130 Miles on 2-Meters

[Jerry]

Ev and I had a nice trip to Meacham, OR over the weekend. We visited our daughter and son-in-law (Weisergeiser) and also took time to meet a couple of folks we talk with on a 2-meter net. I frequent the nightly Cracker Barrel Net on 146.800, via a repeater located at Spout Springs near Tollgate, OR. The repeater is 130 air miles from our home in Yakima and my signal reflects (bounces) off a nearby mountain to make the trip all the way to Spout Springs. My normal contact is with a base antenna, but if the car is parked just right in the driveway I can sometimes make contact from the mobile. Though it is not typical of repeater contacts, it does go to show how effective a 2-meter radio can be. Anyway, it was a pleasure meeting these folks in person and one of them lives a few miles up a Forest Service road so I guess we actually did some backroading (in the snow) while on our trek.

[Jerry]

By the way, the Spout Springs Repeater has a huge footprint and connects me with other hams in Ephrata, Moses Lake, Ritzville, Lewiston, Walla Walla, La Grande, Baker City, Joseph, Imnaha, The Dalles and all the way to Canby in the Willamette Valley. It is not unusual to "hit" the 146.800 from my mobile while driving Forest Service roads.