Ham radio repeaters

Need to be more specific on the radio and you will get tons of answers.
6, 2, 220, 440, combo, low band....

I have several radios lying about here.. Just used an ICOM 2-AT (NOT a 02-AT) to check into a local 2 meter net,,, I also have a 02-1t, it is on a different repeater but has a faulty receive audio section.. I will get to it later.. A Kenwood TM-721 (I think) on same repeater as the 02 and a TS-2000 same as the 2-at (I was able to hear myself without feedback).

IN the car is a Wilson WE-800, Fully synthisized, one of the very first hand held synthetics.. I believe I got it in 1978, in fact I'm sure of it, 3rd production run (never buy anything till revision 3).

It's been a long time so I am pretty rusty.

FT7900 2M/70cm dual band.

If it is a hand held I suspect it depends where you are. In very rural areas where repeaters are not as numerous may need more than 5 watts. 50 watts will usually work well. When you say dusted off I suspect, like me, have been in and out of amateur radio over the years. I find it enjoyable in an RV. 73ss

I went from home to Florida and back. Ran into numerous repeaters that were IRLP linked, even talked to a gentlemen in Germany early one morning. Can provide some time fillers while driving a long distance.

I've had success making local contacts on 2m and 70cm. The ARRL repeater directory is difficult to use if you're unfamiliar with the area. So I have ARRL's MobilePlus for GPS on my Garmin Nuvi and RepeaterBook on my smart phone. They give me no problem in finding repeaters that are nearby. Plus they help me find Skywarn repeaters during bad weather. It helps in understanding the geography from NOAA weather channel alerts.

I get more contacts from trucker hams than RVers on the road.

js6343js6343 wrote:
It's been a long time so I am pretty rusty.

FT7900 2M/70cm dual band.

The 7900 is a pretty sweet radio. The transmitter is 45-50W, receiver is pretty decent, even with all the intermod in the LA area. I think this is the radio that heats up pretty quickly on hi power, so if you ratchet jaw ala 20 mtrs it might shut down till it cools off a little (depending on where you mount it).

With a 50 watt radio and decent antenna I doubt you'll have much trouble hitting something almost anywhere.

We have made occasional contacts in our travels. Some have been very useful - like where to get an oil change in our diesel truck in a small town in Montana.

We found that quite a few of the repeaters in Central and western NY are linked.

We use the free POI file from poi factory on our Garmin.

One of the things I have that I am not currently using is a small brick made by Mirage (Which is a company that goes by many names... I think Ameritron is one of them, depending on the output wattage) 1 watt in 35 out. Dual band.

I may put it in my car to give the WE-800 some additional PUNCH (it is only 10 watts mobile mode, 1 watt hand held)

True story: When that box was new I got "Trapped" by traffic (I worked in downtown Detroit 3-11 so when a Tiger game got out around 10:30, the roads were bumper to bumper and curb to curb so I could not leave the parking lot).

Well. I got id the elevator and pressed a button.. I'm in Detroit,MI.. The repeater was in Adrian, MI,, The hams I was chatting with Toledo, OH, I'm running 1 watt into a rubber duck.

A ham from Windsor.. I mean I could SEE his house from where I stood, He is running either 30 watts ERP at 40 feet or I think the other way around. He is not making it.. I was.. HEIGHT IS MIGHT.

He has roughly 160 times the power I have and he did not make it.

What does one have to do to qualify for a HAM permit?
No way I can learn MORSE Code.