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2 Meter Sideband

Raccoon

Raccoon

Well-Known Member
Oct 27, 2005
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Hi Everyone,
I've been hanging out on 2 meter sideband for awhile now, and I've been trying to get more activity going in my area. I've got a few people around me that join me on 2 meter sideband. But other than that, I haven't been able to find any other activity on 2 meter sideband. I'm in south central New York state (not city) , near the Pennsylvania border ... and I was just wondering if any of you know of any 2 meter sideband Nets, or any frequencies where people hang out all day ... that I'd be able to at least hear in my location ? I've found web-sites online that say there are some in NYC, but they're too far away for me to hear.

Thanks in advance
 
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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.
 
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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...
 
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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
 
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I do have a horizontal 2 meter Halo antenna that I'm using for 2 meter SSB. I also have a 100 watt 2 meter amp that works for both FM & SSB, and the amp has a working preamp on it for pulling in the weaker signals. Like I said, I've been hanging out on 2 meter SSB for a little while now . I'm just trying to find out if there's any activity in my area that I'm somehow missing
 
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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...
 
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Propagation in real time on vhf...

VHF Real Time Propagation

An interactive map that shows real time, worldwide VHF activity highlighting enhaned propagation typical to tropospheric ducting.
vhf.dxview.org vhf.dxview.org

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
 
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I appreciate all of the input that you guys have been giving me . I'm still using a 2 meter Halo for now . But I'm looking into replacing that in the spring with something like a Gizmotchy G241 2 meter beam . That should help me with my 2 meter SSB activity .
 
My bet is no one here will try to build one, but here's a quick model of a 5 element LFA Yagi @ 144.25 MHz.
Elements are made from 3/8" and 1/4" aluminum tubing, boom about 4'-9" long.

One of the the really good things about Loop Fed Yagis is their natural 50ohm feedpoint impedance. No lossy, finicky, tricky matching device needed, just a direct coax feed to the Driven Element loop. This one shows some pretty good gain and front/back with just 5 elements.

Screenshot (163).pngScreenshot (164).pngScreenshot (165).pngScreenshot (166).pngScreenshot (167).pngScreenshot (168).png
The SWR could easily be lowered to 1.1:1 or less with some tweaking of element lengths and spacing in the model.
These antennas are not very difficult to homebrew if you're in to that.

7 3
 
Crawdad,
I'm a step or 2 ahead of you.. About 25 years ago, I built my first home brew 2M SSB antenna from parts and pieces of an old TV antenna. Worked pretty good but most importantly, it put me on the road to antenna building.. Later, I built a pair of 9 element LFAs and phased them at about 60 feet.. 7/8" Heliax, mast mounted preamps, big amplifiers, EME -- It all adds up..

As you probably know, 2M SSB is a sickness, but it sure can be rewarding when done right. I still have a W6PO design amplifier that I've used for a while..
 
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Back in the early ’90s, I was running 2m SSB with a stacked pair of Cushcraft 17B2s at 80 feet. My rig was an ICOM 275A, and I even built a 1kW amplifier to go with it. Those were fun times.

These days, I’m using a Cushcraft 144-20T at 50 feet, paired with a Yaesu FT-901DM and a Yaesu transverter for both two and six meters.
 
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