Essex Ham Chat Forum

Amateur Radio is a great hobby that helps to bring people together, make new friends, learn about technology and have fun with radio.
Correction: Amateur radio is a hobby where you will spend a small fortune on equipment and call CQ and no one will answer you. There is heavy cliche that is hard to be accepted where individuals think that they are better then others. You will have to tolerate unwanted interference as there are some very special *censored* [Please refrain from posting obscenities] that will key over people that are having fun to try and ruin there fun and they can get away with this for years on end as nobody gives a damn and can't be bothered to safe guard the hobby. You can expect to spend time typing away on amateur radio forums and not get a reply just like when you call CQ, Many individuals with a license are ignorant and have lost all enthusiasm. Unlike years ago people in the hobby would be respectful and help each other and the bands would be very busy but please don't despair we will change this dying hobby and you will feel welcome after passing your foundation license and spending loads of money.

Paul,
Thanks for starting the topic.
As a reminder, please do not post offensive language anywhere on the site - The site has a mixed audience and obscenities reflect badly on the hobby.
Yes, many of us are guilty of not using 2m enough, and it's up to those amateurs keen to keep 2m alive to make more use of it, or to organise on-air activities to get more people on-air.

There is plenty of space for more nets, activity days, contests or discussion groups. Essex Ham is, of course, happy to promote any 2m activity that anyone wishes to start locally.

Apologies regarding the offensive language Pete, It was a very deep post that came from the heart, I listened to this weeks net with my handheld in the kitchen after many months of not being active and was disgusted at the amount of disruptive keying over the net, I don't make a habit of using offensive language but I am sick of others ruining the hobby for the ones that enjoy the hobby and want to promote the hobby. I am a peacekeeper by nature and always have been so it goes to show how this is getting to people, Once again sorry to anyone who was offended as it was not my intention and happy hamming everybody.

Ha Ha. There is no F 'in swearing! How about some 2M SB?

SSB

I 100% endorse and agree with everything you have said regarding the VHF/UHF bands! More *needs* to be done! Also i would want to see more amateurs in Essex taking up the 4m & 6m bands as well!

Yes, what is the Danbury 6mtr repeater coverage like? I call out on that regularly and only get back white noise followed by the beeps of the ID signal. I may have got one reply in a whole year. Many people have now acquired a new IC-7300 with 4&6mtrs. I would like to use mine on those bands and would be happy to agree a day and time that we could all use them. How about linking the Monday night net into other bands? We could use split frequency on 4mtrs and network the 6mtr repeater. I also wondered why we have not tried to network several repeaters throughout Essex and Kent on a Monday net with moderators in each area. We could link in PO or PI to DA to give further coverage. It would be a good experiment I think.

The issue is at the present time there are to many armchair warriors who post about how the bands are not being used. They mostly have not looked at the fact 70Cm will not go as we have modern modes with in the band that make use of the frequency. Dramatic posts like the hobby will die if people do not call CQ more often is actually not the cause. There is many causes such as clubs, stigma and humans.

Until attitudes towards new licences change and people accept this is a hobby it will die. Terms like i hear such as "cornflakes licence" sadly does not help show the hobby as open to everyone. Most QSO with older licencees turn in to a bragging contest about what equipment they have.

Clubs just promote "real radio" such as HF and look down on 2/4/6/70 bands. Repeaters are promoted as a lazy way to the hobby instead of as a starting step.

There are quiet a few amateurs such as myself, M1ECC, M0XTA (you know the sign i would give you for 4m), M0PSX and a few others who are trying to promote the bands and the hobby in a better light.

I have read and re-read posts here, and all i can say is " stop whinging and put cq calls out ". I am a regular on the monday night nets, The YL nets on the first Saturday of the month, a regular on the Acorns net every Thursday night and sometimes chair it when Gordon 2E0ELI can't make it. Being a member of said group, we also have activity afternoons twice a year ( one early in the year and one late ) to encourage the use of the 2m band. We have also had the occasion to include 70cms ssb into our activity afternoons which i must say went very well. BUT, and it's a big but, where do the people that come up on those occasions go to after the events? THIN AIR is the answer, so it makes one think that efforts made to encourage people onto the bands ( including the new licencees ) only work for a short time. I don't have an answer for getting more use of the bands, put it down to the introduction of the new modes if you want, but people are still out there. With regard to keyers, it isn't only DA that suffers from the trolls out there in the radio waves, it's on simplex as well. For instance, every thursday there is a mobile station that regularly transmits a carrier with no audio while driving which makes the calling frequency (S 20 ) useless. I have someone near my location that puts out a carrier with no audio, but pointless trying to find them as they disappear into the ether. Bottom line is, in my view, if you want to keep the bands USE THEM.

Hello Rachel, you mentioned the 2 meter activity afternoons in your post. I plan to be sitting in my car on top of Firle Beacon near Eastbourne throughout the next one (November). I will probably use my 7/8ths whip again because the WX has been far too windy for me to put up a Yagi on my own on every previous activity afternoon! Anyway I hope to transmit at least once using all of the following... QRS CW (calling 144.050), SSB (calling 144.300), SSTV (144.500), C4FM simplex (calling 144.6125), APRS (144.800), FM (calling 145.500) and GB3DA (145.725 output). I hope to work as many of you as possible. Happy hamming, as I believe some people say in Essex ;-) Edmund M0MNG. PS. In an act of rebellion, I will also take a 4 meter FM radio with me and hopefully can work GB4MTR on that band.