[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] 33cm/900MHz Juggle Net

[Jeff Cook]

So a few of us tried to find some productive comms on the 33cm/900MHZ club repeater tonight, but we’re still looking for the magic. With there being almost no amateur transceivers that even do 900MHz, I think the five people who participated tonight were all on a different radio! 

We treated it as an informal ragchew rather than a formal net, but it turned out to be mostly a troubleshooting session. But we got this one behind us and we all know a little more than we did before.

Participants were:
KQ4CMA Jeff (me), Motorola GTX HT & Larsen mobile mag mount
KA4GFY Rich, HT & ext antenna
N8IK Ian, Alinco G29 HT & rubber duck
W4JJ Jack, Motorola XPR6580 HT & rubber duck
W4MAB Murph, SDRuno, internet

Our playground was on these frequencies:
CLUB REPEATER: 927.6, -25MHZ offset, PL Tone 107.2
SIMPLEX: 927.6, 927.5

But sorry to report it was a spotty test. I could hear, but not get out at all from two mobile locations. There was some scratchiness from somewhere, and since I came in a bit late, I’m not sure anybody was able to both RX & TX, though W4JJ thought KA4GFY’s transmissions were ideal.

We used the club’s 2m repeater (club net had just ended) as a home base when we couldn’t connect on 33cm, and that allowed W4MAB to report on his RX on SDRuno, very helpful.

I’m still looking into my options with my 1w Motorola GTX, but I’ve just discovered a guy on eBay offering 15w Kenwood TK981 transceivers which he’ll program to order. But I’ll be hoping to find a native 900MHz radio that doesn’t have to be custom programmed, though most of those seem to be out of production just now.

So we’ll try again. Thanks for the workout, everybody!

—
Jeff KQ4CMA