[PPRAANet] Re: Thursday Night Net

[amxlady at att.net]

Ken,

Thank you very much for your kind response.  I am still a bit confused, though, with regard to your choice of frequencies.  The Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs, of which PPRAA is a member, has a band plan established as a way to minimize interference on neighboring frequencies from those of us with an altitude advantage.  

The Colorado 2 Meter Frequency Use Plan, from which I am copying this information, states "FM Voice Simplex Frquencies/26 Cahnnels, 15 KHz channel spacing."  The first one is 146.400.  It proceeds in 15 KHz increments.  I will save the brain damage and list the relevant frequencies:  146.520, 146.535, 146.550, 146.565 and 146.580.

When I first became involved in amateur radio, I was told that the entire point of running the PPRAA net on 146.580 was to demonstrate simplex coverage in the Colorado Springs area and encourage more simplex use.  This was the way that some new hams got on the air without making fools of themselves in four or five surrounding states.  

There are a great number of newly licensed hams and many who are new to the area.  There are some terriffic resources in the area who can give you programs which would help new (or new to the area) hams learn about the band plans, local and wide area repeater coverage and general good operating practices.  It really wouldn't hurt any of us to get a quick overview of ground wave propagation, multipathing and using reflection as a means of extending range.  A lot of new hams are terrified of making a mistake.  I was guided by older members of the club, many of them presented programs which reinforced the things we had to learn in order to pass Element One.  

Several of the folks who have weighed in on this topic and one whose name was taken in vain are well qualified to do programs for you on a wide range of topics.  A great place to start might be the band plans.  That way we don't end up with newbies (or old farts) ragchewing in the CW/EME frequency range.

Just my 2 cents.
73, de KC0PBR
--
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what you have been caught doing.