver I monitored, and tried to talk on 52 daily, I found that it's far from a calling freq, I listened to one station for damn near half of Indiana, never did hear who he was talking to. I did break in and ask if he knew it was supposed to be a calling freq, and basically got told to mind my own effing business.

 

[K9WG]

An interesting story....

When I passed my Technician test (1977) I bought a used Regency HR-2A and set it up with a 1/4 wave home brew ground-plane. One day I was listening on .52 and heard an operator calling CQ. I answered, we talked for several minutes, and I found that he was just two streets away. I went over to meet him and found out that he had been licensed since the 1960s. He was using an old GE Progress line commercial transceiver (think trunk mount with power supply) and only had two channels, both simplex. He had never operated a repeater or know how one worked.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

I listen to .52 now and again but rarely talk on it. I tend to use 146.400 with a couple of people I know or 446.0 there is a particular ham that I try and avoid talking to he is a know it all about everything and been a ham for just over a year. He likes to use our linked system so as many people hear him as possible, and most of us don't want to hear him!!!

 

[k8krh]

Simplex

I try if I remember to listen on it in the am only, surprising what you hear either nothing, or work station a 100 plus miles, on the weekends in nice weather sometimes an aero/mobile might show up and have talked to boats transiting the OHIO river, but it remains quiet a lot..equipment ALINCO 50 watts xcvr/antenna omni directioal <jetstream> vertical on a roof mount..
DOCTOR

 

[KK4DAN]

I have the 520 simplex programmed in all my radio's and scanner and frequently listen to it and sometimes make contacts on it. I also have a lot of other simplex frequencies programmed in there and listen to those although its even rarer to hear anything on those frequencies.

 

[rfburns]

I'm usually monitoring 52.525, 146.52, 446.0 and 223.5 when I'm in my vehicle. Also I have another half dozen 2M simplex chs going in the scanner. I also have APRS going in the vehicle. Most of my contacts are on 446.0 or 223.5.

 

[SCPD]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)
... there is a particular ham that I try and avoid talking to he is a know it all about everything and been a ham for just over a year. He likes to use our linked system so as many people hear him as possible, and most of us don't want to hear him!!!

Wonder if I know this person ... ? Err .. I think so.

 

[AK9R]

There are also some interesting comments in:

http://forums.radioreference.com/am...ion/195075-fm-simplex-activity-your-area.html

 

[jaymatt1978]

I too have 146.5200 programmed in all my adios, including scanners and transceivers

 

[Raptor05121]

I use it all the time.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

Yea, you do... The really loud guy!!! should be familiar with the Vhf simplex frequency too!!! I'm just glad he does not know about RR!!!

 

[emd001]

I have .52 on the scan list when im in the truck. Didn't know about 446.0 for some reason, so that will go into the list tomorrow morning. Made 1 contact on .52 last year, other than that its pretty quiet around here it seems like.

 

[Skypilot007]

Seems everyone is on .580 around the Philly area. There is even a live feed for it on here.

 

[newsphotog]

As an aside from the previously-mentioned http://forums.radioreference.com/am...ion/195075-fm-simplex-activity-your-area.html thread, yes I do listen to it and I do make calls on it every now and then. It is especially busy around travel holidays. As for calling vs. ragchew, it really depends on the region. Some people in certain areas get really flustered if you tie up 146.52 for too long, but then operators in other areas could care less.

 

[LowbandGuy]

I monitor 146.520 when I am mobile and it is in one of my scanners at home. I have made a few contacts while mobile and made one contact this past summer after hearing a guy come accross on the scanner, he was driving by my town on the Trans Canada Highway.

In our county we have one repeater 147.000 with a minus offset. Apparently this is unusual and the input is used as a simplex (146.400) in other areas in the US and Canada. So we get travellers passing through using the input as a simplex and we get to hear some interesting conversations. The repeater has a very large footprint ( the tower location is approx 300 metres in elevation or about 900') covering parts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI. Unless they are close by it is difficult to inform them.

We also include simplex in Exercise Handshake, a monthly EMO exercise that we have here in the Maritime Provinces.

 

[hcpholder]

I have the simplex frequencies programmed into my scanner and listen to them daily. If I hear anything I tune my HT up and try to make a contact.

 

[zz0468]

I used to have a 2 meter radio installed in my airplane, and would come up on .52 sometimes. It always created a pileup.

I haven't done that in many years, though. 2 meters has become a cesspool in LA. Further east, it's inhabited by a bunch of cowboys and country bumpkins that are just painful to listen to.

 

[ramal121]

I used to have a 2 meter radio installed in my airplane, and would come up on .52 sometimes. It always created a pileup.

Now that would be fun! When I mountaintop (rare these days) I try to pay attention to .52 and more often than not can snag a contact. Maybe 50 or 100 miles out, kinda fun. Otherwise scanning .52 while driving around the bottom lands is very lean. I hear a conversation or two a week tops. I don't bother making a call then because I figure no ones there. Wonder how many are on freq doing the same thing?