70cm

Years ago, there was plenty of activity on 70cm FM simplex. I had one of the first synthesised amateur rigs in the country. It was an FM321 based on the Australian UHF CB rig, the FM320. With an indoor UHF TV yagi and 4W much DX was worked on FM. It was very good.

These days, there is little activity apart from in contests. The map shows the contacts made with 10W SSB and my 2m omni antenna in a recent activity contest.

Openings on 70cm were localised, and often tropo openings were more frequent than on 2m. These days, with FT8, amazing distances can be covered. It is a great pity 70cm is so under-used.