The VHF station here on 2m is very modest consisting of an FT817ND and a big-wheel omni antenna on the side of the bungalow. For FM a V2000 triband vertical is used. There are no beams. The most power that can be run is 5W, although most times 2.5W is used.
Despite these restrictions, decent DX is worked in UKAC activity contests, no problems are experienced working 2m FM nets and 2m DX on FT8 RX and TX seems quite easy. The latter mode seems to have transformed the band: DX that would never have been expected is now workable in flat conditions. Sometimes this is aircraft reflection and other times it is just flat band tropo i.e. normal flat conditions. Today, for example, my 2.5W 2m FT8 has been copied in Cornwall and Ulster.
FT8 worries many. Although it is a great mode for simple stations to spot and work DX, it needs a PC and special (albeit free) software. Years ago many chanced on amateur radio by picking up a local 160m AM station. These days this is very unlikely. Our hobby is changing and the appeal of new modes may not be enough to save it. There is no doubt that modes like FT8 are overall "a good thing", but we have to be careful.
Hi Roger.
ReplyDeleteI too heard my first amatuer station on 160m It was GB2DTS (Dagenham Town Show), on a retuned medium wave valve radio. I was so excited I listened to it all weekend. Sadly, the show is no more as with my North Kent Radio Society local activity in my home town, a club I was member of for many years.
All these digital modes show when and where propagation is possible, so as you say the casual listener would never know these days. Maybe there should be a dedicated speech mode calling freq allocated for calling CQ when you are getting good spots. Then anyone seeing a FT8/WSPR band opening could monitor and put out a CQ. I am sure a lot of these digital stations are running unattended and that is why you dont get replies to CQs. I would like to see a return of AM too and the constructional projects that go with it. I spent my first licenced years on 160m AM ragchewing the hours away on all homebrew kit, now, I never hear a conversation.
73 Ken G4APB