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 lots of people trying to work repeaters from
(or into) 100-250 miles away if the band was open. Same for
the FM simplex freqs. A lot of these openings (local
enhancements) seem to go completely unnoticed by the FM only
crowd these days. And even more unfortunate is that so many
of them don't even want to try to work this "DX". They may
even see it as an annoyance.
One factor no doubt is the prevalence of CTCSS on many
repeaters these days, but surely many can still hear the
outputs of the "DX" repeaters on their radios. Tone should be
a minimal factor there, I would think.
Duane
N9DG
--- mike Kana <aa9il@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 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 Louisiana,
> Arkansas,etc. I would work stations in Mexico
> with my old Icom 10w mobile rig and a crummy 1/4
> wave on the roof of the truck. I would regularly
> keep in touch with friends in College Station
> 120 miles away with my 2AT by keying into their
> repeater. I think it was all these experiences
> that got me into VHF weak signal operating
> in the first place.
>
> 73 de AA9IL
> Mike
> (formerly KA5WOT)
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