Radio communication as part of preparedness

[streaker69]

I'm very interested to find out, my biggest concern is that my house is in a bit of a valley. One positive may be that I live right along the turnpike corridor, not sure if that'll help or not. I figure if I can hit the repeater in Wexford with my handheld, must not be all bad.

Check CL for antenna towers. I see them listed every so often. Sometimes you have to remove them yourself, other times they're already on the ground. My friends and I removed one in MD several years ago. Drove it it to DE where it sat until the guy we got it for sold it and bought something else.

[pens87pgh]

Check CL for antenna towers. I see them listed every so often. Sometimes you have to remove them yourself, other times they're already on the ground. My friends and I removed one in MD several years ago. Drove it it to DE where it sat until the guy we got it for sold it and bought something else.

I'm unfortunately in HOA jail here, so the attic setup will have to do for now. One day, that will not be the case.

[streaker69]

I'm unfortunately in HOA jail here, so the attic setup will have to do for now. One day, that will not be the case.

Put up the tower, run your wires then plant kudzu. It'll be camouflaged within a couple of days.

[pens87pgh]

I'm up and ready to go! Able to open up the Wexford repeater, will be available later tonight to do some further testing hoppy if you're around.

Edit: Also confirmed W3KWH in Carnegie too.

[Hoppy]

I'm up and ready to go! Able to open up the Wexford repeater, will be available later tonight to do some further testing hoppy if you're around.

Edit: Also confirmed W3KWH in Carnegie too.

That's great. I can get to w3kwh also, sometimes on handheld. How about wa3pbd? I think it's 146.730. You should put your call out on simplex a few times and see if anyone is listening. I usually call for about 20 seconds so any one scanning (like me) will hear it and their radio will stop.

I landed in the hospital with another round of afib and I won't be home until tomorrow. After that we can give it a try.

ISS flies by in 5 minutes. You might hear them although it's a very low pass. 145.800

[Domer Dad]

I can hit Wexford with my handheld from the side/rear of my house but not the front office. (Over in Gibsonia area.). I have a portable J-Pole that I intend to hang in the attic "next time I'm up there" which would likely hit Wexford just fine.

I've enjoyed listening into this thread. To be frank, I find 2 Meter in the Pittsburgh area pretty dull with only a few recurring voices on several of the local repeaters. I'm not that interesting either so I get it but ....

Is there any value to 10M for a tech license? There's a small voice segment open to us but I have zero idea if there's any activity on it.

[Hoppy]

I enjoyed 2 meters when I had it in my truck. I would listen and talk on the repeaters. I usually called out on simplex whenever I was in a higher area than normal. A lot of no answers but one day heard a 2 region call so I called back. A guy traveling home to Buffalo was driving up the highway. I talked to him for a while then someone else called in. 5 different people had jumped in by the time we quit.

10 meters can be interesting. There is a local group called the breezeshooters.org that has a Monday night net. They also have a local cw, rtty, and ssb contest. People on this net would likely tune into the net frequency if any disaster hit as its well established. During strong propagation 10 meters will provide multi continent communications. I've tuned around when the band was open and talked to Georgia. Antenna is easy and not too big.

[Gripsafety]

I can hit Wexford with my handheld from the side/rear of my house but not the front office. (Over in Gibsonia area.). I have a portable J-Pole that I intend to hang in the attic "next time I'm up there" which would likely hit Wexford just fine.

I've enjoyed listening into this thread. To be frank, I find 2 Meter in the Pittsburgh area pretty dull with only a few recurring voices on several of the local repeaters. I'm not that interesting either so I get it but ....

Is there any value to 10M for a tech license? There's a small voice segment open to us but I have zero idea if there's any activity on it.

10M is dead much of the time, but activity increases when the solar cycle nears its peak. It's on the upward part of the cycle right now and is expected to peak in 2025. A friend who plays on 10M tells me that he's been seeing an increase in openings. An easy way to check activity is to use a web SDR.

Take a look at 6M (the "magic band"). Activity is usually better and it gets crazy for a few months around the summer solstice, with almost daily openings to 1000 miles ± and openings to Europe closer to the solstice. It's also pretty good around the winter solstice, but the summer one is the main show. At other times of the year, sporadic openings can appear anytime.

[Sparks]

Also a lot of activity on 6 during the Jan and Jun VHF contests. Not a whole lot of conversation, but a lot of activity.

A lot of 2M repeaters are rather dead and have been for a while. Not sure why.

[The Bosun]

Another weekend has arrived and I'd like to reserve at least part of it to QSO with my fellow PAFOA members. HF, 6 Meters, 2 Meters; where/when could we all meet for even a brief roundtable?

Echo'ing Sparks words about the "dead" 2 Meter repeaters, that's been my experience, as well. From my hilltop QTH in Moon Township (yes, elevation and an absence of covenant antenna restrictions were considerations when I bought my home), I can access many of the 2 Meter repeaters in SW PA. So, please, let's meet on the air long enough to at least introduce ourselves to one another. Perhaps, a regularly scheduled net may develop?

73,