Official Colorado HAM and cheese thread

Oh boy. Dis guy got jokes.

 

UGHHHH......finished installing the Yaesu FTM-400 XDR but am not sure why I cannot chat with folks.

I do a drive from Monument to Centennial Apt every other day and it is hit or miss if I even hear someone.

Are there good repeaters in the area? New HAM operator here so I am either missing something or my setup is trashed. SWR is 1.25 when testing.

Maybe someone could send me some common freq's/offsets/tones to help....I will be in your debt!

I had ONE contact this weekend that said I was crystal clear on the local repeater but nothing afterwards.

 

Did you check out the unofficial colorado ham frequency list?
I think it's linked in the first post.

 

I did but perhaps folks are not chatting......not sure what I am doing incorrectly.

 

Ch11) 145.310
Ch29) 145.145
Seem to be 2 of the busiest metro area repeaters.

 

I believe 145.340 is linked to 145.310 and might be better down there.

Maybe make sure your radio isnt transmitting in digital mode? @Stig was having problems with his radio kicking into digital mode out in moab and all we got was static

 

I must be doing something wrong.

I have a call into Yaesu on this. My FT-70D a week ago could receive and transmit all day long. The FTM-400XDR had one contact this weekend but not its dead on the bands. I ran an SWR on it and it is 1.25 or less....on VHF.

 

I dont have a 145.340 on the list but I show 145.130 as a colorado springs repeater thats part of the colorado connection network.

 

Does your radio have squelch knobs/settings?
Could you be squelched out?

 

Not squelched out as far as I know

 

You're right....145.340 is the worldwide friendship net I usually tune into in the mornings. Not linked to 145.310. Sorry for misinformation

 

Are you near your radio now? Want to try?

 

Yeah when mine would go into digital mode, there was a DN to the right of the frequency. Changing that back to....something else made it work again.

 

Not at the truck now but I called Yaesu and figured out what happened with the handheld. For some reason it needed a factory reset and they walked me through it and it is working flawlessly!

Tomorrow will figure out the Mobile rig. The person from Yaesu said that the instructions are confusing. I can broadcast and receive when I have my wife head to the store and we can talk but the repeater function is a bit squirrely.

 

@Stig I went out to the truck before the call to Yaesu and it was in DN mode for some reason. I'll figure it all out tomorrow and during the week.

BTW....I am NOT programming it from a cable. I want to learn it from the ground up so that in case something happens I can simply do it on my own....if that make sense.

 

I am on the local repeater at N0XLF if anyone is there.

Ke0UIV

monument

 

Yeah mine would randomly go into that mode and be useless until I changed it back.

 

@Stig....seems like mine did that.

Will do a factory reset tomorrow when I chat with the Yaesu folks. Not sure what happened but between all the electrical things I was doing this weekend it might have done something to the radio.

Either way the Yaesu folks are great for customer support and will carry the handheld tomorrow to check coverage and transmit stuff in the AM and PM from the airport and back.

 

Hey Pop...

I generally run my FTM400s in the "auto mode" mode... that's the one where there's a red-bar over the TX mode in the "A (top) Channel" -- In this mode (for the top VFO) the receiver will look for a digital header on any received transmission -- if the header is present, the radio will set to the DN (digital narrow) mode so you're mode-matched with what's being received -- the mode is preserved for your TX. If no digital header is present on a received signal, the radio will set analog FM for ya (again, preserved for your TX). With the radio set this way, a quick "blip" of the PTT (mic) will toggle between DN and FM modes ... I've seen these "quick blips" really mess with people that fidget with their Mics, or don't use a Mic-clip since the PTT is so touchy on a new mic.

I have my house / antenna-farm offline probably for another week or two as I continue the exterior refit, but the truck is just outside and I could hop on sometime and give that a go -- While driving, I'll monitor the Wires-X Colorado Room and 146.520 simplex.
Some reference:

• Denver local Wires-X nodes you might be able to hit on 146.535, 449.775, 448.825 (respectively the HRO store, Green Mountain, Aurora)
• Full list of Wires-X nodes https://www.yaesu.com/jp/en/wires-x/id/active_node.php

I'll be interested to hear what comes from your discussions with Yaesu as well.


NG0L

 

@nats

Well today on the drive home I was able to make a great contact! Fellow mobile HAM in Elizabeth. We were both using the local N0XLF repeater that is close to my house. I picked it up loud and clear all the way in Centennial!

I think that repeater is just not used a bunch at the times I was trying.

My call to Yaesu was great! They said I was doing everything correctly and now that I have a better understanding of programming both the hand held and the FTM400 XDR things should start running smoothly!

What a great day and I cant tell you all how excited I was to make a terrific contact. He said I was loud and clear with no static or issues of interference of any kind!