Issues Making first Ham Radio Contact

[hill]

Our repeaters id even 10 minutes even without any activity. Some are quiet, but some in my area have a lot use. You really need to spend some time monitoring the local repeaters, so you know which have traffic on them and at which times of the day. Going forward I know in time you will be pro on radio with new radio friends you talk with on regular basis. I have hams that talk with on 2m, 440 and DMR most work mornings and afternoons, plus others I talk with on the radio at other times.

We have a few repeater systems that have many repeaters linked together and both of them have a lot of traffic. One is five 440 repeaters that cover a good part of Maryland and into the nearby states. The other is a large 440 linked system that covers parts of four states and has has at least 15 repeaters or more on it. Maybe you can find some linked systems in your area, since they tend to have more activity.

I always try to reply to all hams heard on the local repeaters that I monitor. Sometimes I don't have a lot of time to chat with having something to do or getting to my location in the mobile. If short on time will acknowledge the other ham and tell my time on the radio is short, plus something like have a great day and I hope to talk with later when have more time.

 

[WB9YBM]

I have it set for high power which is 5 watts on the FT-60. It has middle (2 Watts) and low (0.5 Watts) power settings but I don't know when I would ever use them since 5 Watts doesn't seem to be very powerful.

Agreed 5 watts into a duck won't get far, but I've gotten about 30 miles with 5 watts and 3/8-wave antenna from the second floor of the house (into a repeater). Through several years of unofficial testing on 144 MHz & 220 MHz I've generally gotten about one mile per watt. (By "unofficial" I mean I didn't take a measuring tape to measure down to the last inch).

 

[hill]

I have to add to my other post that in my area we have some hams that really don't use repeaters, but talk on simplex 2m. Don't know if simplex is a thing in your area and if using simplex you will need more than a five watt HT. Simplex works ok mobile and great with an base antenna. Some common 2m simplex frequencies in use are 146.55, 147.525, and 147.57. Along with the National one of 146.52. The simplex frequencies could be different in your area, since some areas of the country use different spacing on 2 meters.

 

[n5ims]

Since you're in Plano, here's a few things to try. First off, check out the W5FC repeater on 146.88 (PL 110.9) with a -600 kHz offset. They have several nets and are quite welcoming of folks (the exception is an official RACES Skywarn net where you must be a registered RACES member to participate). The best spot for a list of these nets is DARC NETS | (w5fc.org) but listening to the repeater often will let you know of updates (they promote the nets regularly on the repeater).

The Richardson Wireless Klub, K5RWK (The Richardson Wireless Klub – K5RWK – Richardson Texas) and their repeater on 147.12 (PL 110.9) with a +600 kHz offset. That repeater has a parrot function on their main repeater (the backup doesn't if they're on it for some reason) with details here --> Repeater Information – The Richardson Wireless Klub (k5rwk.org). It also has quite a bit of activity and should be in range of Plano stations.

The Denton County Amateur Radio Association (Denton County Amateur Radio Association (dcara.net)) has a great repeater system on 146.92 (PL 110.9) with a -600 kHz offset. This repeater has several remote receivers across the area (there's one in McKenney even) so you should be heard pretty well on that system. Their full list of repeaters is on their site's Repeater Info page.

A few others to try are: The Plano Amateur Radio Klub, K5PRK has a few repeaters as well (with 2 more ready to be installed once their hospital sites allow access) (Repeaters – Plano Amateur Radio Klub (k5prk.net) ). You probably can also hit the Lake Area Amateur Radio Klub (K5LRK) (Amateur radio club | Lake Area Amateur Radio Klub | United States (k5lrk.com) ) repeater on 147.38 (PL 110.9) with a +600 kHz offset. The Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society (KB5A) (Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society | Ham Radio | United States (kb5a.org) ) who has several repeaters on their repeater page (Repeaters | Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society | United States (kb5a.org) ). Their main repeater is on 145.21 (PL 110.9) with a -600 kHz offset. Note that Plano and Metrocrest are working together on those 2 additional repeaters I mentioned and they're listed as "Under Construction" on the Metrocrest repeater page.

You may note that area clubs appear to like spelling club with a "K" as in Klub, but this is mostly to help folks understand their call signs easier. A "C" sounds so similar to B, D, E, G, P, T, and V that it often takes several tries to get the correct call across (also why the phonetic alphabet is recommended when giving your call out).

 

[TexTAC]

Thanks N5ims. That is a lot of great information and I really appreciate it. I have some of those repeaters programmed in and have been able to connect to the k5park and kb5a repeaters. I also connected to a k5bsa repeater but all I know is it is on a building at the University of Texas in Dallas. Not sure who operates it but it may be associated with the Richardson Wireless Klub. I haven't joined a net yet, but plan to do so soon. Thanks again.

 

[TexTAC]

I've had much better luck making contacts (2m/70cm band) over the past few days and thought I'd update this post with my experience hoping it helps someone else. As a new licensee, some of the advice I've received that really helped were:

(1) Antenna - obviously, better antenna and higher antenna definitely helps. I bought a dual band, mobile NMO antenna and put it up temporarily about 20' inside my house with a ground plane and it was a huge improvement over the upgraded rubber duck antenna. Much easier making contacts when your signal is clear and you can reach more repeaters.

(2) Notes - I started taking notes just to remember which repeaters I tried and who I made contact with. It's hard to remember callsigns unless I write them down. I hear some of the same people on the same repeaters so now I can remember which of them I spoke to in the past. When I hear someone I've spoken to before, I wait until their conversation is over, and then try to contact them again. Easy to strike up a conversation by saying "Hey, I spoke with you a few days ago and heard you back on the repeater ... thought I'd just say hi."

(3) Asking for signal checks - Instead of just requesting signal checks, I add a quick reason why .... "Just upgraded my antenna and hoping someone can give me a quick signal check" or "looking for confirmation that I am able to reach this repeater" works better than just "signal check".

(4) Responding to "Monitoring" and "Signal Checks" - I've had a lot more success responding when I hear someone else reaching out first. I figure they are probably in the same boat as me. After responding to one signal check, I had a ham help me by switching to various other repeaters with me to see if we were able to connect on different repeaters.

Over the past week, I have been able to make connections through repeaters that are 25 miles away (Large EOC Network in Denton) and 17 miles away (large repeater on top of one of the largest buildings in downtown Dallas) as well as numerous repeaters within 5-10 miles. Been alot of fun and am finding everyone helpful and friendly.