Anyone still want some on-air ham radio practice?

[lhracing]

I have been trying to hit 146.940 tonight with my HT, but haven't been able to activate the repeater from my HT. I was able to get a squelch trail on my Mobile Rig in my Land Cruiser but didn't raise anyone with my call for a radio check so can't confirm I am audilbe. On the HT, I either don't have the power to hit it, or I don't have it programmed correctly (very likely). I listened on my Mobile for a few minutes and did get the CW ID from it, so I should be able to hear on the mobile unit at a minimum.

I was able to hit the 146.620 with my HT tonight, but it doesn't require a tone, and is likely more direct line of sight to my house.

At any rate, I am looking forward to this net!

Same with me Dave, I can hit 62 but seems to be nothing on 94.

 

[moab_cj5]

Same with me Dave, I can hit 62 but seems to be nothing on 94.

I've left my HT on while I've been working and I was able to hear some chatter. I had a setting wrong before. I didn't break in to see if they could hear me, but I was finally able to hear someone.

Lots of chatter on the 62 tonight.

 

[lhracing]

I've left my HT on while I've been working and I was able to hear some chatter. I had a setting wrong before. I didn't break in to see if they could hear me, but I was finally able to hear someone.

Lots of chatter on the 62 tonight.

What setting did you have to change? I may have the same issue...

If you have a little time later we could try to reach each other. I will PM you my phone #.

 

[TurboMinivan]

I am extremely reluctant to use the 62 repeater, for three main reasons:

1. It is very busy all day long (and well into the night)
2. some of the guys who use/monitor it Will. Not. Shut. Up. (Brett Davis will back me up on this)
3. since the 62 uses no tone, it doesn't force you to program a tone into your radio. You guys need to know how to do this.

So far, my monitoring of the 94 repeater has shown it to be pretty quiet. I can hit it from my mobile around Utah county, as I expected. I even got a squelch tail via my HT while sitting on my living room couch (though I highly doubt that signal would be strong enough for anyone to copy). So I think this machine looks pretty favorable for us overall.

 

[lhracing]

I am extremely reluctant to use the 62 repeater, for three main reasons:

1. It is very busy all day long (and well into the night)
2. some of the guys who use/monitor it Will. Not. Shut. Up. (Brett Davis will back me up on this)
3. since the 62 uses no tone, it doesn't force you to program a tone into your radio. You guys need to know how to do this.

So far, my monitoring of the 94 repeater has shown it to be pretty quiet. I can hit it from my mobile around Utah county, as I expected. I even got a squelch tail via my HT while sitting on my living room couch (though I highly doubt that signal would be strong enough for anyone to copy). So I think this machine looks pretty favorable for us overall.

Does the Tone need to set on both transmit and receive or just transmit?

 

[TurboMinivan]

Does the Tone need to set on both transmit and receive or just transmit?

Only transmit.

 

[lhracing]

I ran out to Lake Point today and took my HT and was able to wake up the repeater so I think my radio is setup correctly. Layton my be just too far for my HT.

 

[TurboMinivan]

Layton my be just too far for my HT.

I measured it on Google. Your home is 29.1 miles from that repeater. That is asking a lot for an HT (depending on the antenna).

 

[lhracing]

I measured it on Google. Your home is 29.1 miles from that repeater. That is asking a lot for an HT (depending on the antenna).

There may be something about the actual location of the 94 repeater on Farnsworth compared to 62. Looking at it on Utah Ham Radio Repeaters it is a little south of 62 and may be partially blocked by something to hit my location in west Layton.

62 comes in very well and I can actually talk to others on it.

When you put together the practice session I my have to take a ride.

 

[moab_cj5]

@lhracing I had the wrong tone type selected, and could have had other things set wrong. I made lots of changes before it actually worked. I just saw your message, and will hit you up one evening when I have a minute to play with it and try to hit you. I might even be able to hit you on simplex since we are both on the west side.

@TurboMinivan I am sorry if you thought I was suggesting we use the 62. I was simply stating that I could hit that one to check my radio function. I agree 100% that the 62 is NOT the right repeater for our Net. WAAAAYYYYY too many folks on that machine.

The 94 will be great. I just might have to jump in the truck to be heard.

 

[lhracing]

A little off subject but I was looking at repeaters in Utah and came across one at 145.41 that is listed as Statewide. Can someone tell me what is statewide?

 

[TurboMinivan]

A little off subject but I was looking at repeaters in Utah and came across one at 145.41 that is listed as Statewide. Can someone tell me what is statewide?

From the Utah VHF Society web site:

Notes: These frequencies are available as Test Pairs and are intended for use on a temporary basis to test the suitability of a particular site, equipment, and/or for special events. Coordination and the use of a subaudible tone is required for use. These frequencies are shared and no protection from interference is afforded. The coordinated use of tone access is intended to help mitigate any interference issues.

In other news, from all my listening the .94 repeater seems to be pretty quiet. This bodes well for us, as I think we can pretty much pick an evening and a time and very likely won't have problems stepping on anybody else's toes. Anybody up for a trial run this evening at, say 9pm?

 

[lhracing]

I am up to give it a try tonight.

 

[TurboMinivan]

Okay, I am preparing to get on my radio...

 

[moab_cj5]

I'm out of town until Sunday afternoon. I'd be down for a try next week.

 

[TurboMinivan]

I guess you could say last night was a 'dry run' practice session, consisting only of myself and @lhracing. We had a pleasant 10-minute chat, which was more than sufficient to verify the validity of using this repeater. I did call out a couple times to see if any other RME members were listening, but nobody ever answered. That was entirely my fault for not giving any significant advance notice to you guys.

I will fix that by making a separate thread announcing next week's net.

 

[mesha]

Crud! I would have got on, but I forgot about this.