USA truckers driving thru Canada with a VHF

If they made a quad band (10, 6, 2 meter, 70 cm) that also did aprs I would be all over it. Actually I would ditch 70 cm and add 1.25 meter. All these "shack in a box" radios that do it all but can't process packet (afsk) or read morse, or PSK31 make no sense to me. I'd have one in my truck if they did.

 

Well it is kind of confusing when you talk about deviation standards.

Right now commercial land mobile deviation is set at a very narrow 2.5khz, while what was considered narrow is called wide at 5khz. I got a lot of commercial radios that were obsoleted when the new standards were mandated and forced in the commercial market, they make nice and durable 440 rigs but they are 5khz.

With the old standards, we had the 5khz being considered very narrow and 12.5 being narrow but sometimes called wide and wide was set at 25khz. I don't even think anyone is allowed to run at 25khz anywhere even on the amateur bands.

I am limited with the 220 band because I am on the border plus I never hear any activity here. 440 has some, 2m local activity has petered off in the last five years, while 6 and 902/1240 have had some activity on them.

I still don't get the spacing issue, I understand many think that the band plan is FCC mandated but it is a voluntary thing cooked up by the ARRL to keep it sane - I am a life member by the way. I get the need to have self-control in the band, God only knows what crap goes on with the HF band and the yahoos who ruin it for us. There was a time where you could not tell the difference between 2m and cb around here but those idiots have let their license lapse losing interest in it just to return to CB.

I do agree with coolbreeze, DX on 6 is amazing when it happens, even in a mobile.

 

I want a 6 meter but I do a lot with aprs and I have room for only one radio. 2 meter is huge in the south. Many of the states have linked repeater systems and quite a few others are linked to the Georgia conference on echolink. SC uses IRLP to link their repeaters. GA uses uhf link radios that can also be tied into the National Weather Service in peachtree city during bad weather. FL has some huge 2 meter repeaters that I can hear halfway across the state.

The 2 meter band has been open down here lately with the cold air and temperature inversion. I've been talking into FL and AL from Atlanta on 146.52.

 

California has excellent linked 1.25 cm repeaters up the weatern coastal area, 220 ssb is very good into the carribean from the gulf coast. 10 meter fm is great if the band is open too.