wrote in message
...
On Sep 9, 1:51 pm, "JB" wrote:
"Cecil Moore" wrote in message

...

JB wrote:
I used to work
Austrailia daily with 5 watts FM into a dipole DFQ.

The 10m repeaters make it all the more interesting.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com

You mean the QRM from co-channel repeaters in Australia, New York, Hawaii,
Virgin Islands, Florida and San Diego on the same PL? Gee, you could trash
a whole band with repeaters just so everyone could have their own
kerchunk.

Gosh, QRM on 10? Up on the FM side close to 30 where repeaters are
used, which is hardly even used in the high portion of the cycle, I
have never heard enough stations to cause QRM! In fact I have only
heard just a few repeaters there since the early nineties.

I guess your radio's numb then. When the sunspot cycle kicks in it happens
every day. Skip causes way too much QRM because of PL duplication. It was
bread and butter for the radio company because so many customers would
complain and complain and complain about "other people using their
frequency" and they couldn't block them out with the mic hanger. Lots of
commercial users left low band FM for VHF and above because of that and
because a gain antenna needs to be so big that they don't last a year at a
repeater site. Ten and 11 meters is considered to be useless because the
daytime absorption is so bad it limits range to worthless. FCC made a
mistake to put CB on 11 if they didn't mean for them to play skip. And if
it weren't for modified CB's we wouldn't have a problem with interlopers at
all. As far as I know, most of the Ham Bands are useless for commercial
exploitation either because they are too small of a block like 220 was, or
because they aren't in the propagation sweet spot for a particular usage.
Hence, they are left to HAMS to experiment and toy with.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't be vigilant and fight tooth and nail when
some idiot tries to sell somebody onto our bands. The real shame is that we
LET GO of half of 220 just because UPS asked for it, and because a bunch of
newbie no-code techs that flooded 2 meters at the time had convinced
themselves FCC might cut 2 meters if they couldn't have 220. They were even
crying to "take 440 if you have to, just spare 2 meters". If it weren't
for that NOISE, the FCC might have simply denied the petition on
recommendations from those in the know. So the Ham repeaters and control
links that were on 220 either had to go away or move to 2 and 440 anyway.
That was a boondoggle for everyone involved since most wanted to go to 800
anyway. It's been a money LOSER for everyone that invested in it. Now Hams
can't get it back because there are a few ACSSB systems still there that
customers got stuck with.