Amatur Radio Changes & Railfanning

What do people think loosening of restrictions on 10m and the elimination of CW for higher licenses will do for the sport of railfanning?

Will the ability for more people to communicate quickly over longer distances change the way some people look for trains?

keeper1616 wrote:What do people think loosening of restrictions on 10m and the elimination of CW for higher licenses will do for the sport of railfanning?

Will the ability for more people to communicate quickly over longer distances change the way some people look for trains?

Probably not for looking, but it will make it easier for folks to get on HF nets to engage in railroad related QSOs.

I don't think the elimination of Morse Code testing (Element 1) will have any impact on railfanning whatsoever. Not many railfans I know have HF in their railfan vehicles.

However, a weekly 40m or 75m railfanning net would be pretty cool!

73 de Dan, KE7HLR

Danco wrote:

I don't think the elimination of Morse Code testing (Element 1) will have any impact on railfanning whatsoever. Not many railfans I know have HF in their railfan vehicles.

I agree. The elimination of code won't impact railfans. Obviously you will see an increase of upgrades to General. I will upgrade to General but I won't put an HF-capable rig in my vehicle. The 2m/70cm Kenwood currently mounted in my truck is perfect while driving and railfanning.

HF mobile is a nice escape, the local 2 meter repeaters sound like 11 meters.

Truman wrote:

HF mobile is a nice escape, the local 2 meter repeaters sound like 11 meters.

Do you work 6m and 10m repeaters? I can see doing that while mobile but from what I've read about and heard from fellow club members HF can be very hit-and-miss when it comes to making contacts or monitoring. To me it sounds like I'd rather work HF from my home shack.

Here in northern NJ we do have a few 2m/70cm repeaters that sound more like 11 meters than amateur but for the most part the repeaters that I monitor, including the two my club operates, are used by responsible amateurs.

jmp883 wrote:but from what I've read about and heard from fellow club members HF can be very hit-and-miss when it comes to making contacts or monitoring. To me it sounds like I'd rather work HF from my home shack.

I run HF mobile from time to time using a Icom 706MkII and a High Sierra screwdriver antenna, both on ham and Navy MARS frequencies. While signals are definitely weaker than those from a regular fixed antenna, it's not any more hit and miss than for a regular station, similarly dependant on propagation for any given frequency range.

I'd run HF mobile much more often, except that I don't want to leave the antennas on the vehicle when parked at the railstation every workday as an attraction to theives. So most of my mobile activity tends to be two meters.

73 de W2KB

Ken W2KB wrote:

I'd run HF mobile much more often, except that I don't want to leave the antennas on the vehicle when parked at the railstation every workday as an attraction to theives. So most of my mobile activity tends to be two meters.

Yeah...I can agree with that. At least a 2m antenna doesn't look quite as imposing as most HF-capable mobile antennas. And they cost a heck of a lot less, too.

jmp883 wrote:Truman wrote:

HF mobile is a nice escape, the local 2 meter repeaters sound like 11 meters.

Do you work 6m and 10m repeaters? I can see doing that while mobile but from what I've read about and heard from fellow club members HF can be very hit-and-miss when it comes to making contacts or monitoring. To me it sounds like I'd rather work HF from my home shack.

I've worked 10 meter repeaters mobile, not much happening on six. I'm not much for rag chew, I like the DX. Some of my best and most unusual contacts were made HF mobile, places like ES and UT. It is hit or miss, you just have to get used to it.
I also carry an HT to monitor the 161 portion of the 2 meter band, but things are pretty routine, requests for 241's, defect detectors, not a lot of chatter.

I don't think it will change things too much.

I just upgraded to General so I'm wondering if there are any RR related nets that are currently going on at all?

-Tim
KC9FSH

hailster wrote:I don't think it will change things too much.

I just upgraded to General so I'm wondering if there are any RR related nets that are currently going on at all?

-Tim
KC9FSH

There use to be two HF Railroad nets that I know of, which operated on 40 Meters. The first was a CW net on 7035 KHz, which met every Tuesday night at 00:00Z. The other was on 7215 KHz, LSB, and was phone net for retired railroad employees, but it was open to anyone with a license. This net met at 16:00Z every Saturday.

73s

Ron

for nets, well hf is OK, but due to antenna size, propagation and about a zillion reasons, your local two meter repeater is still the best after .52, maybe even before .52.... For those who think the two meter repeaters are like 11, well in my experience, there is always another repeater to try, and most of the idiots seem to cling together, or maybe it is just all the semi-sane guys just go elsewhere... There was, meybe still is, a repeater out on the island that some guys would go to to tweak the idiots, then move else where....letting the idiots play with themselves... GBG Ed

i know i have gone off 2 meter to both 6m and 900 and we have a rot that covers most of southern part of ct

When I was out in Chicago several years ago, I ran into several railfans on 1.2 GHz. Trying to use 2 meters in the Downtown area is a loosing battle with intermod. Thankfully, I took my other 1.25 meter, and 70cm handhelds with me. I was able to use 1.25 meters very nicely from inside the Loop area.

My former boss gave me his 1.2 GHz, 1-watt ICOM handheld to take with me, since we had no local 1.2 GHz repeaters in our local area. I really had a fun time talking to everyone, and listen to them chase a steam locomotive excursion with Milwaukee Road 261. However, 2 meters was next to impossible to listen to while I downtown that afternoon due to all the interference.

Yours truly,

Ron

i feel like typing, so what the heck. I have been on all bands mobile except 160. THe problem as you go lower in frequency is that the antenna can't be larger and you make it up with loading coil (like a rubber ducky on an HT). Escentially, your antenna begins to suck more and more as you go lower in frequency, VSWR not withstanding. On 75 meters, most stations ore s7-s8 in the mobile, but they are hearing each other 20-40 over 9, so mostly, you don't get heard. 40 is about the lowest that works at all, twenty is better, and ten and 6 are OK (antenna wise) if you can find anyone to talk to.. Ed