2M Recommendations For Beginners Please!

[DaveInDenver]

I believe if you hold a Canadian amateur license you can apply for a U.S. amateur provisional license under the reciprocity rules. Essentially you have the same privileges except you have to adhere to the U.S. frequency assignments.

http://www.rac.ca/regulatory/rcip.htm

I dunno what the Canadian restricted maritime radio license allows you to do, there are several levels of maritime license here in the U.S.A. But if you are licensed for just the VHF maritime frequencies, those are not the same as the ham VHF frequencies. I might be wrong here, but AFAIK there are no general use UHF maritime frequencies assigned by the U.S. Coast Guard or the FCC.

 

[craig]

- Where did you see the part that you have to apply for a license? On the link you provided the only restriction I saw was that you had to follow the rules of the host country relative to your current license level.

- What are the "location" codes that they say you need to transmit with your call-sign. Something like <call-sign>/<location> where the location example was VE3. Where is VE3 defined?

I live in Washington, travel to BC on occasion for trips. This would be good for me to clearly get my head around.

Craig

 

[Carlyle]

Thanks Dave, and I'm trying to sift through the gov't site.

The license I took many years ago was for vhf and ship to shore communication, which I believe falls under uhf, (I may be wrong). I did have to learn Morse code at the time and be proficient at a certain speed to obtain my license.
One nice thing is that the license does not expire.

Any answers about it's usefulness for Ham in the US?

 

[DaveInDenver]

http://www.rac.ca/regulatory/faqgovt3.htm

http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/smt-gst.nsf/en/sf01701e.html#convention51

Keep in mind I've only been to Canada once (Niagara Falls when I was a kid) and never as an amateur. This is just my understanding from reading the regulations...

Under the U.S./Canada reciprocity agreement that a U.S. amateur can temporarily operate in Canada without any special permits. A temporary station uses his FCC call sign with the ITU geographic location following. So if you are in British Columbia, you'd have to do is say your call sign followed by '/VE7', i.e. "stroke vee ee seven".

The agreement also seems to allows U.S. amateurs to take the Industry Canada test and get a Canadian call sign. Then you would not have to do the special geographic I.D. after your U.S. call sign since you would have a proper Canadian call. I don't know any more specifics, like what geographic location you'd get, etc. This may also only be for people physically located near the border, not sure.

BTW, some main Canadian provincial ITU prefixes:

VE1 for Nova Scotia
VE2 Quebec
VE3 Ontario
VE4 Manitoba
VE5 Saskatchewan
VE6 Alberta
VE7 British Columbia
VE8 Northwest Territories
VE9 New Brunswick
VE0 maritime hams

If you are a Canadian ham, the same rules apply. Say your call followed by the ITU geographic location. Say XXXXXX/W0 if you are in Colorado.

In all cases, the local rules apply, NOT those of your native country!

 

[bc_fjc]

http://www.rac.ca/regulatory/faqgovt3.htm

http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/smt-gst.nsf/en/sf01701e.html#convention51

So if you are in British Columbia, you'd have to do is say your call sign followed by '/VE7', i.e. "stroke vee ee seven".
QUOTE]


Almost, if you where traviling to BC it would be your callsign mobile VE7 or your callsign portible VE7 depending on if you are mobile or not. Same applies for Canadians opperating in the US Callsign mobile W7....

Canada you need to ID every 30 min, US is every 10 min

73,
VA7DRW

 

[Carlyle]

Thanks!

In reality it's time for me to brush up on vhf/uhf radio and it may be easier to take the $14.00 exam. Any place to take tt online?

 

[craig]

The text from the link says, "Each amateur station shall indicate at least once during each contact with another station its geographical location as nearly as possible by city and state or city and province."

Where is it written that one must identify as "mobile" or use the "VE7" style location indicator?

Edit: OK, saw it on the other link but am a little confused since the two links are providing inconsistent answers to the same question.

Edit 2: The RIC-2 document is located here, and is where the "mobile designator" and location requirement comes from.
http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/smt-gst.nsf/en/sf01226e.html#station

9.2 The operator of an amateur station licensed by the Government of the United States shall identify the station:

* (a) by transmitting the call sign assigned to the licensee's station by the Federal Communications Commission;

* (b) if transmitting:
o (i) by radiotelephony, by adding the word "mobile" or "portable", or

o (ii) by radiotelegraphy, by adding an oblique character ("/"); and

* (c) by adding the Canadian amateur call sign prefix set out in Column I of an item of Schedule IV for the geographical location of the station set out in Column II of that item

 

[Lynn]

I've been inactive for a few years. I dropped my HT and repairint/replacing it or getting a mobile hasn't worked it's way high enough on the budget yet.

However, reading over this thread I see no mention of cross-band repeat*. When I was active, I thought that would be a great option for those of us that might be away from our rigs while in the back country.

What are your thoughts? Anyone use it regularly? Is that a feature that should be recommended to someone looking for their first 2m?




*Basically the mobile in your rig can be set up to act as a repeater, so you can use your low-power HT to get to the mobile, and the mobile re-broadcasts at much higher power, with a much better antenna, etc.

 

[craig]

I have it in my mobile, but since I don't have a handheld I don't ever use it when hiking. It is one of the reasons why I bought the radio I did though. That and the sub-band can be used for weather, APRS, monitoring a repeater while using the main band to talk to others in your group, etc.

 

[craig]

From the section craig quotes, looks like it's your choice to use the mobile/portable or stroke in ID. But sounds like from what bc_fjc says that local technique in B.C. is to say whether you are portable or mobile.

I understood a bit differently, but I don't speak Canadian so I might have misunderstood ;-) . I thought it was saying that what you say depends on how you are transmitting. For either there are 3 things to add (a, b, and c).

RadioTelephony you need to *say* "mobile"
RadioTelegraphy you need to *add the character* (think keyboard) "/"

and regardless of RadioTelephony or Telegraphy you need to follow that up with the location.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I understood a bit differently, but I don't speak Canadian so I might have misunderstood ;-) . I thought it was saying that what you say depends on how you are transmitting. For either there are 3 things to add (a, b, and c).

RadioTelephony you need to *say* "mobile"
RadioTelegraphy you need to *add the character* (think keyboard) "/"

and regardless of RadioTelephony or Telegraphy you need to follow that up with the location.

And you obviously read English words better than I on a Friday afternoon. Duh. :-/

 

[Hltoppr]

70cm?

So, another question....

How often are folks using the 70cm band, if you get a dual band radio (ie. 2M/70cm 7800...)?

I'm not really concerned about cost, but it seems that for a first radio, I'd like to get what I'm going to use...when I upgrade to a General license, then I'll likely get a multi band radio with more "punch."

O' yeah...and I have a SAR radio if I need to talk/listen to local law enforcement/FS/BLM/Fire....also, with the radio shelf in the troopy...no necessito a detachable face plate...

-H-

 

[Cabrito]

I like to have options so I go dual band.

So, another question....

How often are folks using the 70cm band, if you get a dual band radio (ie. 2M/70cm 7800...)?

I'm not really concerned about cost, but it seems that for a first radio, I'd like to get what I'm going to use...when I upgrade to a General license, then I'll likely get a multi band radio with more "punch."

-H-

I started out with a 2m only radio. I thought I would be happy for a while. Then I got a vx7 tri band HT and just had to get a dual band mobile.
I need options. For instance, to get onto the Expo Net I have to use a 70cm repeater, and some of the EmComm stuff in SF where I live is on 70cm.
My FT8800 is real sweet and can also monitor/scan serveral bands that my Icom v8000 2m can not. The dual display of the FT8800 is real nice to because I can monitor two freq's at the same time and they don't have to be different bands. I can have two 2m freq's set as one on each side of the dual display. This is real handy when working with different groups.
-mg

 

[crawler#976]

Hey Andrew!

I guess it depends on what you want your radio to do for you. If it's just there for comms with other rigs, a 2M will be fine. That was my intent when I bought two Yaesu FT-2800's - I could have cheap, durable radios in both rigs.

But, if you wish to access more repeaters, use IRLP for very long range comms, monitor LE and other frequencies, or just enjoy the hobby, a multi-band radio is the way to go. Once I'd used IRLP, I was hooked. Then my local node moved from 2M to 70CM, and that necessitated an upgrade to the Yaesu 7800.

I think you'd be better served by getting a dual band!

The link below shows all the various repeaters in the Flagstaff area (maybe not all, but there are a bunch)

http://k5ehx.net/repeaters/qrepeater.php?coverage=0&clat=35.198177&clong=-111.651320

Mark

 

[Hltoppr]

That's exactly what I needed Mark! Since there are several 70cm repeaters in the area...I guess dual band it is! :elkgrin:

-H-