Today, I'm packing my Yaesu FT-7900 for sending to a new owner. I haven't used the rig for anything other than the occasional ISS pass - a job now done by my IC-746, which provides the much greater possibilities of 2m SSB/digital operation.
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| Goodbye, VHF FM. There was nothing worthwhile there in all the time I had this rig. |
Certainly, when one sets up a system with radio, it is generally expected to stay in operation pretty much forever. So I do slightly regret getting rid of the FT-790.
But the reasons for abandoning FM remain the same as those I gave in 2018: a lot of social misfits, largely CB leftovers in their 60s and 70s (and older), talking unedifying nonsense to one another, and an almost completely dead repeater network locally.
So, £100 goes in the bank, later to help pay for a decent telescopic aluminium pole!
Sold my Kenwood TM-G707 long ago. Used it quite often before I purchased my IC-706 over 20 years ago. But it is the same here. There is only nonsense on the repeaters, we had a great coversity network here covering most of the netherlands but I don't know if there is anything left of it. 73, Bas
ReplyDeleteI have all sorts of activities on VHF and UHF...I'm using Wires-X on VHF, and D-Star, YSF and DMR on UHF, plus I used to use Packet and PacketCluster on VHF, and yes, you'll find "all kinds" of people and/or Hams, but that's OK, just ignore them, or change frequency, or whatever...Actually repeaters around here are usually very quiet, except for during the weekly ARES net on our local repeater, or for the Sunday Evening/Night Swap Net, etc, or during sever weather nets, so I've sort of generated my own "traffic" on the repeaters, and in fact, I put up my own repeaters, one on 2 Meters for Wires-X use, and one on 440 for D-Star and maybe a little YSF, even though I already have Wires-X for most of that, so D-Star is usually what I use on UHF, but sometimes I'll connect to a net on one of the D-Star reflectors, or in one of the Wires-X rooms, or I'll connect to an Echolink conference, on 147.520 Simplex, as that's where I run my Echolink node, for a net there, and they people there seem OK to me for the most part. I might try using DMR also on UHF since my STM32-DVM will also do that mode. Anyway, I'm enjoying VHF and UHF, and if I don't have Wires-X or D-Star on a net, I will usually have Wires-X in the America Link room, and I'll usually have D-Star on the REF001C reflector as these seem to have a lot of traffic on them, meaning a lot of Hams talking to other Hams, but I can go to other places, if I want to have things a little quieter for a while, or if I want to have an extended conversation with someone, or with friends.
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