Question on Ham Radio bands

[Rt169Radio]

Hello all,I was wondering which of these two ham radio bands are used for events like bicycle races,running races,parades,events and etc. where Ham Radio operators do volunteer communications?
The 2 meter band or the 70 centimeter band?

Which one is used the most? Or is either one only allowed for event communications?

Thanks,
Rt169Radio

 

[wsykes41770]

It depends on the Ham operators in your area. When I lived in Memphis, we used 2m repeaters for most events of this nature. There are a ton of 2m repeaters in Memphis, so this wasn't an issue. I have heard of events where 70cm was the band of choice. There is no Part 97 regulation over what can be used. It just boils down to what will do the job and what the operators have to do the job with. Hope this helps.

Wayne
W4SYK

 

[reedeb]

It depends on the Ham operators in your area. When I lived in Memphis, we used 2m repeaters for most events of this nature. There are a ton of 2m repeaters in Memphis, so this wasn't an issue. I have heard of events where 70cm was the band of choice. There is no Part 97 regulation over what can be used. It just boils down to what will do the job and what the operators have to do the job with. Hope this helps.

Wayne
W4SYK

YUP!! What he said!!

 

[n5ims]

Since those events are generally fairly long (several hours) and may have times when there's lots of communication going on they're often on the lesser used repeaters in an area so the more heavily used ones aren't affected. Like was said above, this may put them on 2 or may put them on 70 cm.

With the dual band mobiles and handheld radios being very common now days, the choice is now more often convenience and coverage while in the past when dual-band radios were rare the choice was more what band is most of our people's radio cover.

One other thing to check with events of this type is APRS and even packet radio. Mobiles in the race often will have APRS on to help folks easily see where they are and packet may be used to relay data from checkpoints back to a central location. (I say one thing since both are packet related, you may count this as two things and I would respect that.)

 

[Rt169Radio]

Thanks for the info.