where are all the 2 meter operators?

[Spider255]

Sadly we are seeing the end of radio... 2 meters is dead here in London as well & 70cms and 4 meters. I'm a bit cheesed off about it to be honest because I loved the upper bands, it all seems to be voice over internet now, why get a license if all people are going to do is use internet and call it ham radio its silly.

There is still a tiny bit of life left in the upper bands but the future of the hobby is not looking good. I will enjoy whats left of it. HF will always be there for at least another 10-20 years so not all is lost.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Sadly we are seeing the end of radio... 2 meters is dead here in London as well & 70cms and 4 meters. I'm a bit cheesed off about it to be honest because I loved the upper bands, it all seems to be voice over internet now, why get a license if all people are going to do is use internet and call it ham radio its silly.

There is still a tiny bit of life left in the upper bands but the future of the hobby is not looking good. I will enjoy whats left of it. HF will always be there for at least another 10-20 years so not all is lost.

Life gets in the way, and our hobbies take a back seat. I throw my call out everyday, on all of my usual haunts and sometimes I get a reply and sometimes not. I've met some New hams this way,with Mic Fright and tried to coach them through it.

 

[Spider255]

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.

Ham radio is a scientific experimental hobby not a PMR chat channel. Simplex is dead no mention of simplex anymore, its all repeaters with internet links. A lot of the fun has gone because ham radio is now becoming a more like PMR chat channel or Skype, Zello what is the point? We are so lucky to have all these bands, frequencies and modes but its all being abandoned for voice over internet.

 

[OkieBoyKJ5JFG]

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.

That's true, but in the most common scenarios, you really only need it to last for a week or so. I have a handful of (really) inexpensive radios programmed to FRS channels and a few not-terribly-expensive radios with repeaters programmed in. The people I hand them to don't need to know anything except "press here and talk". It's pretty unlikely a tornado would take out all the repeaters I can reach, but it's not particularly unlikely local comms would be down for a couple of days. I've experienced it before after a tornado. If the radios allow us to coordinate locally and communicate 20-30 miles away for a few days, we're golden. I have no illusions about running around in the woods with a squad taking out bad guys, but I was once in a village in the interior of Alaska where an earthquake put us incommunicado for 4 days. Had it not been for some people with radios, we would have been completely deaf. It's very anxiety-provoking to have no idea what is going on. Not all "preppers" are expecting a complete breakdown of society and rampant lawlessness. But you're right that there are "preppers" buying radios and then wondering how to make them work. I see them daily in various forums. Hence my comment that they may as well have bought scrap metal. However, some of them start learning how to use them and it's not unusual for someone who started as a prepper to become a radio enthusiast and licensed ham, so it does serve as a conduit to get people into the amateur radio hobby.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Ham radio is a scientific experimental hobby not a PMR chat channel. Simplex is dead no mention of simplex anymore, its all repeaters with internet links. A lot of the fun has gone because ham radio is now becoming a more like PMR chat channel or Skype, Zello what is the point anymore?

Sad. Scattered Simplex chats on several frequencies, and Most of our Analog repeaters. As well as our P25 and Fusion repeater. Many retired folks use it everyday.

 

[Spider255]

Life gets in the way, and our hobbies take a back seat. I throw my call out everyday, on all of my usual haunts and sometimes I get a reply and sometimes not. I've met some New hams this way,with Mic Fright and tried to coach them through it.

This is what I like to hear and I appreciate those Hams that encourage to use simplex and those who put calls out.

 

[OkieBoyKJ5JFG]

Ham radio is a scientific experimental hobby not a PMR chat channel. Simplex is dead no mention of simplex anymore, its all repeaters with internet links. A lot of the fun has gone because ham radio is now becoming a more like PMR chat channel or Skype, Zello what is the point? We are so lucky to have all these bands, frequencies and modes but its all being abandoned for voice over internet.

I have to admit, I don't see how a hotspot is significantly different from a VOIP app on my phone. I don't see myself getting into that, but as I progress, I'll undoubtedly want to become adept with HF long-distance communication.

 

[rf_patriot200]

This is what I like to hear and I appreciate those Hams that encourage to use simplex and those who put calls out.

I've even heard 2 PMR calls, here in the states, where it's considered part of our 70cm band.

 

[OkieBoyKJ5JFG]

...if you can hold it open maybe we could plan a date and see if we could talk to each other on it.

I'll do that. It would be fun to talk to someone 100 miles away with a simple radio.

 

[Spider255]

Ironically CB Radio is pretty active, during the evenings you often get 20 or more people on channel 35 - 27.941 MHz more people on other channels and I'd rather use 2 meters for local chat because its clearer, smaller antennas more gain and no noise on the band to contend with, but 2 meters has been abandoned...

 

[rf_patriot200]

Ironically CB Radio is pretty active, during the evenings you often get 20 or more people on channel 35 - 27.941 MHz more people on other channels and I'd rather use 2 meters for local chat because its clearer, smaller antennas more gain and no noise on the band to contend with, but 2 meters has been abandoned...

Sad. Are there just not that many hams in the area, is that why ?

 

[Spider255]

Sad. Are there just not that many hams in the area, is that why ?

There are plenty here in London, I got many in my log book more than 30 Hams in London that used 2 meters simplex just a couple of years ago. Aslo quite a few hams are now coming on to CB radio because there is nobody on 2 meters.