Musings and questiosn from a new ham

[Crom]

I received my license in April so I'm very much a new ham. I just recently over the last week begun transmitting, and testing the range of the radio. I am constantly learning. I listened to the radio for months before I ever keyed a mic.

Anyways, assuming a good line of sight (path) what is considered good distance for 2M / 70CM communication? Last night I hit a repeater 42 miles away consistently with full quieting. I thought that was pretty good, but I don't have enough experience to say that was good or not.

Also, when operating mobile, is it good practice to try 5w, or 25W, and as a last result 50W of power when transmitting? That would be the right way? Correct?

Additionally, I had a hard time finding out who was the frequency coordinator for Southern California. I found this site: http://www.tasma.org/ Are they the boss of the spectrum for my area? They appear to publish a band plan which is what I was searching for.

Thanks in advance.

 

[HillbillyfromAL]

Start on low power and work your way up. As far as figuring out who your regional freq coordinator is just ask a local Elmer that's active in the clubs. Also program as many repeaters as possible into your radio. You may find that some are monitored all the time and others not at all. Good luck and congrats on becoming a Ham.

 

[pugslyyy]

Yep, you always want to use the lowest power possible - it is easier on / extends the life of the equipment, and helps to avoid interfering with others who may be trying to use the same frequency somewhere else.

 

[Jr_Explorer]

Well in California you don't want to try to program as many repeaters as possible. Mainly because there isn't a radio made that has enough memories! For some great info though check out this site: http://www.levinecentral.com/repeaters/google_mapping.php

There is a great CERT/Survival/Ham group in S.D. and they do some fun events: http://www.outerzoneovernight.org/

 

[craig333]

As far as range, there are too many variables involved to really answer your question. Where are you located, where is the repeater located and so on. Whats surprised me is hitting some repeaters I was sure I did not have line of sight to. I was surprised to hit the Shaffer Mt. repeater from my camping spot. Oddly, the Quincy repeater was closer and I could open it, just didn't hit it well enough to be able to converse. Its fun trying to see just what the limitations are.

 

[robgendreau]

Yeah, there's a whole low-power world out there where the goal is to see how far you can reach out with little power. And for us, of course, saving power is an issue. And you can get a long way; check out the amateur satellites.

Interestingly, I noted that the Levinecentral link gives one of my local repeaters a location in Walnut Creek, while the actual location of the repeater itself is on Mt. Diablo (but the club is in the Creek). Is that common with other listings? Would mess you up if you were pointing a directional antenna at a city where the club is instead of the nearby mountain where the repeater antenna is.

Rob