Ev and all, I note with much interest the distance worked by Ev on FM, the power too. FN03 to FN21 with 160 watts to a dipole. I run an old IC-3 HT into a little Mirage brick of 20-30 watts on 223.5
Yes, you can do quite a bit on FM. Back in 1999 when I was NE0P in EN41, during a nice tropo opening I worked KA0PQW in EN33 on 2m, and needing his grid on 222, suggested that we try that band. He on
-- Original Message -- Power is king and antenna is queen? I think the reverse is true, based on my past experiences. -- I'm constantly amazed what can be done, if we just try. :) Thanks for sharing
Yep, that's why I keep pushing the newbies to get on FM during contests. While not a perfect plan its better than no plan. http://www.ka5cvh.com/radio/vhf/contest.htm -- Mike Urich, KA5CVH http://ka5
During a nice 70cm tropo opening, 78 miles on 50 mw over essentially flat terrain. Kenwood TH-F6A HT using a Diamond tri-band antenna. There is a lot to be said for dumb luck, too. Bill Bailey, KG4NZ
Absolutely! I have a group of local friends that enjoy finding me in different grids, but are "anti-contesters"..... Even though some of them have SSB capabilities, we often make our contacts on FM s
?Back when I in college (1979) I worked from North Carolina to Vermont (before grid squares) on 223.5 FM as part of the W4BFB? #1 national? September VHF contest Muti OP. We were running a Midland cr
That "dumb luck" factor comes into play quite a bit. There was evidently a nice tropo opening between EN50 and the east coast the other day. I missed it. I heard it went up at least as high as 1296,
I owe my interest in 2m SSB to an FM QSO. I'd gotten interested in FM simplex in late 1999 when I was still living in Illinois and had a 50-watt mobile rig and a Ringo Ranger at about 40 feet. I was
Of course, if you're a repeater-building freak (like many of us are in our "spare time") and just happen to have a Super Stationmaster or a giant 8-bay DB or Sinclair folded-dipole array you've "stor
Paul and others: In that 1979 September contest we (W9IP multiop) were on top of a 115 foot tower on the praries just west of Champaign-Urbana Illinois (now En50). At the last minute we somehow acqui
I vaguely remember someone telling me of working California to Hawaii on an HT via tropo ducts on 2 meters (if only we had those Pacific ducts in the north Atlantic). People have also made contacts o
On June 21st, 1978, many of us worked Cape Cod, MA on .52 simplex with 25 watts from northern Alabama.I remember many tropo QSO's on 2m FM simplex with that power level working 150-200 miles. Joe W4A
Hi all Back in my college days (1986) in Houston, we had some big tropo openings where it was essentially pointless to key a local 2m repeater as you would also key repeaters to the north and into Lo
What I've noticed over the last 15 years or so is that very few non-weak signal ops are interested in trying to work DX on 2M FM anymore when the band is "open". It used to be that you would hear lot
I worked the big 2 M E-Skip opening from Maine a few years back. It lasted quite awhile and my wife and I took turns. When it was all over, I was amazed when I saw the logs. She had worked many stati