Thursday, January 12, 2017

Net Frequencies Days and Times - Simplex and Repeater

Hello and Happy New Year to all!

Now that Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club has its Yaesu System Fusion repeater placed in City Creek Canyon, for the foreseeable future, we will be using simplex and repeater during our Communications Nets on a somewhat alternating, scheduled basis.

  • On 1st, 3rd and 5th Thursdays, 9:00 pm 
    • 147.50 MHz simplex

  • On 2nd and 4th Thursdays, 9:00 pm
    • 448.525 MHz, minus 5MHz offset, tone 100

Notice that the simplex frequency starts with an odd number and will be the frequency for nets on the "odd" Thursdays.  Conversely, the repeater frequency starts with an even number and will be the frequency for nets on the "even" Thursdays.

There are a couple of reasons we are going to experiment with two frequencies.

First, some of the Salt Lake City hams have a difficult time hearing each other during the net on 147.500 MHz simplex.  The Salt Lake City terrain is full of bumps, dips and bends, thereby interfering with 2-meter line-of-sight communications for some people.

Second, during a disaster and during Salt Lake City exercises, the current frequency plan for coordinating with SLC Emergency Management includes check-in's by hams on 147.50 MHz simplex, with the 448.525 (-) 100 repeater being involved as secondary usage.  I urge all Salt Lake City hams, whether residents or workers, to memorize these two frequencies by keying them in as you join the net each Thursday.  Of course, you'll want to program them into your radios as well, but memorizing and keying in the frequencies will serve you well if you don't have your own radio at hand during a crisis.

I am very excited about this advancement in SLC ham radio communications and invite everyone in the Salt Lake Valley to report on air or by email to me whether they can hear the repeater net.

73, Susan

Susan Smith, President
Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club
www.k7xrd.blogspot.com
SSmithRPh@gmail.com