What's a good 2-meter mobile setup for an amateur Amateur?

[Binford]

I'm leaning toward the Icom IC-2200H with a Wilson 2 Mtr. 5/8-wave magnetic mount antenna. Any thoughts?

[Binford]

I just ordered the 2200H along with a Larsen 5/8-wave magnetic-mount antenna. Oh, and a repeater directory. Might even have it ready for the Ice Age Floods tour!

[Binford]

I ordered it from the Ham Radio Outlet in Portland. So it's coming from Portland to Port Orchard in time (hopefully) to make it back to Portland Friday evening installed in my truck! Heh, heh, heh....

[Binford]

Almost exclusively my own thread here, huh?! So anyway, I had the IC-2200H in and running in time for the Ice Age Floods tour, at least for Simplex use with Mick and Jerry. Now I'm working at putting in all the repeater frequencies, PL codes and naming them all.

As I may have mentioned in another thread, I'm a sales rep for the western US, so I get to travel quite a bit. I prefer to drive rather than fly, so that gives me plenty of miles of open road on which to play with the new radio. So I want to program it for a series of repeaters along my normal routes. I've pretty much done that--putting in repeaters such that, near as I can estimate from my desk here, I should have pretty solid coverage from home to Utah, from home to Spokane and from home to southern Kalifornia.

With all those repeaters in, I've been scanning them all here at home. Naturally, many of the distant repeater frequencies are used locally as well (though the PL codes are usually different) so I can listen in and see which are the more active repeaters in my area.

BTW, Mick, if you need help putting in your repeater data on your 2200H, I can pretty much fly through the procedures now so let me know when you have a list of repeaters you'd like in and I'll be happy to swing by some time to help you input them. I believe you said you hadn't completed the job. It's really a confusing, convoluted procedure, but after a few dozen inputs in my own radio, at least I have the steps down now!

So those of you hams who have been doing this a while, how do you deal with your local repeaters? Are there one, two or more local repeaters you listen to? Or scan through? From the few conversations I've been listening in on, it is pretty obvious that many of those folks know each other and talk together on the same frequencies fairly regularly. So how many frequencies do you typically monitor when you're at your home area? Just curious....

[Jerry]

I shouldn't even reply because I am not a good example and I have not finished programming my radios. To date I have programmed all listed repeaters in my main stomping ground, between Lake Chelan and Baker City, Oregon, trying not to duplicate frequencies. I also programmed all Washington State-legal 2m and 70cm simplex frequencies. Washington allows 2 or 3 fewer freqs than either Oregon or Idaho so I programmed only those allowed in Washington just to be on the safe side. God knows there are plenty to go around without missing a couple. I don't suppose most guys pre-program simplex frequencies, but there are specific freqs designated for simplex use. Programming them takes the guess work out of it.

I scan all 120 programmed frequencies when driving in remote areas and I am pleasantly surprised at the various repeaters that pop up in the most unexpected places. A drawback of scanning so many frequencies is the intermittent reception of far-off stations that barely break the squelch. Darned annoying at times.

I have not used any of the sub files and may never get around to doing so. I have a tendency to "play" with the radio while driving and given my need for bifocals, the distance of the face plate to my glasses and general glare and reflection I know it is only a matter of time before I run into a tree (or something worse) while fiddling with buttons on the radio. A neat feature of the FT-7800R are 5 separate buttons on the face plate (and controllable from the mic) that when pushed take you to whichever freqs you have pre-programmed. My radios are programmed to take me to three different Yakima repeaters, 146.520 the national simplex call channel and 146.580 the simplex channel we used in the Columbia Gorge.

I am running two Yaesu FT-7800R dual banders (50wVHF/40wUHF), one in my wife's Escape and the other in my Bronco II. Both radios are programmed identically. I run an Icom IC-706MKIIG (100wHF/50wVHF/20wUHF) in the F-150 pickup with only a few repeaters programmed. I'll get around to finishing that one this winter. I have another IC-706MKIIG for use as a base station and I'll get around to it this winter, too. Neither the Wrangler nor the FSJ Cherokee run ham radios and I doubt they ever will.

[RidgeRunner]

Originally Posted by Binford

BTW, Mick, if you need help putting in your repeater data on your 2200H, I can pretty much fly through the procedures now so let me know when you have a list of repeaters you'd like in and I'll be happy to swing by some time to help you input them. I believe you said you hadn't completed the job. It's really a confusing, convoluted procedure, but after a few dozen inputs in my own radio, at least I have the steps down now!

Tim, you're really good! Thanks for the offer and I may take you up on it, but only if I could buy you lunch at the same time.

I actually have most of the repeaters in central and eastern Oregon, southcentral Washington and southwestern Idaho programmed in. As I mentioned to you I didn't program the tone in at the same time. The many that don't require a tone are ok, I think. I don't think I can add the tone without deleting the repeater and starting over and put the tone in as I program it. I just haven't got back to it to do it but I should have some time toward the end of this week and I WILL DO IT!! There, I said it.

Mick

[Binford]

Thanks, Jerry! That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for--how other people organize and monitor the frequencies. Thanks!

And Mick, you're in luck, man! Setting the tones is the easiest part of the whole messy procedure! Assuming I'm doing it correctly myself (big caveat there!), you merely have to....

1) Go to the desired frequency position in your memory. If you have it displaying the name, simply push the "FUNC" key followed by the "1" key on your mic to get the frequency displayed. (Pushing "FUNC" then "1" toggles the display back and forth between the frequency and the name you assigned it.)

2) Then push the Set B key and your subaudible information will appear. Note: Make sure you have the little music symbol displayed above and "rt" to the right. Push the "Set B" button a few times (or even a bunch of times!) until they are displayed. (This sets the subaudible tone encoder to ON.)

3) Now push the up or down arrow buttons on the mic until the correct tone freqency is displayed.

4) Once the correct tone freqency is displayed (along with the music symbol above and "rt" to the right), push the "CLR A" button and it's saved.

5) Done!

[Jerry]

... OR ...

CS2200HWindows Cloning software CD (requires OPC-478/478U/478UC cable).

[Binford]

Ah-ha! But what are we to clone from? Mustn't all that data be entered into something before we can clone it to something else? Or am I missing something here?

[Binford]

Hey, Jerry.... Is there a network of linked repeaters that would allow you there in Yakima to talk with me here in Port Orchard on the 2-meter band? We ought to look into that, just for kicks.