[Elecraft] OT: 222 & 902 Bands

[Edward R Cole]

Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:33:58 -0800
From: Jim Lowman <jmlowman at sbcglobal.net>
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] 903 or 1296 Mhz Transverter
Message-ID: <510B2996.6060405 at sbcglobal.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Nice to know, Ed.  I've been toying with the idea of getting on 222 MHz
for the contests, but there is so little activity in this area (Los
Angeles/Orange County) that I'm trying to justify the expense of the
transverter and antenna.

I have a FT-847 that is virtually new, to get on 432 MHz.  I don't know
how popular 902 MHz is here, but there seems to be more 1296 activity,
including a couple of nets.

It's crazy - 14 million people in the area and so little happening on
222.  Lately, from what I've heard, it's mostly FM simplex in the contests.

73 de Jim - AD6CW
-------------------------
Jim,

I am surprised that there is not more 222 activity down there with 
all the ham population.  223.50 FM seems to be what is used up 
here.  I have a DEMI 222-28 transverter driving a 150w linear at 
about 100w to two "old" 11-element CushCraft yagis at 60-feet.  That 
does very well.  I can operate any mode, of course, but no one else 
seems interested in other modes.  I have seen 222 propagation to be 
better than 144 on many a night...unfortunately way underused.

Up here there is no ham use other than 927.5 FM.  Too bad!

In the roughly 250mi circle around Anchorage there are probably only 
100 hams active on non-FM-repeater VHF.  This represents 60% of the 
population of the state (660K).

As far as justifying, I have radios on 6m/2m/222/432/927/1296/2400/10-GHz
222 and up there are less than a half dozen stations to talk to.  On 
10-GHz there is just one other station.

This is why I am doing quite a bit of eme.

73, Ed - KL7UW