Making the most of whats left of the VHF/UHF bands

[kayn1n32008]

2 meter/70 centimeter band hasn't changed much since I became a ham. Yeah, there is some DMR action going on, a splatter of P25, NXDN and "digital mode du jour", but that's nothing.

We have a bit of analogue, DMR, Fusion and DStar. Mostly dead, unless you link TG91 on the BM repeater.

We're stuck with 40+ year old retired commercial repeaters running 25KHz channels blasting Morse code out into the ether with sad/old ham chasing off anyone that tries to use it, especially those "young whipper snapper kids" that don't kiss the feet of the old timers.

thankfully, we don't have the sad hams running the new guys and gals off.

The one place I saw some hams actually doing something useful for the people was a group that set up some 2.4GHz ham band mesh networks tied to cameras that let them watch for wildland fires.

That's pretty cool, sadly, we just don't have access to enough sites to build a decent microwave data network. It would be different if we were in BC with mountains. Sadly we have to rely on buildings and towers, that want real money to put equipment on their assets.

Imagine that, actually using amateur radio to do something useful, rather than talking about the weather, pretending to be "practically public safety" and the endless prepping/go-bags/when all else fails nonsense.

Yep.

Time for hams to put their big-boy/girl pants on, stop complaining, and do something useful with the resources they've been entrusted with.

Technology has moved on. Cell phones won. Most kids have no interest in playing with a walkie talkie. The tired old diatribe about kids needing to get interested in amateur radio, and a bunch of old hams trying to make it look "cool" didn't work. The comic books, cartoons, marketing failed.

Time to change the tactics and stop expecting amateur radio to return to what it was in the 60's/70's.

"It's worse than that, it's dead, Jim".

I agree. Adapt or die off.

 

[mmckenna]

That's pretty cool, sadly, we just don't have access to enough sites to build a decent microwave data network. It would be different if we were in BC with mountains. Sadly we have to rely on buildings and towers, that want real money to put equipment on their assets.

This system I was referring to was several years ago.
Meantime, the statewide fire agency and the big local utilities built out their own that far surpassed it with usefulness and coverage. Ham was there, but fell to the wayside when commercial users did it better.

But it's that kind of thing that hams need to be doing. Find places where the technology can actually help the world. Not just a radio party line.

I agree. Adapt or die off.

So many people are completely unable to do this. It's easier to complain than actually do something. It's even easier to complain when others join in. Suddenly it seems like that makes them right.

Amateur radio needs to adapt, make itself useful, or go away and we make it into yet another CB band and let the consumer destroy it or good.

 

[K9KLC]

So much for the airwaves belonging to the people. Well, they do, the "right" people.

Right now in the STL metro east if you get on about 18:00 local you will have absolutely NO problem finding people to work especially for the month of January. This event is happening in a few other areas also.

 

[K6GBW]

"Time to flush out the cobwebs and decay and make something out of what you have."

This and stop the monopoly on frequency pairs. Out here in LA we have some guys that have 8-10 repeater pairs. They put up repeaters and link them and then make them private. It ridiculous, when you look at repeater book out here fully 80 percent of the repeaters are private or closed. Then there are the guys that want to link into everything, and they get all bent out of shape if you actually use the repeater to talk to someone. We have several clubs out here that are really more like businesses. They gobble up frequencies, put up a bunch of repeaters, and then charge people to be on the system. So many hams now have this "get off my lawn" attitude. It's no wonder newcomers get licensed, show up on the air and very quickly ditch ham radio because there are so many jerks.

Even HF isn't immune, we have a clown on one of my morning nets that like to key up and blow into the microphone. Then he'll bang it on the desk just to screw with people.

 

[pb_lonny]

Sadly a bit the same here in VK land.

 

[Spider255]

I went to a Ham Radio club some years back that was a bit like that, the kinda place where if your face didn't fit you wasn't made to feel welcomed then they changed venues and didn't want to tell others from outside there own circle of buddies where it was so there was no Ham Radio club for many for quite a while then when they finally told other people many didn't bother going back and just turned up for the surplus table sales to buy stuff.

Thankfully since then there are more Ham radio clubs about in my area which are more welcoming.

 

[K6GBW]

I’ve been spending more time lately on simplex. Here in Los Angeles we have a colorful cast of characters that hang out there. You can find people to talk to most anytime on 146.520. The problems is, once they start talking they won’t shut up!

 

[Spider255]

There was a net on in the evening although only about 5 people which is about average now days. It was a short net I was hoping it would have lasted a bit longer but I'm satisfied I got to talk to some people on 2 meters.

I wish more used simplex whether that be FM, SSB or Digital. I may have a go at building a mag loop for 80m at some stage.