2M FM Simplex

[Elf36]

Turned on my VHF rig while tuning HF bands. 2M has great conditions this morning. Running 20 watts into a small vertical @20' I was able to work a station 38 miles West of me (146.520 FM) at 11:13. I normally have a very tough time working to my West. It's a bit of a dead zone for some reason. There's a station running 50 watts into a vertical at 110' working just about the whole state. He's got a pretty great set-up for sure.

[RobRich]

Just glanced at the estimated MUF map. Consider giving 6m a try today. I suspect you might find opportunities for TEP DX into South America.

[ThaDood]

Is there any way that you could get your VHF VERT above the tree, foliage, level? Being in the land of FL, I would believe that 20W on 2M could talk 38 miles daily. And, if you happen to have a 2M beam, you could bounce off of a tall BLDG and see how far you could get out. A friend of mine and I did that with 222MHz national Simplex FREQ 223.500MHz FM. He was over 20 miles away on a IC-3AT HT, (MAX'es-Out at 1.5W.), and I was on my base with a home-brew 1/4-Wave GND-plane. I talked him into downtown Corning, NY, mobile, then lost him. Minutes later, I heard him call me. He was standing 10ft from the front wall of a Wagmans Supermarket and found a sweet-spot to work me on his HT! If he moved a couple of feet, I couldn't hear him. It was a neat test. We also did that bouncing signals off of hills too. BTW, that trick works well on 440MHz, 446.000MHz simplex FM. Passing thoughts.

[RobRich]

Oh well. I noted a rather high MUF in SA earlier today, though yeah, our MUF was like 15MHz lower so 6m was a somewhat long shot.

[Polar Bear]

Sad

The furthest I ever worked simplex 2 meters fm was from Pennsylvania to FloriDA with a home made antenna up about 30' off the ground.

The most important part is to buy the very best coaX AND THE VERY BEST ANTENNA AND PUT IT UP ON A TOWER AT LEast 30 or 40 feet off the ground and buy a good radio - 50 watts - not one of those cheap POS chinese radios you see that are copycaTS of a good radio you should have bought in the first place.

[Polar Bear]

The easiest way to work 2 meters fm simplex is to take a good 2 meters fm radio and install a mobile antenna beneath a airplane.

Then all you have to do is fly around at 1500' and get someone to log your contacts for you.

I listened to K6FUZ making contacts - 150 miles away, and he was never less than 20/9..

Although I don't agree with using 146.520 as a dx frequency, I will say that he did have a real pile up going on and had multiple offers for a place to stay for the night / weekend if he was willing to land his plane at their local airport..

That seems like a really good deal, to be able to fly anywhere and have offers of a free place to stay and a free ride from the airport.

Phil made it the whole way to where I live before he turned around and flew to the Pittsburgh international airport to refuel.

And Phil had been making non stop contacts on 2 meters FM from the time when he left Oshkosh Wisc that morning.