Last night, after my last post, I was scanning and heard the Hall County ARES net checking in. This was on the W4ABP repeater on top of Wauka Mountain in north Georgia. Its the same repeater that I had talked through earlier in the day that’s 80 miles away from me. I thought hitting that repeater was just a lucky skip, but it was still working last night, so I checked in. Net control had a little bit of a hard time hearing me, with me having to repeat myself 3 or 4 times to be heard, but he did finally hear me and get my call sign. I did get a better signal report earlier in the day, but for what its worth, I had a pretty decent storm, with lightning and thunder going on while I was checking into the net.
According to the Lanier Land ARC website, their repeaters are on top of a mountain that’s 2612 feet in elevation. I’m not sure how tall the towers are on top of this mountain, but that puts their antenna WAY up there! Side note, I’m also hitting the Stone Mountain repeater regularly, which is about 1600′ ASL. My house is about 640′ ASL, so both of those towers are a lot higher than me, and as the crow flies, I don’t have much between them and me (specifically Atlanta, which sits east of a line between both mountains and me).
Also, while I was on the Lanier Land website, I found a map they have that shows the coverage of their tower. I know I’m still new to ham radio, but this is impressive to me! The red mark towards the bottom is about where I live. I’m on the fringes of their coverage area, but I’m still able to hear them, as well as transmit to them. Considering I have repeaters that are less than 30 miles away that I can’t hit, I really like being able to access this repeater. I hope they don’t mind, but I stole the image below from their website www.lanierlandarc.org
Shortly after the Hall County net, the W8JI Barnesville repeater conducted their weekly trivia night. We listened to their trivia night last week while we were out on the road. My son really wanted us to participate this week, so I checked in. I spoke with the same gentleman who had helped me earlier when I was troubleshooting, and he said I had a great signal. I was receiving a crystal clear transmission on my end, so I’m feeling pretty good about my setup, as temporary as it is.
My son and I tied for 3rd during the trivia net. I didn’t hear an official head count, but I think there were probably somewhere in the area of 15 or so participants, and we enjoyed it. My boy was pretty stoked when he gave me a couple of answers, including what war the battle of Bunker Hill happened in. We heard at least 4 incorrect answers before I got a chance to answer that one.
It’s all beginning to click now. I’ve learned a lot over the last few weeks, mostly by trial and error. I’ve found several 2M repeaters that I can hit, and I’m hopeful once I get some elevation on my antenna, maybe I can finally hit Macon and Atlanta.
My next challenge, after finding a suitable location for my antenna, will be figuring out DMR. I bought a DMR radio from my older son. I finally got the programming cable for it. I’ve figured out how to program some analog channels, but digital is making NO sense to me yet. I’ll be checking the usual videos, but if you have a good source for DMR information for dummies, feel free to let me know in the comments!