where are all the 2 meter operators?

[merlin]

Been a bit qiet here too, maybe a morning commuter and weekent net call ins.

 

[a727469]

New hams, but they should just get an android tablet and download DroidStar and Peanut and Repeater Radio (on Apple). 😉🧐

What would you suggest for a new ham with very limited finances? If we want to keep this hobby alive, the more options , the better. While internet based things are great and useful and should be a part of the hobby, , I believe the title of this post is 2 meters and the hobby is “Amateur Radio” not Internet.

 

[AC9KH]

What would you suggest for a new ham?

There hasn't been any of those in the area here in quite a few years either. Cell phones have almost completely replaced ham radio as far as being "useful". When the club did exist here did they use their 2m repeaters to communicate among the club and pass information around? Nope. They used cell phones, Instagram and Facebook and held their club "meetings" on Google Meet.

 

[a727469]

Interesting. Not much different in my area.

 

[K6GBW]

sad to say it but i kinda got back into ham radio becaue i made it to 70 and am planning on slowing down,thinkin id get on my radios n talk to others when im not working. looks like im going to be talking to myself at this rate

Upgrade to General and get on 40 meters. I’m betting there’s a rag chew frequency around you. I do two nets every morning then go to our BS hang out frequency and we can talk all day if we want to.

 

[KF0SKV]

The repeaters in my area are quiet during the day, towards the evenings there are a few guys that pop up. The nets are active with lots of activity. The 70cm repeater is linked to various nets from across the country and is active too.

 

[OkieBoyKJ5JFG]

There are a lot of repeaters in my area -- 39 that I can regularly or occasionally hit, counting 2m and 70cm. Most of them rarely have any traffic. The ones in the smaller outlying towns actually seem to get more use than the ones in the metro area. My local amateur radio club maintains one that gets used quite a bit. On that one, if you announce that you're on air and mobile, you'll usually have someone strike up a conversation with you.

I went from central Oklahoma to Branson MO for Christmas and programmed in the repeaters along the way. About half the time, I could find someone to chat with for at least a few minutes, even though I hardly heard anyone else on the air, so there seem to be a lot of people just listening. I think most of the excitement these days is on the much longer wavelengths. I'm told that before cell phones, amateur radio repeaters got a lot of use. I guess that makes sense. 2m and 70cm repeaters are mostly useful for local communication and people have gone to phones for that.

(Just now I heard two guys on one of the Oklahoma City repeaters talking about their chickens. They're literally the only people I've heard on it, but they converse several times a day. It's like they have their own private repeater. That's kinda cool. If there were anyone with an amateur license I wanted to chat with regularly, I'd probably pick one of the ones I never hear used and do the same thing.)

 

[robertwbob]

Maybe UHF isn't the way to go for you Robert. HF/VHF still rocks despite what the walkie-talkie crowd says. Taking the General exam certainly opens up many more possibilities if you haven't already. A beam on that new tower would certainly open up some windows.

7 3

I was leaning that way and the queen of the house said NO MORE RADIOS OR STEPPING UP. She dont like radios we talk on.sadly she knows hi,low band radios too im screwed on that subject.thought about taking test n sneak 1 in but she is like aa good bird dog,she will find out.same woman cant see big chughole in road though

 

[robertwbob]

There are a lot of repeaters in my area -- 39 that I can regularly or occasionally hit, counting 2m and 70cm. Most of them rarely have any traffic. The ones in the smaller outlying towns actually seem to get more use than the ones in the metro area. My local amateur radio club maintains one that gets used quite a bit. On that one, if you announce that you're on air and mobile, you'll usually have someone strike up a conversation with you.

I went from central Oklahoma to Branson MO for Christmas and programmed in the repeaters along the way. About half the time, I could find someone to chat with for at least a few minutes, even though I hardly heard anyone else on the air, so there seem to be a lot of people just listening. I think most of the excitement these days is on the much longer wavelengths. I'm told that before cell phones, amateur radio repeaters got a lot of use. I guess that makes sense. 2m and 70cm repeaters are mostly useful for local communication and people have gone to phones for that.

(Just now I heard two guys on one of the Oklahoma City repeaters talking about their chickens. They're literally the only people I've heard on it, but they converse several times a day. It's like they have their own private repeater. That's kinda cool. If there were anyone with an amateur license I wanted to chat with regularly, I'd probably pick one of the ones I never hear used and do the same thing.)

Now you mentioned christmas,they were busy a week .as you went by not far from my house i was on some then like just before thr first it grew quiet

 

[a727469]

I was leaning that way and the queen of the house said NO MORE RADIOS OR STEPPING UP. She dont like radios we talk on.sadly she knows hi,low band radios too im screwed on that subject.thought about taking test n sneak 1 in but she is like aa good bird dog,she will find out.same woman cant see big chughole in road though

My wife has been extremely tolerant of my hobby for many years even though she has no interest. Frankly if my wife said no more radios that would be a very big problem😢. We each respect each others hobbies.
Off topic but maybe there should be another topic for discussion as far as one’s husband, wife or significant other and how they feel about the hobby and the money spent. Might be some interesting comments 😵‍💫

 

[k6cpo]

My wife has been extremely tolerant of my hobby for many years even though she has no interest. Frankly if my wife said no more radios that would be a very big problem😢. We each respect each others hobbies.
Off topic but maybe there should be another topic for discussion as far as one’s husband, wife or significant other and how they feel about the hobby and the money spent. Might be some interesting comments 😵‍💫

Go ahead and start one... I could add some very interesting comments.

 

[robertwbob]

the Mounds,Okla repeater was active yesterday. i was also. interesting how far 65 watts on good antenna run through good coax will reach and recieve. talked never needing the mirage

 

[OkieBoyKJ5JFG]

the Mounds,Okla repeater was active yesterday. i was also. interesting how far 65 watts on good antenna run through good coax will reach and recieve. talked never needing the mirage

Occasionally I can hear the Mounds repeater clearly in Purcell, which is 94 miles away. I assume it has something to do with atmospheric conditions. I have never tried to hit it, although next time I may just for grins.

 

[K9KLC]

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.

I can occasionally hit that repeater from 30 miles east of St. Louis. It's got great coverage.

 

[K9KLC]

They've all gone to DMR. That's the future of ham radio, I hate to say. You can get a hotspot, a $10 'feng and talk to whomever you want. You don't need to worry about range to a repeater, big antennas, etc., and repeater owners don't have to worry about expensive equipment, climbing mountaintops and towers, which are becoming ungodly expensive, because they're occupying space that the cell companies are wiling to pay big bucks for.

I don't do a lot of VHF or UHF, but I have a hotspot at home and one in my car. That's about all I use.

I used a hotspot long enough to help get some friends set up and working. It's sat for a couple years now gathering dust. I still have enough pi's and hats to build a couple more and just thought "why"??

I guess if I was confined to a nursing facility or something I'd revisit it but for now I just don't see the appeal. To each their own. It's a great hobby widely diversified, with something for everyone. Enjoy.

 

[KF0NYL]

I can occasionally hit that repeater from 30 miles east of St. Louis. It's got great coverage.

And the coverage is even better since we replaced the old repeater, Allstar node/ controller and 4 can duplex. We went with a Motorola Quantar, Arcom RC-210 controller and a 6 can duplexer. The Quantar is the 125 watt version and we have it set for around 55-60 watts out after the duplexer.

We have had guys get into our 2m repeater from Ironton, Mo, Lake of the Ozarks, and Calhoon County Ill. Some guys can get into the repeater from around Kirksville and Chillicothe Mo.

There is a repeater in Waterloo, Ill that is on the same frequency as our 2m repeater. I can sometime pick the Waterloo repeater up from my house. That can cause problems at times. They are supposedly not using PL tones yet we can still hear people on that repeater. Our's is a lot more powerful and has a bigger cover area so I'm sure the guys in the St Louis area that use the Waterloo repeater love us.

 

[alcahuete]

I just don't see the appeal.

The appeal is that you don't have to worry about putting up an external antenna or having a big radio. This is especially true in a car. I can sit on my bed with a 1 Watt handheld and use Allstar or DMR to get into any of the repeaters. If I didn't use the radio in my car for other things, I would absolutely get rid of it and just use my hotspot. I don't do a lot of VHF/UHF, but when I travel (which I do a decent amount of for work) I can use my hotspot and handheld right in the car. I'm certainly not going to carry a mag mount around with me for the rental car.

The other draw is that not every location has repeaters, and certainly not busy repeaters. Look at a lot of the replies in this thread. The repeaters are dead in a lot of places. Hotspots give you a chance to actually do ham radio and talk to other people, instead of just talking to a courtesy tone with nobody else on the other end.

 

[robertwbob]

Occasionally I can hear the Mounds repeater clearly in Purcell, which is 94 miles away. I assume it has something to do with atmospheric conditions. I have never tried to hit it, although next time I may just for grins.

you might be suprized. your about same level from mounds ,maybe tad lower.
1 thing ive got going for me. i live in very north eastern jasper county mo. a ridge runs west a ways. im at 10 ft from the top of that ridge. my antenna is 60 ft to base. to my east and north my range isnt as good elevation rises . to south and west its wide open heading south and west.
i can easily get to most repeaters and talk in northwest arkansas,northeast okla. and southeast kansas. coffeyville is about as far as i can work kansas. but oklahoma i get way down there .
the mcalaster repeater must be 1 huge repeater. i get it pretty strong almost any day never a bad opening.
not sure but spring river and its tributarys work their way in okla.and i live just above deer creek that ends up in spring river thinking that helps my signal travel?
give it a try. if you can hold it open maybe we could plan a date and see if we could talk to each other on it.

 

[MTS2000des]

A lot of them are being bought by preppers with idea that they'll be useful when normal means of communication fail. That's not entirely fantasy, because it did turn out to be true in the wake of Hurricane Helene. However, I think a lot of preppers fail to appreciate that this is not just a "better, more powerful" version of the FRS radios you buy at WalMart. The most critical question is this: Who are you going to talk to in an emergency? If it's just people in your immediate area, probably an FRS or at most GMRS radio will do the job with very little learning curve, but if you hope to talk to someone outside the immediate area, you need to have that figured out ahead of time. There is no "emergency channel" being monitored 24/7. You need to make a plan and practice it ahead of time. When you're surrounded by what used to be houses is not the time to figure out how to program your radio. Some do and some don't.

A Baofeng UV-5r or similar is actually a pretty decent, useful radio. It won't stand up to abuse or long use at a high duty cycle like some top-tier radios, but if you don't use it much, it can suit your needs just fine. A 5 watt HT can hit quite a few repeaters from my house, but I have them all programmed in already. I'm banking on people monitoring them when they know a tornado just demolished my hometown.

So...a long rant to say, right now it's preppers buying most of them. In the event of a Hurricane Helene-like event, some preppers may get very good use out of them, but I'll bet a lot of them might as well be carrying a pound of scrap metal.

The other failure in the chain of the prepper whacker types is these low budget handhelds require infrastructure that someone else provides, which may or may not be available, "when all else fails". What makes a ham is not the hoard of Chinese road apple radios and molle carriers, orange vests, etc- it's the SKILL SET of the operator to setup equipment, and infrastructure, when there is none, know what to use and when, and yes, as you said, have someone else to pass traffic to.

 

[K9KLC]

The appeal is that you don't have to worry about putting up an external antenna or having a big radio. This is especially true in a car. I can sit on my bed with a 1 Watt handheld and use Allstar or DMR to get into any of the repeaters. If I didn't use the radio in my car for other things, I would absolutely get rid of it and just use my hotspot. I don't do a lot of VHF/UHF, but when I travel (which I do a decent amount of for work) I can use my hotspot and handheld right in the car. I'm certainly not going to carry a mag mount around with me for the rental car.

The other draw is that not every location has repeaters, and certainly not busy repeaters. Look at a lot of the replies in this thread. The repeaters are dead in a lot of places. Hotspots give you a chance to actually do ham radio and talk to other people, instead of just talking to a courtesy tone with nobody else on the other end.

I understand all of this. I built them for friends and messed with them during that time for a few weeks. Their reasoning was similar to yours.

To each their own. It's a great hobby widely diversified, with something for everyone. Enjoy.

Also this was further in my reply: If you enjoy them, get out and use them. Simply at this time in my life, they're not for me. Just like I don't do FT8 but I have a friend that does and watching him do it is fun to watch. Again, enjoy and 73.