2 Meter Sideband

I haven’t been active on the ham bands for a number of years, but the Mt. Airy VHF club may still have SSB nets, according to their website. I know they had stations into central N.J., it may be too far a reach for you, but here is some info…Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club (packrats)

I worked 2 meter SSB for a number of years, until I moved to a different part of Texas.. 2 meter SSB is not like 2 meter FM. There are no repeaters to help with distance. FM is vertically polarized while SSB is horizontally polarized. There is -20dB signal strength difference between the 2 polarities. A vertical signal just won't be heard on a horizontal antenna. Put up a beam as high as you are physically able, with as many elements as you can afford.. Mine was a 13 element beam at 75 feet. I also had a T E Systems 1452G amplifier. I routinely worked stations 350 miles away. 144.200 is the recognized call frequency. That's where everybody congregates.

Its been on my mind to try for some kind of 2m SSB. After all these years, I never made a 2m SSB contact.... I should probably change that soon...

I have run a 2 meter ssb activity group (net) on Thursday evenings for the last several years. It started out as a few guys getting together weekly to ragchew. We had no other goal but to make noise on 2m ssb and keep it alive. One of the originals died a few years ago and I've made it a goal to run it every week. 144.200 calling from south central Illinois EM59. Starts at 7pm cst and runs about an hour. I start out calling southwest and usually pick up several from the St Louis and surrounding areas on both sides of the river. Then I spin clockwise grabbing guys in Chicago land area and into Michigan. Then back to the east. Regulars include a couple in Ohio and my old buddy in south Indiana. An average week yields roughly 15-20 check ins from my area and points reaching out 300 miles or so. If tropo is up and the band is open we move up off the call freq to .210. I hesitate to call it a formal net because I love to step aside and alow others to make a new contact. It always puts a smile on my face to have someone pick up a new grid or new state. I also encourage others to try some higher bands 222 432 1296 ect... high band grid chasing is a blast! It takes patience but is rewarding!

I encourage you to reach out to some local guys to get activity on 2m ssb. Distance is possible when conditions allow and good horizontal antennas at hight help!. I worked NJ with 1 watt on voice with a good E skip opening a couple years ago. Ive worked from Ontario to the Gulf coast of Alabama.. Virginia to Colorado all with a modest set up. 13 el at 60 ft.. fed with 1/2 hardline.. 300 watts.. nothing crazy just the right place at the right time! Good luck 73

Being that I'm in another part of the U.S., I have no way of knowing what you're missing, but I can tell you why you're missing it.. Read about it here:

A yagi is definitely a game changer but knowing where to point it and when is huge. I would encourage you to do some research on your area and reach out to other hams. The weak signal niche is kinda small compared to the HF guys but we are passionate about what we do. Plenty of good resources out there to learn from. If you live in NY your in a great spot. Tons of vhf/uhf weak signal guys. Way more than the Midwest and closer together than we are out here in the Midwest. Contest scores are very telling. The northeast always dominates do to population density of vhf/uhf guys and how close you all are together. 300-400 miles for me might be one state over but 4 states for you...

Propagation in real time on vhf...

Propagation forecasts

We are going into winter so dont expect much. High bands are always more active in the spring and summer. Fall sometimes. Summer mornings and evenings are the best.

If you put up a moderate sized yagi, do a little planning with the resources available your results should be rewarding.

Best of luck and any way I can help let me know.
73 Tony