Amateur Radio in Southern Ontario

[astropil00]

Hi All,

I recently passed my Amateur Radio license with the HF privileges to cross off an item on my list of things I've always wanted to do, after doing the scanning thing for a quite a long time. (I got excited after seeing the amateur radio booth at the Science Centre about a decade ago!).

The getting licensed coincided with a recent southern Ontario road trip and some hiking which was great. I had some time to play with APRS and other cool features on the HT I picked up. Digital and digital voice modes in particular have been some of the things that have seemed interesting to me and utilizing the internet for linking repeaters together (WIRES-X, Echolink, etc). I'm looking forward to playing on HF in the future and trying some satellites, too. So many things to do in this hobby that are exciting

Having said that, are things kinda dead on 2m and 70cm (at least on analog FM and digital voice (YSF in particular) in Southern Ontario.
Between the road trip, hiking, and scanning my area (Niagara) I have rarely heard anything apart from repeaters self-identifying, the occasional net, ker-chunking, and some jamming.
I'm not using the stock antenna on the HT and in the vehicle have an external antenna. I do get APRS traffic, some stuff from further away in NY state, etc. I tried WIRES-X as well and most of the Canadian rooms were not very active.

I've thought maybe a hotspot is what to get, but is it any different on DMR or D-star?

Thanks!

 

[mciupa]

Depends on the age demographic for V/U bands. In the mornings, you'll have young people mobile on their way to work that will be using repeaters. On the other hand, you have retired people like me, sitting at home with a cup of coffee, listening in and doing the odd radio check.

Have you joined RadioID.net?

 

[astropil00]

Depends on the age demographic for V/U bands. In the mornings, you'll have young people mobile on their way to work that will be using repeaters. On the other hand, you have retired people like me, sitting at home with a cup of coffee, listening in and doing the odd radio check.

Have you joined RadioID.net?

Thanks mciupa! I'll try to listen in more during particular times and throwing out my callsign a bit more frequently; I'd skew more towards the younger side being in my mid 30's; part of my issue might be that since the pandemic began my employer moved to WFH only so I'm not out on the road in the mornings too much, mostly just out to get groceries or food, etc locally.

Re: radioid.net - I had not heard of this site but have created an account - is this focused on DMR? My ht can only do ysf for digital but have been thinking to maybe try a hotspot if I might have more luck with that mode.

 

[mciupa]

It's mostly DMR and some NXDN. At least you will have a radio ID which is required, if and when you decide to explore DMR with a capable radio.

It's good to hear that younger people like you are getting into the hobby. Usually, it is because an older relative is already into it. Seems like most younger people would rather be entranced with their phones.