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New Extra advice

The thing is Mr. Doug, some did not start in CB, don't understand it, and don't want too.

Me, since I got my general, I haven't been on Cb. I have been having too much fun on 20, 40, 60 and 80 meters.

My CB friends call me to see if I died or something. I really enjoyed my roots, but it was just time to move on.

I feel I am really growing in the hobby on this path.
 
Me, since I got my general, I haven't been on Cb. I have been having too much fun on 20, 40, 60 and 80 meters.

It's funny, I do spin the dial and listen to see what is going on on the old bands from time to time. It may be my age setting in, but listening to it now on the air or to the 'watergate' files people post, it feels like it is another world. I have no interest anymore and I spent years there...it's how I got started...transmitting at least.
 
Once again thanks for the replies. Things have been going good so far. My call sign is AE5SO. Every HAM I have contacted has been super nice.

A newbie question I thought I would ask here first.

1. When going down the freeway, and you notice someone with a HAM license plate with their call sign, what is the general way to contact somebody this way? Assuming they are scanning repeaters, etc, is there a simplex freq that would generally be monitored? I was in Oregon last week and had my HT, I called out the truck's call sign/lic plate followed by my own on a couple of simplex freq's, 146.42, 146.46 with no reply. It was close to Portland, so there are dozens of repeaters and I obviously didn't want to call out on all of those. Of course he may have been busy on another freq. or not scanning those at all, but I was just curious if there was a general protocol for a situation like that.

Thanks!
 
Once again thanks for the replies. Things have been going good so far. My call sign is AE5SO. Every HAM I have contacted has been super nice.

A newbie question I thought I would ask here first.

1. When going down the freeway, and you notice someone with a HAM license plate with their call sign, what is the general way to contact somebody this way? Assuming they are scanning repeaters, etc, is there a simplex freq that would generally be monitored? I was in Oregon last week and had my HT, I called out the truck's call sign/lic plate followed by my own on a couple of simplex freq's, 146.42, 146.46 with no reply. It was close to Portland, so there are dozens of repeaters and I obviously didn't want to call out on all of those. Of course he may have been busy on another freq. or not scanning those at all, but I was just curious if there was a general protocol for a situation like that.

Thanks!


Um, I guess that would be damn near impossible, unless said vehical was displaying a monitored freq .:bored: I don't know of a list of monitored simplex freq.s by state either.:unsure: With the myriad of freq.s and modes available one would be pretty lucky to to pull one of the above out of the hat and make said contact.:love: I know several guys who run CW mobile and hardly ever use phone ops. :eek: I don't run a vanity plate here with my call, but I do display it on the back windshield. I usually run HF in the afternoon on the way home from work and talk to a one of my buddies from the local club on the way to work. When running HF I'm liable to start out on 40m and then jump from there to 60m and maybe to 20m and check on 10m if there is some propagation there (which hasn't been the case lately). Don't be shy and go ahead and make a CQ call to a repeater. There are some who might frown on said practice but I've done it when in an unfamiliar area and actually had a few QSO's that way. If you don't want to do that, just announce your presence on the repeater by giving your call. As for HF mobile, pick and scan a band and make some contacts. One trick that has worked for me on HF is if you don't want to jump into an ongoing QSO, move +- 5 from where they are, give a listen, check the freq for use, if free, make a CQ call. Alot of times those who are doing the same as you(scanning and listening) will pick you up and answer your CQ. Have a good time on the bands and if mobiling, pay attention to the road. We don't want you going SK on us in this early stage of the hobby for ya!:eek:

73

Wayne C.
 
There are sort of known simplex calling frequencies, like 146.52 for 2m and 446.00 for 70cm and 29.600 for 10m FM.

I generally do monitor 146.520 on the road, but I'll tell you, I've called and called for hours with very few contacts. I work it often from home and we have a good local group that monitors there in the area, but it isn't the usual in many other places.
 
All a ham license plate signifies is that the owner is a duly licensed amateur radio operator. In my case, it may well be my wife driving the car with the ham plate, and she's not licensed and doesn't care to be. Might be one of my kids. Or my grandkids.

The ham plate doesn't even mean there's an actual ham radio in the car. I've had my call on plates in Nevada and Washington for over 40 years, and for about 35 of those years I never had a mobile station.

If I were to select a 2M simplex frequency to call blindly on, it would be 146.52/.55/.58. The first one is the designated US calling frequency. I've had reasonable luck finding other mobiles on .52, including once just south of Austin NV on U.S. 50, "The Loneliest Road in the Country". Guy about ten miles ahead of me and heading in the opposite direction called, so we had a good ten minute QSO, in the middle of which we met, pulled over and exchanged QSL cards!

This area, by the way, is where Stephen King's story "Desperation" takes place. Tak.

If you haven't read the story, you won't understand "Tak.".
 

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