29.620 Fm

[nexus]

I was driving home from work yesterday morning and scanning the 10meter FM band on my FT-8900R and I picked up 3 repeaters on 29.620 mHz FM. The strongest one was KQ2H in New York. Several people were working eachother through it for the duration of the morning.

I should mention I was using a 1/4 2meter antenna mounted on my car 1288 miles away driving down I-10 in Biloxi. The repeater is in NJ. But I was hearing stations from all over the US work through it.

So anyone wanting any interesting atmospeheric stuff to listen to...

Take your scanner and program 29.6200 mHz FM and let it randomly scan that channel. When the band is coming in you'll hear repeater Cler-chunks and beeps. CWID's and of course people chatting.

 

[illini52]

For that matter, scan 29.5-29.7 MHz for FM simplex and repeaters.

 

[kb2vxa]

It's the time, of the season, for E skip.

Doesn't that remind you of a song by The Hollies?

 

[Gilligan]

I'll never forget as a youngster with a scanner hearing my first skip. It was summertime and I had about a five foot telescoping antenna on my bike. I was riding along with these 10-meter ham repeaters in there hoping to hear the repeaters in my state. All of a sudden I was hearing repeaters ID from Washington/Oregon and Texas, all from Maryland. Boy was I excited. And later I remember hearing Corpus Christi, TX on the same band in my car.

 

[nexus]

thats pretty cool. granted the band isn't anything like it use to be, but its still nice to catch openings from time to time.

 

[ka3jjz]

Yeah, I kinda wish Yaesu didn't screw up the transmit section of the 8900 for 10m FM - it would have been a nice addition when I was looking for a new rig for my car. As I understand it - having researched this a little on the 8900 Yahoo group - the deviation is set way too low to open up most repeaters (I think this affects those that need a PL to open the receiver up...). I understand there's a mic mod to increase the deviation somewhat, but it's still not enough.

I hope that there's another mod 8900 users can do to fix this - in a couple of years, 10 will be hopping again. For now, though, enjoy the openings when they happen.

73s Mike

 

[gcgrotz]

It's the time, of the season, for E skip.

Doesn't that remind you of a song by The Hollies?

I think it was the Zombies?

I've had my '8200 in the truck searching 10m FM for a couple of days now and haven't heard anything here in central VA. I've also got the FT100 installed so if I hear something I might be able to work 'em.

I remember during sunspot peak in the 80s the county fire remote base on 46.46 kept getting blasted by Orange Co CA fire. You could even hear the units sometimes. The remote base had a link from the mtn on UHF so you could hear everything. Its all digital now (sniff...)

 

[N4UYV_Al]

Yeah, I kinda wish Yaesu didn't screw up the transmit section of the 8900 for 10m FM - it would have been a nice addition when I was looking for a new rig for my car. As I understand it - having researched this a little on the 8900 Yahoo group - the deviation is set way too low to open up most repeaters (I think this affects those that need a PL to open the receiver up...). I understand there's a mic mod to increase the deviation somewhat, but it's still not enough.

I hope that there's another mod 8900 users can do to fix this - in a couple of years, 10 will be hopping again. For now, though, enjoy the openings when they happen.

73s Mike

http://www.ham.dmz.ro/yaesu/ft-8900r-low-fm-deviation-on-10m.php & scroll down

 

[nexus]

KA3JJZ, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the input on it though...

And N4UYV, Thanks for the link. That mod seems easy enough, I don't have an antenna on the rig right now tuned for it but eventually I will, and then I'll test that mod out to see if it makes a difference. Either way thanks for the link thats helpful information I wasn't aware of.

 

[daleduke17]

About five minutes ago I was picking something up on 29.62 on my Pro-96. Very faint, heard some kind of tone about two seconds apart, then someone talking. I couldn't make it out though.

 

[daleduke17]

Found out what it was: It was the KQ2H repeater from New Jersey (like the op had).

It is fairly staticy and faint at 1912hrs Central Illinois Time.

 

[fuzzymoto]

I'm hearing the KQ2H right now. (I'm in PA)

 

[daleduke17]

That's cool.

Also, is there a way to find what other repeaters are on that frequency, or what other people have for repeater freqs?

 

[nd5y]

10m repeaters in the US are only allowed from 29.5 - 29.7 MHz.
99% of them are on the standard repeater channels of 29.62, 29.64, 29.66, 29.68
You can look up repeaters here http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/ but this site is notorious for having obsolete listings.

 

[nexus]

Dale just give it time and if you listen long enough you'll hear it come in strong. Some days I only get one or two bars on my smeter, and other times of the day I'll get over half of my bars. Just like ND5Y said program those few freqs in and you'll pretty much have the majority of the freqs used in the US for 10meter repeaters.

There is one on 29.640 I've heard too, but 620 seems to be the most active, well the KQ2H repeater that is.

 

[daleduke17]

That's cool, nexus. Thanks. I was just listening to a conversation on 620 maybe ten minutes ago, but, a small storm is going through eastern McLean County and is limiting reception.

 

[n7jei]

check out the yahoo group for 10 meter fm and there is a list of 10 meter repeaters and tones, etc.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi again,

Hollies or Zombies I don't know but if there's a zombie in your holly bush watch out.

Seriously (I hope) HF FM by the rules is narrow band unlike FM on VHF which uses 5KHz maximum deviation. I forget exactly what the requirement is off hand but a check of Part 97 will tell you. Keep the rules in mind when adjusting the deviation or two things will happen, your deviation will exceed the IF bandwidth of the receiver causing distortion and dropouts and you may get an ominous sounding letter from the FCC. If you don't have a Cushman or Marconi Station Monitor let someone who has adjust the transmitter. Alternately an FM deviation meter may be used (last I checked HRO sold them) but be sure to have it calibrated periodically, I really don't trust Amateur test equipment nearly as much as a laboratory standard.

As for the PL tone, it's usually set at 20% modulation with voice being 80% filling out the carrier. Again be careful, too light and the repeater won't open, too heavy and it may become audible or at least cause distortion in the voice. The rule of thumb is notch it up until the repeater opens and tweak just a LITTLE more and leave it there if you don't have that bit of test equipment available.

 

[n3wrx]

New KQ2H repeater Yahoo! group

Hi - just FYI for those interested.

A new Yahoo! group has been created specifically for the KQ2H repeater system (has repeater pairs on 10, tx only on 6, link to W2FLA on 2, 4 x 440 repeaters and a 900MHz system).

The name is

kq2h_repeater

It has system maps, documentation, photos, satellite images of the repeater towers, and more. Check it out - hope to see you there.

73 de n3wrx (Josh)

 

[n2kej]

KQ2h 6 meter repeater is rx only for now. That frequency is 53.73. I hear it all the time in Salem County NJ. I understand it is running close to 1 KW. With all the activity on the system, I use it to see how the band conditions are.

Steve
N2KEJ