"Zugspitze" a great SOTA summit & 2m SSB HTs

I’m sure you spend much more time operating on 2m ssb than I do Brian, so I’ll defer to your greater experience but I can’t say I’ve ever noticed a tendency to effective channelisation. I’d certainly never use the coarse frequency control afforded by the “select” knob on certain radios to define an operating frequency - too many factors come into play in selecting an appropriate spacing from other signals. And as far as I recall I’ve never been told I’m off frequency.

Clarifier? Never use it… if a station calling me can’t be bothered to net onto me closely enough to be intelligible, he doesn’t get the contact… but there again I am a bolshy old sod :-s

Another reason an SSB handheld isn’t ideal is SSB normally uses horizontal polarisation but a handheld antenna is naturally vertical.

It didn’t stop the ICOM IC-202 SSB only “Hand portable” with it’s telescopic whip !!

I believe there was something in the handbook about laying the rig over. In effect one would normally plug a 2m Halo or HB9CV into the SO239 in any case!

Agreed the RSGB and other bandplans have referred to the 12.5KHz FM channels differently for some time - I did say my S20/21/22 reference was probably 40 years old - it doesn’t make it incorrect though …

By the way - this thread is getting REALLY off topic, so I’ve changed the title.

73 Ed.

The S20 references date from when the UK bandplan changed from the regional basis to modal basis. Once different regions of the country each had their own block of 2m but the growing use of FM and the every increasing numbers of synthesised radios meant the bandplan changed to the bottom 1MHz being for non-channelised modes (CW, SSB, beacons etc.) and the top 1MHz being for modes such as FM were channelised operation makes sense. The top 200kHZ was reserved for Space<>Earth comms.

Repeater inputs were 145.00 - 145.175 with outputs at +600kHZ known as R0-R7 (for repeater)
Then you got the simplex channels from 145.225 - 145.575 S9 to S25 (for simplex) with S20 (145.500) being the FM calling frequency. You used to hear people call CQ and the say “QSY to S16”. (145-400).

There were radios of the day that would have a 20-40 position switch to select the channels and would just show a number such as 17 such as my old Sommerkamp TS-280FM. This would equate to S17 = 145.425. It wasn’t long before radios started showing digital readouts of the some or all of the frequency, maybe just the last 3 digits and an LED for 144 or 145. If you only had a number such as 0-39 then the channel names made some sense, but it always seemed more confusing to me when by the time I was licenced in 1990, all new radios had an LED or LCD display.

I never used them personally but know a few “veteran” G8 amateurs ( issued 1964-1981 ) who still use them to this day. The introduction of 12.5kHz spacing meant they were all renamed in a confusing way considering this happened when everything had a frequency display. So S20 became V40. I can recall precisely zero people using the new references.

All of which reminds me it must be time I organised another Vintage Electric Handbag activity weekend, a chance for people to get their FT290, TR-2300, IC-22 etc. radios out of the cupboard and on the air.

I still refer to S20 but when changing channel use the frequency. I left the hobby just as the 12.5kHz channels were beginning to come in - this was sensible as 2m FM was very busy. Now I’m back it seems unnecessary considering how hard it is to find someone to talk to on VHF.

I rebelled when two metres was channelised (regarding it at the time as a retrograde step) and got my first SSB rig, a Liner 2, so I never got into the S number habit at all. When I (very occasionally) activate on FM I call on the calling channel and say “listening two up” or however many channels it is to my operating frequency, or if it is a fair number of channels up or down I give a frequency, not having the foggiest idea what its S or V number is.

I seem to remember that at a late stage of the geographical band plan period an SSB channel (was it 145.41?) and then an SSB bandlet was established before the powers that be decided to revise everything and bully us all into complying with their S numbers - a lot of people resented that, I dropped out of the RSGB for a while!

I think the SSB calling frequency was 145.45, from whence I made contacts into europe, so I don’t think it was peculiar to the UK - probably not just a RSGB decision to change everything, either. I remember being slightly miffed at having to purchase a new crystal for my transverter :smile:

I never know whether people who use this phraseology mean 25 or 12.5 kHz channels.the 12.5kHz “intermediate“ channels are less used than the 25 spacing. I stick to frequency now.

Boy have we gone OT! Sorry Christos

Exactly. A context free grammar is required.

Good man. Much easier to say 400 or 550.

Hi Andy, Hi Brian,
I would interpret “2-up” as 2 KHz up, not 2 (undefined) channels up - and in FM 2KHz would still be in the Rx passband, so no need to move, just stay on frequency …

:scream:

Spoken like a true HF man!:wink:

It may be just a local habit but around here the guys have their FM channels set to 12.5 kHz and “two up” is shorthand for “two channels up”. If I was on 20 metres rather than two metres then “two up” would be two kHz up, as you say.

Interesting that - I was originally very much a VHF/UHF operator - but it is what you get used to.
Back when I was using VHF I think we would have given a new exact frequency on FM (or one of those S number thingies). On 2m SSB I think we could have used how many KHz up or down - so it’s more a mode thing than a band thing. On 2m SSB 2 up would mean 2 KHz up, although “10 up” or “20 up” would be more likely.

Ed.

Christos,

beside looking up in SOTA database, my fast way to look up any possible summit is entering the summit name added by “sota” and “summits” in Google - this is sufficient in most ways.

Enjoy! (also all things beside expensive cable car fares, hi)

Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ

OK just ask the database…

http://www.sotadata.org.uk/summitReport.aspx

and enter some or all of the name in the box or a reference number. As long as you give enough info you will get a list of ever summit that matches. Click the links in the list for a full breakdown of the summit including its scoring history and a list of all the activators and the band/modes they used and how many QSOs they had.

Enter partial name and click find:

111

Click first link, (just the first few lines)

I have always referred to 145.525 MHz as S21, and 145.550 MHz as S22.
145.5375 MHz is “S21 and a half” … but nobody ever uses it, so what does it matter?

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

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Exactly. 2m channelisation was inflicted upon us in the early 1970s by the UK FM Group (London), who were also responsible for the introduction of FM repeaters. It has been a downhill slide ever since.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

AKA V43 :grin:

True

One definition of “communication” is…
“Two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode-decode) information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning.

Oh my, Andy - there are situations in one’s life where you need an even faster way for lazy people, hi - simply open your browser and start typing. :mage:

73, DIZ

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It seems that Zugspitze is a database orphan. Its not on the (Summits on the Air) database, and not on the Sotamaps.org database.