WorldwideDX Amateur Radio Forums

I regularly reach out further than 100 miles on both 6 and 2 meter SSB.

I work VHF simplex SSB daily out to about 250 mi and can work FM repeaters up tp about 300 mi. It's all about antennas pure and simple if you really want to be effective in ecomm you need to upgrade. All the heavy lifting in any emergency worth noting HF is the main source of most all traffic. For local events, bike races day in the park those events use VHF FM and HT's most of time.

I bet you don't live in the valley either.

__________________
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

~General George Patton, Jr.

I remember people telling me - "All you need is a 1/4 wave spike - Just stick it up and talk." In my area vhf / uhf is almost dead. There is some activity on the repeaters, but not much. If new hams on 2 and 70 don't have anyone to talk to, they may go non-active. Long distance communications via VHF / UHF, may be just what is needed. Hams talking to other hams in more distant (low activity) areas, with and without the use of repeaters. I'm not talking about (lifts) DXing. Checking into repeater nets is ok, but there should be more simplex operation also. A comment I often hear is .. I just use the ht and x-repeater. How do we drum up more activity via simplex? How do we get more "distant communications" via (fm) simplex operation. I can leave my radio on 146.520 and not hear anyone. I can do this for days on end. Should we have a "Simplex" night? Maybe once, or twice a week? It would be cool to hear hams checking in from beyond 100 miles.

There are lots of 2 meter SSB nets on in the NE part of US.

BEAM SPINNERS DAILY-SU 8AM Local 144200 WA7KYM M,Tu,W,S KG0OR Th, K0OJ F
Western States Sunday 5:30 Pacific 144200&3920 K6TSK DM03;N8DEZ DM04
PNWVHFS Sunday 8AM Local 144240
ECVHFS Sunday 10:30AM Eastern 144250 net control K2SMN FN20
ST PETE Sunday 8:15PM Eastern 144210 Vert or Horiz WA4GCH EL87
Pack Rats Monday 8PM Eastern 144150 net control N3ITT FN20
N0PB Monday 8PM Central 144250 net control N0PB EM39*
Florida SSB Monday 7PM Eastern 144210 net control WA4JWU EL98
Rocky Mtn Monday 8PM Local 144220 net control W0EDW/K0MLM DN70
UpperRioGrande Monday 8PM Local 144.250 net control NM5F DM65
Guelph Monday 9PM Eastern 144245 net control VE3XTM EN93
San Diego Tuesday 7PM Local 144230 net control W6IPT
W5VHF Tuesday 8PM Central 144190 net control KD5ZVE EM26 (K5SW)
NO GA Tuesday 8PM Eastern 144210 net control W4TMW EM84
Quebec Tuesday 8PM Eastern 144240 net control VE2JWH FN35 (VE2DC)
PNWVHFS Tuesday 8PM Local 144240
AM Nostalgia Tuesday 7PM CDT 144950 net control KC9CUK EN52
144.240 net Wednesday 0100Z 8PM Central 144240 net control WB9LYH EN54
144.252 net Wednesday 0030Z 8:30 Eastern 144252 net control K8TQK EM89je
Guelph Wednesday 9PM Eastern 144245 net control VE3XTM EN93
North Tex SWOT Wednesday 9PM Central 144250 net control W5FKN EM13
SWOT net: Thursday 8PM Central 144250 net control K5YG EM50
OK SWOT Thursday 8PM Central 144250 net control KD5ZVE EM26
SE Ohio SWOT: Thursday 8PM Eastern 144250 net control AB8XG – KD8DJE EM89
Q5 net: Thursday 7PM Central 144220 net control N9JBW EN61
NEWS net: Thursday 8:30PM Eastern 144250 net control W1COT FN31
Atlantic SSB Friday 8:30PM Eastern 144240 net control WB4IXU EM86
Chesapeake Saturday 9:30PM Eastern 144205 net control W3BFC FM18

im in the state of georgia and we have several linked repeater systems. Two are right near me and we can talk all over the state with them. One will pick up north florida and east alabama.
you find the local repeater closest to you and it sends it out to all the others on their frequency.