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

[Rich Adamy]

I was using a Kenwood TK-981 into a Diamond 900 MHz base antenna.  For
the time being, it's located in the corner of the room.  I do have
plans to put it on my tower.  I do have an Alico G-29 as well.  The
kw902.com website is the go-to website on the Kenwood TK-981.

33cm has similar propagation characteristics to 70cm.  The difference
is, we share that band with a multitude of other services, industrial,
medical, scientific, etc.  The noise floor is very high

If you can find a Kenwood TK-981 at a good price, it is well worth the
money.  I picked one up about 4 years ago at the Richmond Frostfest
for around $160.  They are also available on the internet.  There are
several of us in the club who have them.

The Motorola Spectra will also work.  Be sure you get one that covers
896 to 950 MHz.  That one takes a little more work to move it to our
33cm band.

There is a group in San Diego on 33cm.  Their website is here:
http://www.sd900mhz.com/about900.htm

Here is another website on getting started on 900 MHz:
https://w6aer.com/getting-started-with-900mhz-ham-band/

We can certainly try this again.

Rich, KA4GFY

On Fri, May 12, 2023 at 5:55 AM Jeff Cook via AlexandriaRadioClub
<alexandriaradioclub at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>
> 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
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