where are all the 2 meter operators?

robertwbob

KE0WRU
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Nov 17, 2015
Messages
468
Location
Northeast jasper county,missouri
yesterday i hauled a truck load wheat to the carthage,mo flour mill. long line so i get my hand held out.
over 10 good strong repeaters the hand held can hold on to. i gave my callsign asking cq. dead quiet . used t be operators on the repeaters lots. sad nobody uses them anymore.
i tried 70 cm and 2 meters n so quiet you could hear paint drying.
local clubs passed several new members with tech license. and not all work days.
 

rf_patriot200

Active Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2024
Messages
931
Location
Freeport, Illinois
yesterday i hauled a truck load wheat to the carthage,mo flour mill. long line so i get my hand held out.
over 10 good strong repeaters the hand held can hold on to. i gave my callsign asking cq. dead quiet . used t be operators on the repeaters lots. sad nobody uses them anymore.
i tried 70 cm and 2 meters n so quiet you could hear paint drying.
local clubs passed several new members with tech license. and not all work days.
It seems 2 meters and 70 Cm. is giant Party line in my area ! I have to go to 222 Mhz. to get Away from everyone !
 

nokones

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745
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Sun City West, AZ
I keep hearing that there are a gazillion 2 Meter & 70 CM repeaters in a lot of areas that are silent except for an occasional rollcall. It amazes me that the FCC allows all that spectrum just go you waste and not put to better use.

Can you imagine if the FCC would mandate narrowband emissions on just a smidgen of that spectrum, how many channels could be reallocated for other uses such as GMRS type radio services without significantly impacting the Amateur Radio Services? The aforementioned HAM Bands are a scarce and valuable resource and the HAMs can no longer continue to justify hoarding that amount of spectrum.

Of course, if the FCC would take such action to reallocate part of the Amateur Radio Services spectrum, that would make some HAMs very Sad, thus that would mean there would be more "Sad HAMs".
 

sloop

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Joined
Jul 19, 2008
Messages
366
Location
Lewisville, NC
Don't feel bad I have the same problem when I visit my son in up state Kentucky. I found that the active times were around 8am, 12, and 5pm...basically going to work, lunch, and going home from work. After 7pm (supper) and around 8pm when the nets started. Nothing like where I live...I can find someone to talk to on at least one of the many active repeaters. Unfortunately when in KY I find more activity on CB (ugh) than the vhf/uhf ham bands.
 

KF0NYL

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Joined
Oct 20, 2023
Messages
100
yesterday i hauled a truck load wheat to the carthage,mo flour mill. long line so i get my hand held out.
over 10 good strong repeaters the hand held can hold on to. i gave my callsign asking cq. dead quiet . used t be operators on the repeaters lots. sad nobody uses them anymore.
i tried 70 cm and 2 meters n so quiet you could hear paint drying.
local clubs passed several new members with tech license. and not all work days.
It's not much better here in Central Missouri either. The only repeater that has any amount of traffic (outside of nets) is the AA0RC 2m repeater in Mexico, Mo. Forget about the repeaters in Columbia, Mo, the only time you hear anyone on those is during their weekly nets. The Callaway County repeaters aren't much better.
 

rf_patriot200

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Joined
Feb 9, 2024
Messages
931
Location
Freeport, Illinois
I keep hearing that there are a gazillion 2 Meter & 70 CM repeaters in a lot of areas that are silent except for an occasional rollcall. It amazes me that the FCC allows all that spectrum just go you waste and not put to better use.

Can you imagine if the FCC would mandate narrowband emissions on just a smidgen of that spectrum, how many channels could be reallocated for other uses such as GMRS type radio services without significantly impacting the Amateur Radio Services? The aforementioned HAM Bands are a scarce and valuable resource and the HAMs can no longer continue to justify hoarding that amount of spectrum.

Of course, if the FCC would take such action to reallocate part of the Amateur Radio Services spectrum, that would make some HAMs very Sad, thus that would mean there would be more "Sad HAMs".
Gmrs and the Amateur radio services, are Separate for a reason, and the idea of combining two separate services in the Same spectrum space is Not a sound suggestion, Also mandating NFM is not wise either because Many of the transceivers Older and new don't incorporate Narrow band FM as a option. What is the problem with Gmrs in the current spectrum they occupy Now ?
 

Omega-TI

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Aug 12, 2021
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2,199
Location
Washington State
I keep hearing that there are a gazillion 2 Meter & 70 CM repeaters in a lot of areas that are silent except for an occasional rollcall. It amazes me that the FCC allows all that spectrum just go you waste and not put to better use.

I don't necessarily see it as a waste. Yes, many of the 2m repeaters are fairly quiet in my area, but when ARES/RACES is called out to work with the EOC/DEM in an emergency those repeaters can get quite busy. The government does not allocate those frequencies out of the goodness of its heart, it expects something out of it in return. Amateur radio operators have a long history of rising to the occasion and helping out in times of emergency. Those repeaters and frequencies are no different than someone keeping water or food in case of emergency, so I don't see them as a waste.
 

ecps92

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Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
15,051
Location
Taxachusetts
yesterday i hauled a truck load wheat to the carthage,mo flour mill. long line so i get my hand held out.
over 10 good strong repeaters the hand held can hold on to. i gave my callsign asking cq. dead quiet . used t be operators on the repeaters lots. sad nobody uses them anymore.
i tried 70 cm and 2 meters n so quiet you could hear paint drying.
local clubs passed several new members with tech license. and not all work days.
Depends on the time of day, most activity does revolve (depends on your area) the Morning/Evening Commute and outside of Mon-Fri work hours
 

OkieBoyKJ5JFG

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May 16, 2022
Messages
47
There's a fair amount of action on some of the 2m repeaters in my area. With one in particular, if you get on the air and indicate that you're mobile (which usually means you're driving somewhere and would enjoy a chat), someone will almost always respond. There are two other 2m repeaters in the area which get a bit less traffic but at least are alive. 70cm is essentially dead, except for one which holds a net once a week in memory of the guy who established it. There are 20 analog repeaters in my area, which does make me wonder why people are spending the money and energy to keep them up. I like having plenty of repeaters from the standpoint of emergency communication, but that doesn't help if nobody is listening to them.
 

DeoVindice

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Sep 27, 2019
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Gadsden Purchase
There's a fair amount of action on some of the 2m repeaters in my area. With one in particular, if you get on the air and indicate that you're mobile (which usually means you're driving somewhere and would enjoy a chat), someone will almost always respond. There are two other 2m repeaters in the area which get a bit less traffic but at least are alive. 70cm is essentially dead, except for one which holds a net once a week in memory of the guy who established it. There are 20 analog repeaters in my area, which does make me wonder why people are spending the money and energy to keep them up. I like having plenty of repeaters from the standpoint of emergency communication, but that doesn't help if nobody is listening to them.
I think I've made one contact on an analog repeater in the last month, and not for lack of effort - it's basically all silent except a morning net and an NTS net. It's basically necessary to use an MMDVM hotspot now, otherwise all you'll hear is dead air and CW IDs.

The near total lack of utilization doesn't bode well for the future. Seeing chunks of 2m and 440 redistributed to other services wouldn't surprise me.
 

GlobalNorth

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Fort Misery
Spectrum use for VHF/UHF is location contingent among amateurs and not all amateurs love that type of operation. Nets where 'what is your favorite flavor of ice cream' hold little appeal to me and I assume some others.

The last thing that the spectrum needs is more uneducated and self-serving stations ignoring mandated legal limits, all while acting as if they owned everything they see, hear, and touch.
 

GlobalNorth

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The near total lack of utilization doesn't bode well for the future. Seeing chunks of 2m and 440 redistributed to other services wouldn't surprise me.

Two meters? I agree. 70cm? I doubt it. PAVE PAWS radars operate there and DoD will get involved heavily, since the US is contemplating a new ABM system/systems and there aren't blocks of tens to hundreds of MHz available, outside of SHF and EHF.

Much of the 30 to 50 MHz band sits idle since public safety, utilities, industry, and other users have mostly abandoned that band. DoD is there, but outside of small unit tactical operations, technology has given them better options in communications.
 

DeoVindice

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Gadsden Purchase
Two meters? I agree. 70cm? I doubt it. PAVE PAWS radars operate there and DoD will get involved heavily, since the US is contemplating a new ABM system/systems and there aren't blocks of tens to hundreds of MHz available, outside of SHF and EHF.

Much of the 30 to 50 MHz band sits idle since public safety, utilities, industry, and other users have mostly abandoned that band. DoD is there, but outside of small unit tactical operations, technology has given them better options in communications.
You know, I guess it doesn't technically count as redistribution when the system gets built out by the primary holder of the spectrum.
 

KF0NYL

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Oct 20, 2023
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100
Much of the 30 to 50 MHz band sits idle since public safety, utilities, industry, and other users have mostly abandoned that band. DoD is there, but outside of small unit tactical operations, technology has given them better options in communications.
Older military VHF radios used two sections of the VHF 30 to 50 MHz and 51 to 70 MHz. We use to have to be careful when using the old PRC-77 radios stateside so we would not interfere/block local TV stations.

We use to have basic trainees tune into the local TV station during coms training. One time a private keyed up and boy did we hear about it from the station.
 

AK9R

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I just checked into a weekly net on 2m. The same repeater sees lots of chatter during morning drive time and occasional conversations during the rest of the day.

Yes, VHF/UHF activity is very location dependent.
 

a727469

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Jul 15, 2003
Messages
611
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Maine
I keep hearing that there are a gazillion 2 Meter & 70 CM repeaters in a lot of areas that are silent except for an occasional rollcall. It amazes me that the FCC allows all that spectrum just go you waste and not put to better use.

Can you imagine if the FCC would mandate narrowband emissions on just a smidgen of that spectrum, how many channels could be reallocated for other uses such as GMRS type radio services without significantly impacting the Amateur Radio Services? The aforementioned HAM Bands are a scarce and valuable resource and the HAMs can no longer continue to justify hoarding that amount of spectrum.

Of course, if the FCC would take such action to reallocate part of the Amateur Radio Services spectrum, that would make some HAMs very Sad, thus that would mean there would be more "Sad HAMs".
May I assume you are not an amateur….or a sad ham…
I would agree that there definitely is a lack of usage in my area but the FCC has enough problems without stealing from hams.
There is an argument after yours that keeping the frequencies for either emergency or other usage (digital etc) and experimentation by hams does make some sense. It is not just about hearing voices.
You also mention GMRS. Again I cannot comment on other areas but in my area GMRS is not much more active than 2 meters or 440 so your argument on needing reallocation does not apply here.
I am not sure that I agree with you on the ham freqs being that valuable to others since the vhf/ uhf allocations are really not that large and many services are using much higher freqs such as cell phones, satellite etc and they are the ones needing the allocations.
 
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