Subj : 6m
To   : ANDY BALL
From : DAVE OLDRIDGE
Date : Mon Jan 22 2001 09:39 am

AB> Hello!

AB>   DO> ...last time I drove through Illinois I was following
AB>     > I90 from the west coast to the east.

AB> I'll have to dig out a map, see where that goes.

AB>   DO> I found my dual band FM rig (an old Kenwood TW4000A to
AB>     > be fairly adequate for mobile communications.

AB> Were its two bands 2m and 70cm?

Yes...I still use it.  GaAsFET preamps on each band.

AB>   DO> In today's congestion you might want a rig that had
AB>     > sub audible tones as well.

AB> I'd welcome some congestion, at least it would be radio traffic!  =o)  If 
at
AB> some point I move to a larger city I might find more activity.

AB>   DO> But 6M would be a good alternate choice, especially
AB>     > if you can afford a base station with SSB and a good
AB>     > beam antenna...

AB> Sadly a beam is out of the question at my present location. I can't afford 
a
AB> base station either.  I was pleasantly surprised to find brand new 6m HTs 
for
AB> around $100 in one of the catalogues I was sent.  I'm rather taken with the
AB> Yaesu VX-110 or VX-150 actually, at least from what I've seen and read so 
far -
AB> they're both 2m though.

2M is generally more populated with repeaters than any of the other 
bands.  6M is good for DX but mostly on SSB or CW.  FM repeaters are not 
really good DX devices and FM simplex, while it works still eats a bit of 
bandwidth and is not that good for weak signal work.

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