On Dec 26, 2007, at 9:48 AM, Bill Photinos wrote: > Nate, > > Where I live, (and every place I have lived,) the 2m band was not > crowded with users, only with repeaters. Most repeaters sit idle > most of the time, and the more popular machines almost never cool > off between 6am and 9pm. > > There's a waiting list for repeater pairs, but there's never a wait > to find an open machine for a QSO.
Agree with all. There's also always someone who wants to put up another 2m machine. If I weren't involved in a club that has four VHF machines, I'd never build one. > Personally, I believe that without dirt-cheap 2m radios, we might > have lost part of the band years ago. We don't achieve anything > close to what the commercial world (and by extension the FCC) > considers "crowded." Also agreed. Haven't seen any ham trunking systems lately. :-) All I'm saying is that there's a strong economic reason that VHF FM is so popular. It's not because it performs any better/worse than other bands. (In fact, if we want to talk about raw performance, 220 MHz's quiet noise floor kicks VHF in the seat of the pants every day of the week for FM repeater use. Try finding good quality 220 MHz radios, though... the Japanese manufacturers aren't interested in making them -- 220 MHz isn't a ham band in Japan. -- Nate Duehr, WY0X [EMAIL PROTECTED]
