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A little noob help with antenna please

Chumly

Member
Feb 18, 2014
17
3
13
San Diego
Been a while Scrappers! Hope ya'll still check in on these forums and perhaps give a big ol' kick in the butt to get it alive again.

Anyway, a little backstory here: I use to live in various areas of San Diego and got a couple good nights where I could get a Yagi to have the 2M hit your repeater waaay up there. I had a minor email exchange with KK6HDU after an AmandaNET about hitting the repeater but I kinda just dropped the conversation (not wanting to bug just one person). I only made 2 good quick contacts from the city then I moved out to the mountains. This is where I'm confused and could use some elmers.

I'm KK6MLG, my address is still correct on the license if you want to google map it for reference, and I'm at 2950ft of elevation. That thought sure as hell I'd toss that 2M yagi up 20ft and I'd just nail the repeater up here...nope.

I don't have a rotator so I'm just aiming, try, adjust, try again, repeat. My only 2M radios are Icom, IC-v8000 (75W max on 2M) and IC-7000 (50W max on 2M), both mobile but trying as base stations till I get all the Jeep running again. When in the city I couldn't always get a transmit but could receive very well. Here, neither.

So in a nut shell, do you see something obviously wrong here as to why I could reach the repeater in the very least at 50ft of elevation and now can't on a mountain South of Alpine? I'm a lowly Tech and still studying antenna and all that mysterious stuff that I really should actually know for General and not just memorize answers to pass a test. 6 Meter club thinks I should just hit you guys but I'm having no luck and something I am ignorant about is stopping me. Being in the boonies on a fireroad with no other HAMs out here has no one really enthusiastic to come out and do a survey and physically help me out. So I ask the guys and gals that made me want to become a HAM...Gun Toting, freedom loving, BBQ pitting, BurningHAM enjoying melonfarmers!

Being that the forum is slow, I'll check back in probably weekly to check for any replies at all. I'm not just asking a question and not coming back so be patient with me please; I'm an asshole but not a jerk! I'd really like to get with ya'll and shoot the breeze instead of spamming the forums from an unknown and listening on broadcastify. 73's
 

How far are you from the repeater? It would help if we knew the location of the repeater you are trying to access. There are several repeaters in and around the San Diego area. GPS coordinates would be GREAT for it and your location if you have them. That will allow me to run a Google Earth elevation profile between the two locations to see if there is any terrain in the way.
 
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Gee, I dunno.

I used to live just "down the hill" from you in Ramona.

I could work any repeater to the East (mt palomar, ect), the high level repeaters around LA were workable, but, a bit of a stretch at 150 miles or so.
 
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Google reports Latitude: 32.752362 | Longitude: -116.692169, I'm KK6MLG and my call sign address is valid. Altitude is 885 meters but my Kestrel reports 2978ft currently (I think it needs calibrated because I get higher every time I check)

Address is Alpine, but I'm at mile marker 15.5 past Alpine before you head up even further. I feel I have a much cleaner line of sight to the SCRAP repeater, but ya'll know better.

I loved listening to the Scrappers but the broadcastify is often down (or repeater is down) so I was hoping to finally get back to actual HAM'ing it up to see. Is it still active? I'm actually surprised I got a quick response. Ha, from local East County fellows.

The magic of the waves. It worked in Mira Mesa but not here. Might be futile with me until I really understand General tech..or more.
 
Is the Scrap repeater still active? Have to ask as I only have broadcastify to use for now. It's down now and every time I check it's silent besides the mandatory auto callsign.
 
How far are you from the repeater? It would help if we knew the location of the repeater you are trying to access. There are several repeaters in and around the San Diego area. GPS coordinates would be GREAT for it and your location if you have them. That will allow me to run a Google Earth elevation profile between the two locations to see if there is any terrain in the way.

If there's a terrain in the way, it should be clear in a minute or so, unless the terrain is derailed. Chew (chew) on that one for a while....:whistle:

I was going to suggest using Google Earth for aiming the antenna. Find the North Star at night and remember its direction from a given spot on your property or relative to a tree or building. That will be your "NORTH" reference point as long as you live at that address.

Then find the azimuth to the repeater, point the antenna in that general direction and see what happens.
 
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