2 meters was wide open this morning....

[WX2MIG]

On my way into work I heard stations from New York coming through on simplex....
Don't know if it was a full on opening, or just some troposheric ducting, but the two guys talking up there were booming in all the way down to the lower part of the Jersey shore...

If I was home today I certainly would have spent some time trying to make some VHF Dx contacts......

 

[Moleculo]

I've been tinkering with the idea of buying/building a quad for 2 meters. This might give me a reason

 

[Capiii]

I keep telling myself I should build a small quad for 2m and never really get around to it, knowing I would enjoy working the openings just hasn't got me off my duff yet. Wouldn't take much to do, three or so hours on a simple 3L antenna. Maybe even a quagi...
(see, the mission creep is setting in already, no wonder I never get anything done) :headbang

Been spending the last two or three afternoons/evenings listening to 6m try to open up, with brief openings to EL, EM, EN grids. Very brief here in FM17.
But, when I think about it...I'd probably just miss all the openings switching bands back and forth.

 

[VE4KV]

I remember a 2m opening between San-Francisco and Vancouver Canada
that was 20+ on SSB. It lasted about 2 hours each day for 3 days. Really amazing.

I also hear 6m is looking promising.

 

[74IN]

I've been tinkering with the idea of buying/building a quad for 2 meters. This might give me a reason

Cubex seems to sell decent ones...

 

[Moleculo]

A guy I finished training for MARS recently offered to give me a 5 element yagi for 2m...maybe I should just put that up

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I've been tinkering with the idea of buying/building a quad for 2 meters. This might give me a reason

Quads on 2m are hard to beat for the size versus performance tradeoff. Many years ago I built a pair of four element quads for 2m and stacked them side by side with vertical polarity as I had only FM gear at the time and because of where I live it was hard to hit some repeaters. On the few openings that I experianced with just some FM gear it was amazing what the antennas would do. They also performed really well for repeater work. I plan to build an HF quad next summer and I just may purchase enough stock to make a pair of eight element quads for 2m now that I have 2m multimode gear. I am a great believer in quads but I'll still probably just run the six element homebrew yagi on 6m so I will have the room above to mount the stacked 2m quads.Now if only I did not live in a hollow. :headbang

 

[WX2MIG]

I always read about people operating SSB on 2 meters, but I've yet to hear a SSB QSO on the band. I assume the mode isn't very popular since most all 2 meter radios come through as FM only, and I would also assume that I'd at least hear some sort of SSB splatter while listening in the FM mode......

Funny thing about these two guys I heard from New York yesterday, I don't think they knew there was a band opening, you could tell by the QSO they were having that they most likely meet every morning on the same simplex frequency to have their early morning rag chew, except yesterday morning they kept complaining about all the other stations suddenly interfering with them.....

2 meters has always been my favorite band, I just wish I had a tower that I could mount a yagi and rotor too, I would of had a blast yesterday morning with that......

 

[SR385]

The attenuation difference from horiz to vert polarization on 2m SSB is massive. On my Diamond X510 when there are openings, I can barely hear anyone on SSB and it's a 17' high gain vertical. Friends with pretty small yagis, set up for SSB horizontal, get signals that are S9 or better during the same opening.

A cubex or something home brewed is high on my list, I very much like 2m, particularly simplex and I've committed by buying 250' of feeder line already just so I have an irritant kicking around to make me get a roof tower and rotor up there.

http://www.cubex.com/uhf_vhf.htm

The Scorpion 88 or the King Bee are ones I'm considering.

M2 also makes this monster with a set of FM elements for the vertical, it's another I'm considering.

http://www.m2inc.com/products/vhf/2m/2mxp20.html

The cubex is getting my nod most likely because I would have 2m/440/6m all on one boom and have a rig to do all of them in all modes.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

You're not kidding about the cross polarity attentuation on VHF. I worked a couple locals on 144.200 about 50-60 miles away who were within a half mile of each other with the same power output and tower heights. One fellow was using a 10 element horz yagi and the other was using the same antenna as I am, a Cushcraft 11 element but he had it vert whereas I have mine horz. The guy with the 10 element was 10+ over S-9 while I could not even hear the guy on vert.

 

[Moleculo]

Cubex had these for $125 at Dayton. I should have bought one to save a couple of bucks. They're not difficult to build, but for the price...

...the decision to mount it vertically or horizontally is still one I'll have to think about...I think I want it horizontally for ssb use.

These things are pretty light weight...I bet you could use a small TV rotator.

 

[SR385]

Yeah, on paper I knew that, but it's one of those things you sort of have to experience to really get the impact of.

 

[SR385]

Cubex had these for $125 at Dayton. I should have bought one to save a couple of bucks. They're not difficult to build, but for the price...

...the decision to mount it vertically or horizontally is still one I'll have to think about...I think I want it horizontally for ssb use.

These things are pretty light weight...I bet you could use a small TV rotator.

Check this out....armstrong method for dual polarity...so simple...it's brilliant.

YouTube - Cubex Scorpion 88 - Dual Polarity

 

[Moleculo]

I'm guessing he's doing that by hand? Sucks to have to lower the tower or get on the roof to change it. But it's a good idea to add the rope.

 

[Moleculo]

I wonder how many of those Radio Shack / Channelmaster 5' mast sections you could put together , strapped to the eave of your house and still be safe with a small rotor for one of these? I've seen some pretty tall & large TV antennas done this way with no guys.

We have nasty Santa Ana winds to contend with here, though.