Ham Radio Challenge Week 17 - find your closest repeater.

Closest is a semi-private low power AllStarLink node on UHF a few blocks away, two VHF repeaters (#W8RP and #W8UM) with active nets, and the odd UHF to 10 meter band repeater also #W8UM .

Line of sight if you are up high enough are a UHF and a VHF repeater on a county tower, the VHF (#N8DUY) can be heard in a 10-county area plus parts of Canada.

A good guide is from #W8SRC

https://www.kb6nu.com/the-kd8lwr-repeater-guide/

#hamchallenge
@hamchallenge HC17S

"Fix your radio hour" - the radio in need of being fixed tonight is the #W8UM repeater 145.23- PL100 in Ann Arbor, which has very uneven audio levels (good on Echolink and Allstar, very low on RF). By some reports the repeater is 50 yrs old (!) so the fix plan is a complete replacement. Good net despite that, 12 checkins and 28 minutes run time.

I reported out on my trip to the Toledo Hamfest - and the various and sundry things that I didn't buy, but had my eyes on.

Monitoring the ARROW #W8RP and UMARC #W8UM Ann Arbor repeaters and tossing out my call sign every now and again after the repeater IDs itself, hoping that @kb6nu will be listening.

The W8RP and W8UM repeaters I can hit pretty easily from my comfy chair, and my Quansheng is charging while it's monitoring, so really no extra effort.

1143Z

The #N6NFI repeater in Palo Alto, CA is especially convenient to me because it shares a frequency and a PL tone with #W8UM and so I don't have to adjust my radio at all to use it when I am here in California.

Nice #QSO with #K1OKS on that repeater earlier this evening re the logistics of connecting to local repeaters when you're traveling. #RepeaterBook helps, as does having a radio with a good interface for retuning on the fly.

Next up: try to tune a local DMR repeater without a code plug!

@eikenberry @w8emv

Look at https://dxmaps.com to get way too much information. Different bands have different DX characteristics, and signals can vary minute by minute.

For ham radio I have sense for 2 meters, especially how Ohio repeaters can be heard / can interfere with local repeaters. @W8HF in Elyria OH can sometimes hear the U of Michigan #W8UM repeater which is on the same frequency as his.

Good antennas help too, e.g. a directional antenna pointed the right way.

So good to hear from Ohio and Steve @W8HF on the 145.23 #W8UM repeater - there is evidently a bit of a band opening from SE Michigan to NE Ohio, Steve came in on Echolink but heard himself coming back via RF.

```fle
date 2022-12-31
2m 145.23 fm
2200 w8hf
```

(hm, should I log this as "fm" or as "digitalvoice", it was FM on my side....)

Washtenaw County (Ann Arbor MI area) holds a weekly Amateur Radio Public Service Corps net at 830p ET Sunday on the 145.15- #N8DUY (#Skywarn) repeater.

Once a month after the regular net there's a simplex net on a clear frequency - this month we used 146.44.

Net was a success - #W8SRC net control could hear nearly everyone from the #W8UM station. I was pedestrian mobile in a park about 2 mi from #W8UM using a 4W Kenwood TH-22AT and was still copyable by many!

Enjoying the University of Michigan Amateur Radio Club on the #W8UM repeater, 145.23 Mhz in Ann Arbor. Weekly net is at 8:00 p.m. local time Sundays, it typically runs about half an hour,. There's access via #Echolink for remote stations and we generally have a few folks check in from far-off places like Houston and Honolulu.

#hamradio #hamr