Front range VHF/UHF/GMRS?

[mpatch]

Is the area overall pretty dead for radio traffic/usage?
I scan the local repeaters fairly often and its pretty quiet other than a few regulars.
The only time there is decent traffic is when there's shit weather or something else noteworthy.
I'm wondering if there are some repeaters or frequencies that I'm not aware of.
Last year I checked some of the DMR channels and it was the same story.
I know there used to be a "secret" repeater near Loveland but for the life of me don't remember the details.

[battlemidget]

There's a statewide ham repeater system, Colorado Connection or colcon.org There's (usually) 24hr volunteer monitoring and there's at least one volunteer rescue group that uses it for chatter. I want to say REACT has some GMRS repeaters around the state as well.

CB can be hopping, channel 19 on the highway is usually good company.

[mpatch]

There's a statewide ham repeater system, Colorado Connection or colcon.org There's (usually) 24hr volunteer monitoring and there's at least one volunteer rescue group that uses it for chatter. I want to say REACT has some GMRS repeaters around the state as well.

CB can be hopping, channel 19 on the highway is usually good company.

I've got all the ColCon repeaters and that's where I hear almost all the ham band traffic and yes Colorado 4x4 rescue and recovery uses the ColCon network.
Funny you mention CB, I have a CB in my Jeep and will sometimes turn it on when I'm out running around and I can count on one hand the number of times I heard any traffic on channel 19 but that could be because I'm not near the interstate very often.

[bradbn4]

I get a lot more Ham traffic than CB. There are a few weekly Ham meet up I can pickup from time to time. I have not played with DMR yet...programming repeaters is a bit more work than finding a site that supports CHirP.

The last traffic I had on CB at home was some guy running a liner amp and bleeding over 3 channels. CB traffic did pick up a bit when I was closer to Denver, but it was pretty light traffic.

https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/Display_SS.php?state_id=08&band=14&loc=%&call=%&use=%

https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/niche/index.php?mode=DMR

https://www.rmham.org/dmr-site-information/

[battlemidget]

There's a morning net on 146.46FM in the Springs

[gnihcraes]

pretty quiet most of the time. A lot of folks are over on digital repeaters. I monitor analog and digital off and on. Tons of people have moved over and play on HF frequencies doing FT8 digital and things like that.

But you are correct, most local repeaters are just quiet accept for a few weekend or evening nets. Skyhub.net is pretty active most of the time, it's a wide area coverage digital network. Mixed modes I believe.

I'm not very active, I don't have a lot of friends active to chat with - everyone is busy and schedules aren't the same. Years ago, we were always on talking.

I can be up on frequency / repeater if you need to try and verify any equipment functionality if you need. I'm castle rock or I25 corridor during commute.

[mpatch]

pretty quiet most of the time. A lot of folks are over on digital repeaters. I monitor analog and digital off and on. Tons of people have moved over and play on HF frequencies doing FT8 digital and things like that.

But you are correct, most local repeaters are just quiet accept for a few weekend or evening nets. Skyhub.net is pretty active most of the time, it's a wide area coverage digital network. Mixed modes I believe.

I'm not very active, I don't have a lot of friends active to chat with - everyone is busy and schedules aren't the same. Years ago, we were always on talking.

I can be up on frequency / repeater if you need to try and verify any equipment functionality if you need. I'm castle rock or I25 corridor during commute.

It seems HF is the newest popular thing. Maybe I’ll delve into it one day.

[arbol]

I lost interest when all the public services went encrypted.

What do tow truck drivers do today?

[O2HeN2]

Suggestion is if you want to chat, get your General License and go HF. This is what the 40M band looks like on a waterfall as I type this; all those vertical colored bands above 7.13Mhz are voice conversations, and this is in the evening - during the day it's even more active.

O2

92403

[hollohas]

Have you tried

https://www.frontrangegmrs.com/

They're fairly active and have been linking with many more areas including this group that covers NM and AZ

https://swcrs.org/

[bradbn4]

cool output on the waterfall chart - sort of looks what my software defined radio can display.

If I am looking at that chart correctly; almost seems like you can tell if there is single side bar transmission going on.

[O2HeN2]

cool output on the waterfall chart - sort of looks what my software defined radio can display.

For the record that is an SDR, a RSP1A (https://www.sdrplay.com/rsp1a/) (available at HRO (https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015965)) with SDRuno (https://www.sdrplay.com/sdruno/) running on a Windows 10 machine.

I also have an RTL-SDR (https://www.rtl-sdr.com/) (available at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-RTL2832U-Software-Defined/dp/B0129EBDS2/ref=sr_1_1_sspa)) which is significantly cheaper than the RSP1A ($30 versus $130) that I'm just starting to play with. In February I hope to have a presentation at the American Legion #209 on the topic of "How to listen to shortwave, police, aircraft and hams all for less than $50"(using the RTL-SDR). Currently working on seeing if all that's possible!


If I am looking at that chart correctly; almost seems like you can tell if there is single side bar transmission going on.

The red line is where I'm tuned, and you can see it's on the "high" side of the transmission. Since this is 40m, everyone's using lower side band, hence tuning to the high side. I'm not good recognizing the data modes yet, but yhea, you can recognize the side band (and AM) signals really easily.

Note to anyone reading: The radios mentioned are receive only.

O2