SKIP Tue 23rd May 8:44PM EDST

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mciupa

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Toronto, Canada hearing Mississippi Highway Patrol on 42.16 @ 7:30 pm. :cool:
 

nexus

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mciupa said:
Toronto, Canada hearing Mississippi Highway Patrol on 42.16 @ 7:30 pm. :cool:

FYI the Cars will be transmitting on 42.2400 and the dispatch on 42.16...

That's a pretty good haul up there.. wow..
 

kb2vxa

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Hi guys,

Oh, I expect the forum will be deluged with "skip reports" for the next month or so, it's the time of the season for loving (DX). Pardon me if that song by the Hollies is stuck in my head. (;->)

Since FM is a power hungry mode and signals have to be quite strong to be intelligable SSB is where it's at. If you have a receiver capable that tunes the Amateur bands listen on 6M from 50.1 to 51.1 and you'll hear plenty of action when the band is open. The calling frequencies are 50.110 for DX and 50.125 US and if you copy CW you'll hear plenty of beacons in that portion of the band. Many hams appreciate SWL reports and will QSL, look up the callsigns on www.qrz.com for info. Since CW, AM (you'll hear it too) and SSB are horizontally polarized you may consider a horizontal diople broadside east-west since that's where most of the DX comes from. A Scantenna or equivelent is a dipole and may be mounted horizontally with an adapter plate.

Helpful hint, don't program PL since it severely limits your reception, I don't know why you bother to include them in your posts. Several may be using the same tone so that's no way to identify stations.

Edited for additional information.
 
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LarrySC

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Yea, I played that 40m game on CW back in the 60's. Lot of fun. Old people cant send CW. But playing radio with a low band scanner is real easy.
 

mciupa

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nexus said:
FYI the Cars will be transmitting on 42.2400 and the dispatch on 42.16...

That's a pretty good haul up there.. wow..

On the flip-side.... I gotta ask , nexus , when conditions are good , what areas are you able to pick up ?
Ever snag any Canadian Lo-band , or Northern U.S. ?
 

nexus

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I keep my gear in the vehicle and don't get many chances to hear any DX. And I don't monitor anything on the lower frequencies. I'm only scanning two 800mhz TRS's 98% of the time. On my Yaesu FT-8900 I can tell when there is an opening when I key up on any of the local repeaters and hear the ID of three other distant repeaters come ontop of the tail.

in the past I've talked 2meter simplex with stations 400 miles or better away.
 

kb2vxa

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Hi again,

Larry, waddya mean old people can't send CW? Some of the best CW only ops (yeah, not a mic to be seen) are OFs, some are ex commercial ops that run rings around the rest at speeds up to 40 to 60 WPM.

Nexus, if I don't see the S meter rising on one of the repeater channels in memory (most around here are PL and I use tone squelch) I kerchunk a known crowded pair without PL and see what comes back. If something does I QSY to the weak signal portion of the band and call CQ. Once in a while however if I find a distant repeater active I'll break in and ask where it is. I have opened some very interesting QSOs that way. I too have operated DX on simplex. Just wait for the Summer Sprint and hope for an opening, you'll be deluged with contesters looking for points. I often hand them out by the bushel, working the same station on multiple bands gives them those coveted multipliers.

Now don't you scanner jockeys wish you could get in on the action? Don't just sit there listening, get a ham license and start talking! This PSA has been brought to you by KB2VXA Radio, opinions expressed are certainly those of the operator who if captured or killed the FCC will not disavow any knowledge of his actions. This message will not self destruct unless the server does and you'll hopefully not go looking for another site but will get on the air.
 

nexus

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kb2vxa said:
Hi again,
Nexus, if I don't see the S meter rising on one of the repeater channels in memory (most around here are PL and I use tone squelch) I kerchunk a known crowded pair without PL and see what comes back. If something does I QSY to the weak signal portion of the band and call CQ. Once in a while however if I find a distant repeater active I'll break in and ask where it is. I have opened some very interesting QSOs that way. I too have operated DX on simplex. Just wait for the Summer Sprint and hope for an opening, you'll be deluged with contesters looking for points. I often hand them out by the bushel, working the same station on multiple bands gives them those coveted multipliers.

We have two repeaters here that use CTCSS and it's only a tone in, they don't broadcast or allow the tone to pass through, so nothing on my radios have decode enabled, just encode. So any time I key up during ducting I hear the whine of several repeaters mixing together. I'm never in my vehicle long enough to QSO with anyone anymore though. I mostly listen to the two public safety TRS's here when mobile. What I miss is using my Kenwood TS-440S, TS-450SAT and Collins S-Line. I got into ham radio at the height of the sunspot cycle and tore the hell out of 10 meters SSB. Every so often I check the solar activity and listen for beacons or WWV on 20 meters but it never comes in strong enough over the noise level.
 

VA3QRM

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29.600, 52.525 Fm /29.000-29.100, 50.600 Am

Nexus, I'm up in EN82 ( in Canada 'eh', across from Detroit Mi. ) and have worked plenty of E-skip to the south only running QRP and vertical. I'll look for your big signal from the FT8700 the next time the band cracks wide open.
73de VA3QRM
 

KR4BD

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Conditions were quite good tonight. Around 8 PM, I made contact with VP9GE in Bermuda on 50.117 mHz SSB (upper sideband). I was running 100 watts into a 6 meter vertical antenna (Cushcraft Ringo) up only 20 feet. Over the years, I have worked (made contact with) 47 states on 6 meters (50-54 mHz) and about two dozen countries including England, France, Greenland and Ecuador. And, for those who do not have their ham licenses yet, you can operate on 6 meters with the no-code Technician license (Very Easy to get!).

Also, For those of you who are old fashioned like me, and still have an outdoor TV antenna, there was some interesting TV DX tonight as well.
 
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