ve3ips

Cheap, fits in pocket and handles 100 watts

FM Simplex – 2M/70cm


Simplex – In the amateur radio context, simplex operation means the radio stations are communicating with each other directly, on the same frequency. Both stations take turns transmitting and receiving on the same frequency with no repeater or other device in between. Antenna to antenna.

A very important aspect of Amateur Radio is Emergency Communications. While we jokingly say that “REAL HAMS DON’T NEED NO STINKING REPEATER, the truth is that we as Amateurs should be able to communicate without using a repeater. In a natural or man made disaster repeaters cannot be counted on, will you be able to communicate in the event the repeaters fail? The simple answer is sadly NO, most 2 meter and up FM Stations are designed to work from fixed station or mobil station through a repeater and having the repeater do all the heavy lifting in making the contact happen.

Some Amateurs will simply dismiss this concern from an aspect they are not involved in Emergency Communications, others will say they have no interest in talking to anyone beyond the local repeater group.

The first dismissal is pure and simple bad logic, no one knows when they find themselves involved in an emergency situation, it can happen at any time and any place. The second dismissal has rational logic, but is again dismissed by the same rational as the first.

Know this next argument is more in line with personal taste, and I will be the first to admit and support that there are as many individual interest within the Amateur Community as there are individual ham radio operators.

But let’s focus for a moment on the other side of the Simplex verses Repeater coin.

At the end of the day for many Amateurs we are about several things, Experimentation, pushing the limits of our stations and our capabilities and chasing DX in one form or another.

A lot of people find it fun and interesting to get on a linked local repeater and talk to a station 150 to 300 miles or more away and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but imagine the absolute thrill when you get on say 146.520 Simplex with just the power of your radio, the quality of your antenna and you make a similar contact? Most of us find our heart racing, and the thrill of the contact just has us wanting to tell someone about it.

Far to often I hear people say, you can’t talk more than 5 to 15 miles on 2 meters with out a repeater, and I have to sadly admit for many amateurs that is a true statement, but I am telling you that it is easy to build a quality station that can work 24/7 60 to 80 miles antenna to antenna on 2 meters, and with morning enhancement or 100 to 150 miles is not uncommon and with tropo or e-skip 500 to 1000 miles is not out of the question.

Local communications do not require repeaters either, many HAMsters operate on 2 meters Simplex and we are communicating with each other as we drive around the San Antonio area, working mobil to fixed station, mobil to mobil and fixed station to fixed station…..We do so with very little issue.

YOU CAN DO IT TOO and believe it or not, it can be much more exciting.

Join us on this page as we develop building a Simplex Station and working to get more people looking to fun options beyond repeaters.

As a fast note, many of us are doing FM Simplex operating not only on 2 meters and 70cm, but 1.25m, 33cm and even a handful playing on 23cm simplex.

Yaesu Ft-991a and Arrow J-Pole antenna was used with SSTV Encoder on Android

Wow I was a bit worried at first but the weather was expected to be around -20 degrees C. With the sunshine I figure lets go “Do This”

I managed 2 SSB contacts on 23cm and 14 FM contacts on 2m

2 watts on 1.2 Ghz and 5 watts on 2m puts me in the QRP category

After 45 minutes I could not feel my finger tips so the -31 degrees C with the wind chill was a problem. I managed to warm the up a bit but before when switching to the 2m Arrow the cox was stiff. I warmed it under my jacket while warming my hands.

Soooooooooo I figure no luck calling CQ for 20 mins in all directions and after an hour it was tme to bounce.

I enjoyed the outing and learned at what temperature coax will freeze and packing pencils made jotting down the contacts in my Field Notebook a delight as the pen was frozen.

I finally got some SWR Spray and after a few applications my SWR is now flat

I tried to use PAM but its too oily and this brand is perfect

My wife sold my new FT-DX10 Yaesu dream radio for $200 so she could get her Bronco fixed.

Oh is that a new radio Honey?

Yes my dear I was so lucky as it only cost me $200 so I am very happy

But you have 7 radios why do you need another one?

Like I said my dear I got it for $200 and I can use it to monitor ONTARS

I made this is 2016 for ARES activities and it weighs over 80 lbs

So long ago………………I was the first to activate it but the Canada POTA group couldn’t accept the log format. Now I use HAMrs which if US POTA not Canadian POTA but now the Canadian parks are under US POTA so the Canadian POTA is redundant. I told them “guys you gotta be easy to deal with or you will fail giving everyone a headache with ideas from the stone age”

https://cnpota.ca/ is gone

ARISS end of year SSTV

 The ARISS team will be supporting SSTV operations from the ISS during the period of Dec 26-31. The images will be related to lunar exploration. The transmissions should be available worldwide on 145.800 MHz. The planned mode is PD 120.

Planned start and stop times are currently listed as:

Start – Dec 26 about 18:25 UTC

Stop – Dec 31 about 17:05 UTC

After posting a copy of your image to our  to https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/  you can acquire a special award by going to  https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ and following the directions to receive a  digital copy of your award.

10-DAY PREDICTIONS by N2YO.COM
Object name SPACE STATION
Catalog # 25544, 1998-067A
Observing coord. Lat: 43.68°, Lng: -79.62°
Local time zone GMT -5
Downlink (MHz): 145.800 PD120 Mode
Beacon (MHz):
Mode: 1200bps AFSK
Call sign: RS0ISS-4 -11
Status: Inactive
Start Max altitude End Visible passes
Date, Local time Az Local time Az El Local time Az Mag
27-Dec 04:46 WSW
251° 04:51 NNW
340° 50° 04:57 NE
56° +0.5
27-Dec 06:24 W
284° 06:29 N
352° 21° 06:34 ENE
62° -0.5
28-Dec 05:35 W
277° 05:40 N
350° 24° 05:45 NE
58° -0.3
28-Dec 07:13 WNW
299° 07:18 N
9° 22° 07:23 E
77° -0.6
29-Dec 04:47 W
269° 04:52 NNW
343° 29° 04:57 NE
57° +0.6
29-Dec 06:25 WNW
295° 06:30 N
3° 21° 06:34 ENE
71° -0.5
30-Dec 05:36 WNW
290° 05:41 N
357° 20° 05:46 ENE
65° -0.2
30-Dec 07:14 NW
303° 07:19 NNE
17° 30° 07:24 E
93° -1.1
31-Dec 04:48 W
284° 04:53 N
355° 22° 04:58 ENE
61° +0.6
31-Dec 06:25 NW
301° 06:31 N
14° 25° 06:36 E
85° -0.8

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