Does anyone use 2 meter FM anymore?

[mr_rye89]

2M/70CM still pretty active here in New Mexico. We have a lot of repeaters including the Mega-Link System (NM5ML) which lets you talk state wide with low power. Most repeaters are up 10,000 ft so line of sight is pretty easy. I usually get on the county club repeater for the Wednesday night net once a week, and there's also a 2M/USB weak signal net, but I need to half-@ss a yagi together before I try that one again.

As for a mobile rig, maybe I'll just put one in the '59 Ford, points ignition and a carb lol

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by mr_rye89

2M/70CM still pretty active here in New Mexico. We have a lot of repeaters including the Mega-Link System (NM5ML) which lets you talk state wide with low power. Most repeaters are up 10,000 ft so line of sight is pretty easy. I usually get on the county club repeater for the Wednesday night net once a week, and there's also a 2M/USB weak signal net, but I need to half-@ss a yagi together before I try that one again.

As for a mobile rig, maybe I'll just put one in the '59 Ford, points ignition and a carb lol

One big problem I have is I live in an apartment building, so cannot put up any kind of large antenna to use the Cleveland repeaters (I was able to access most Cleveland repeaters when I lived in a Cleveland suburb, but I had to give that up when I moved to my present location, an apartment building located 30 miles from downtown Cleveland). I am therefore more or less forced to use one local repeater (2 miles or so from here) or simplex, with an Icom IC-T22A handheld. I am a member of a local repeater club (LCARA, the Lake County Amateur Radio Association) and use their repeater, N8BC/R, about once a week for the club's weekly 2-meter net.

Other than that, there is very little activity on 2m in this area, especially for someone like myself who is forced by circumstances well beyond my control to use an HT with an indoor antenna; that HT can only access one local repeater (the 147.81-21 machine I just mentioned) reliably.

Oh, well. There is one other way I can be somewhat active in ham radio, simply by using an HT; that is Echolink. My club recognizes this service, and in fact the net control station of the local 2m net will ask for checkins on Echolink shortly after the session begins. I consider this a very useful service for hams such as myself who do not have an HF station and, therefore, cannot use any sort of beam, dipole, etc. for 2m, HF or any other band. With access to Echolink, I feel as if I can still operate HF as I formerly did when I lived in the suburbs, even if the method of contacting stations is somewhat different from HF (one of these differences is being restricted to one mode, FM voice, and no other, as Echolink does not support CW at this time).

Echolink (EL) is an idea whose time has come, and should have been thought of, not to mention implemented, many years ago. This service opens up ham radio to people who, for any reason, cannot use conventional HF radio (such as lease restrictions, as in my situation); my hat is off to the person/people who came up with EL. This service is, again, an idea whose time has come and, IMHO, should have been invented many years before it was.



73,