The joys of 2 meter calling

Making contact on 2 meters

As a newbie to this hobby I'm learning quickly, all of the people I have talked to have been very helpful and encouraging.  I did however have a problem recently, I can get contacts on 20/40 meters but nothing on 2 meters or 70 cm on the Yeasu 817ND.  So I decided to erect a new antenna a Diamond X50, this is on a pole about 6 foot above my house.  So since Saturday I have been trying it and there are my results.

I got the aerial erected about a week ago but I did not get the chance to sit down and call CQ at all, I was however listening to the aeroplanes, airports in the area and also some other Ham users.  But at the weekend I did have some time to use it.  These were the results.

Simplex calling on 2 meters

I had a successful session with the chaps at the Worthing and District Radio Ham club on the 15th September, running 5 watts through a Diamond X50 antenna, I contacted G0SIU – Brian
& G8BZL – Graham well and could hear 2E0FVL – Pete & 2E0RKO – Norman.  All of these guys are the other side of the South Downs all on 145.450mhz about 12 miles - 20 miles away.

The Diamond X50 is proving to be a very good aerial indeed and it has frequency bands 2m/70cm with Gain 4/7.2dB, I can hear the air bands very well and also I'm starting to get contacts now.

USB calling on 2 meters

I did try to get some SSB contact on the 14th however having a collinear due the the polarization I was not surprised at not getting anything.

Calling a repeater

I did however manage to get the Brighton 2 meter repeater OK at 2 watts on 145.600mhz.  I chatted to M0CFI Andy for a while.

This is all going well now I have started to get my equipment sorted out and I'm understanding more.