Ham radio info

charlie12 · Nov 12, 2017

Any of you hams out there looking for a 2 meter repeater to use we installed a new 2 meter antenna.
It's the 146.835 repeater - offset and a tone of 114.8
It's located in Jackson, LA at about 350' on the tower.
All licensed operators are welcome to use it and we have a net every Wed. night at 8pm

We also installed a 6 meter antenna at almost the 400' level and will be putting a 6 meter repeater on it in the near future.

themcfarland · Nov 12, 2017

Thanks Bud, what is general range with a mobile ?

tallwalker · Nov 12, 2017

A bit outside of my range but under good conditions maybe... I'll try to hit it. When do you expect the 6 meter repeater to be up? That would be real fun.

Rebel500 · Nov 12, 2017

Awesome, I’ll listen for the net, have 6 meter also.

charlie12 · Nov 13, 2017

themcfarland said:
Thanks Bud, what is general range with a mobile ?

I took a ride down to Maurepas Sat. evening and talked all the way there. I stopped where the old Val's Marina Restaurant used to be and tired it with 5 watts and could still talk. That's around 45-50 miles. I was running on high power on the trip.
The antenna we put up is a new DB224-B .

I guess the Wed. night net will be the test to see if we picked up or loss some areas with the change.

charlie12 · Nov 13, 2017

tallwalker said:
A bit outside of my range but under good conditions maybe... I'll try to hit it. When do you expect the 6 meter repeater to be up? That would be real fun.

I don't know how long it will be getting the 6 meter on the air we are waiting on crystals to come in right now. It shouldn't be long the hard part is over getting the antenna up on the tower.

charlie12 · Nov 13, 2017

This is the club's Facebook page if anyone would like to look at it.

https://www.facebook.com/MissLouAmateurRadioClub/

charlie12 · Nov 13, 2017

tallwalker said:
A bit outside of my range but under good conditions maybe... I'll try to hit it. When do you expect the 6 meter repeater to be up? That would be real fun.

Yep you never know about conditions. We have one of our members that has a place at Dauphin Island, AL and he's checked in when he was down there in his mobile and I was able to bring up the repeater from Biloxi out of my truck when I was there but it was about 2am a no one on the radio then.

All that was on our old antenna we were using it was a DB224-A it was on the Southeast leg of the tower and the one we put up Sat. is a new DB224-E and it's on the South leg of the tower

tallwalker · Nov 13, 2017

Yep, once in a while when conditions are good it is pretty amazing just how far you can work. Down side of that though is that it also chunks everybody's repeater (and links) in a much larger area. Makes FM SSB fun though! Not many people working that these days....

El Rubio · Nov 13, 2017

Range is line of sight. At 350', the line of sight distance to the horizon is 26 miles, so, the range would generally be 26 miles, but other factors need to be considered. The height of the receiving station, say an HT at 6 feet ( range to horizon=3 miles). An Ht at 6' would have approximately 29 miles range to the 350' repeater, barring other obstructions. The example given by Charlie12 in Maurepas seems to fly in the face of that, but you have to add the ground elevation as well. Maurepas is probably around sea level and the elevation at Jackson could be >200'. You'd add the 200' to the antenna height of 350' and the result is the repeater is now 550'to the south at least. Same principal works in reverse to the north where coverage would be less. Extreme distances, like Dauphin Island to Biloxi is probably due to tropospheric ducting which is common along the gulf coast. differing temperature layers in the atmosphere create a 'duct' that the rf signal travels down surpassing line of site distances. I worked a ham in Jacksonville on 2watts into a J-pole one night - sounded like he was down the street.

charlie12 · Nov 13, 2017

tallwalker said:
Yep, once in a while when conditions are good it is pretty amazing just how far you can work. Down side of that though is that it also chunks everybody's repeater (and links) in a much larger area. Makes FM SSB fun though! Not many people working that these days....

Tones help with that. We get into the repeater in Montgomery, AL sometimes but they don't have a tone on theirs

tallwalker · Nov 13, 2017

That's what makes bouncing waves around so much more fun than just texting on a cell phone....

themcfarland · Nov 13, 2017

El Rubio said:
Range is line of sight. At 350', the line of sight distance to the horizon is 26 miles, so, the range would generally be 26 miles, but other factors need to be considered. The height of the receiving station, say an HT at 6 feet ( range to horizon=3 miles). An Ht at 6' would have approximately 29 miles range to the 350' repeater, barring other obstructions. The example given by Charlie12 in Maurepas seems to fly in the face of that, but you have to add the ground elevation as well. Maurepas is probably around sea level and the elevation at Jackson could be >200'. You'd add the 200' to the antenna height of 350' and the result is the repeater is now 550'to the south at least. Same principal works in reverse to the north where coverage would be less. Extreme distances, like Dauphin Island to Biloxi is probably due to tropospheric ducting which is common along the gulf coast. differing temperature layers in the atmosphere create a 'duct' that the rf signal travels down surpassing line of site distances. I worked a ham in Jacksonville on 2watts into a J-pole one night - sounded like he was down the street.

Lot of words to be wrong. You mixed several things and conditions, however it is not line of sight. Or height above or anything. Sort of right with tropo, but again meh. Not trying to be a dick,but have been a ham for over 20 years, been in RF professionally for half that and I know real world experience is way different.

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

El Rubio · Nov 14, 2017

themcfarland said:
Lot of words to be wrong. You mixed several things and conditions, however it is not line of sight. Or height above or anything. Sort of right with tropo, but again meh. Not trying to be a dick,but have been a ham for over 20 years, been in RF professionally for half that and I know real world experience is way different.

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

Very few words to be convincing, you are welcome to explain where I am wrong...I don't mind being corrected when wrong. I can take it.

charlie12 · Nov 15, 2017

Tonight Wed. is our 2 meter net at 8pm all hams welcome. 146.835 with a 114.8 tone.

I went as far as exit 65 on I-12 (Abita Springs - Mandeville) last night and was able to talk and hear on my Icom V8000. Could have gone further but that's a long way from home I think we had pretty good conditions

From measuring on Google Earth it was 71 miles from our repeater in Jackson, LA to where I turned around at exit 65.

8pm tonight.

themcfarland · Nov 15, 2017

El Rubio said:
Very few words to be convincing, you are welcome to explain where I am wrong...I don't mind being corrected when wrong. I can take it.

Sorry , took awhile to get time. One example of line of sight not working as a blanket description is the antenna. Yes quarter wave will hear you if you are nearly under it, however a 5/8 wave or collinear will be nearly deaf if you are near the base. It has to do with take off angle of radiation of signal.
You were mostly right on tropo , however it's as much only part of the signal and when the duct is a harmonic or a wave length of the part of spectrum you are transmitting is when it gets trapped. It is actually fairly predicable when it happens if you look at weather pattern plus where your talking. There is another example I wanted to share, phased dipoles are another example of when line of sight will get ya. You may be looking at it, and if you are not in it's lobe. It will not hear you.

Hope this helps some.

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

El Rubio · Nov 15, 2017

themcfarland said:
Sorry , took awhile to get time. One example of line of sight not working as a blanket description is the antenna. Yes quarter wave will hear you if you are nearly under it, however a 5/8 wave or collinear will be nearly deaf if you are near the base. It has to do with take off angle of radiation of signal.
You were mostly right on tropo , however it's as much only part of the signal and when the duct is a harmonic or a wave length of the part of spectrum you are transmitting is when it gets trapped. It is actually fairly predicable when it happens if you look at weather pattern plus where your talking. There is another example I wanted to share, phased dipoles are another example of when line of sight will get ya. You may be looking at it, and if you are not in it's lobe. It will not hear you.

Hope this helps some.

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

OK, our interpretations of "range" are two entirely different things. You had asked what the range is in an earlier post and I explained the general max range that can be expected from a VHF transmitter. There are several factors that influence actual coverage including antenna design, terrain, obstructions, signal loss over distance, and atmospheric conditions. Your description of antenna pattern as proof that VHF is not line of sight makes no sense. The term "line of sight" references a clear path from one antenna to another. It doesn't matter what the pattern or take-off angle is. What you are referring to is just one variable in the many that can influence the quality of the signal, or the strength in one direction over another. The potential range is still limited by the distance to the horizon- no matter what type antenna, gain, pattern, or power. That's why this repeater antenna is mounted 350' high. Using your logic, they could have saved all the money they spent on coax cable and mounted the antennas just above the trees and cover just as far. If you have 10 years of RF experience, certainly you know this is not true. The reason your gain antenna is deaf at the base of the tower is because of the antenna pattern. The signal reaching your antenna is just weaker due to directional antenna patterns and not VHF signal properties.
VHF is indeed line of sight - google it if you don't believe me. Line of sight means a clear path between antennas. It travels in a straight line. When it gets to the horizon, it keeps going straight through the atmosphere and into space. if you have a directional antenna, high take-off angle, etc, it will still travel in a straight line as directed by the antenna pattern. maybe you bounce off an inversion in the atmosphere, or maybe you talk to the ISS. All the while it is dissipating in strength as it travels in a straight line.

nolaradio · Nov 15, 2017

charlie12 said:
Tonight Wed. is our 2 meter net at 8pm all hams welcome. 146.835 with a 114.8 tone.

I went as far as exit 65 on I-12 (Abita Springs - Mandeville) last night and was able to talk and hear on my Icom V8000. Could have gone further but that's a long way from home I think we had pretty good conditions

From measuring on Google Earth it was 71 miles from our repeater in Jackson, LA to where I turned around at exit 65.

8pm tonight.

That's about 4 miles away from me. Doubt my V8000 could reach it from the house though. Lot's trees between me and where you were on that exit. I work right off that exit too. I might try to see if I can key it up with the mobile on the way to work tomorrow morning.

themcfarland · Nov 15, 2017

El Rubio said:
OK, our interpretations of "range" are two entirely different things. You had asked what the range is in an earlier post and I explained the general max range that can be expected from a VHF transmitter. There are several factors that influence actual coverage including antenna design, terrain, obstructions, signal loss over distance, and atmospheric conditions. Your description of antenna pattern as proof that VHF is not line of sight makes no sense. The term "line of sight" references a clear path from one antenna to another. It doesn't matter what the pattern or take-off angle is. What you are referring to is just one variable in the many that can influence the quality of the signal, or the strength in one direction over another. The potential range is still limited by the distance to the horizon- no matter what type antenna, gain, pattern, or power. That's why this repeater antenna is mounted 350' high. Using your logic, they could have saved all the money they spent on coax cable and mounted the antennas just above the trees and cover just as far. If you have 10 years of RF experience, certainly you know this is not true. The reason your gain antenna is deaf at the base of the tower is because of the antenna pattern. The signal reaching your antenna is just weaker due to directional antenna patterns and not VHF signal properties.
VHF is indeed line of sight - google it if you don't believe me. Line of sight means a clear path between antennas. It travels in a straight line. When it gets to the horizon, it keeps going straight through the atmosphere and into space. if you have a directional antenna, high take-off angle, etc, it will still travel in a straight line as directed by the antenna pattern. maybe you bounce off an inversion in the atmosphere, or maybe you talk to the ISS. All the while it is dissipating in strength as it travels in a straight line.

I stand corrected

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

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