I volunteer at a small fire Dept by my house in Alabama we use active911 but the dispatchers notes are crap most of the time I want to be able to listen into the radio on my phone, the department doesn't have anything set up like Zello. I don't know the channel/frequency we use I have no idea anything about radios or radio apps am I able to tap into the dispatch channel or am I SOL

I’m out in the Gresham area and I’m hearing some guy having a conversation with himself in Russian on 144.500 MHz. It sounds like I’m only getting his half of the conversation, but he’s cutting out pretty bad. I’ve heard of tropospheric ducting with GMRS, is such a thing possible with VHF or am I just hearing a Russian speaking local radio amateur?

I've been listening in to the Kansas City Wide net via the WA7BND repeater but it stopped linking to KC-WIDE around the 24th. Any intel on this? No response from the published (QRZ) repeater owner.

Thanks,

Tom KJ7T

I just passed my ham technician exam on Friday night, I'm still waiting on my callsign. What are the most common frequencies to use here in Portland? I've been listening a bit and I'm just not finding a whole lot of traffic out there. What should I add to my memory? What channel will give me a contact once I can actually transmit?

A group of us are going to be on the USS Blueback at OMSI tomorrow, which ends up being a POTA 3fer with Willamette River Greenway and Water State Trail, on top of Ice Age Floods and the Oregon Trail. Given the rash of solar flares we're not likely to get a lot of contacts, but this is the time we set weeks in advance, so we're going to give it a go. If you're around and want to try to work us groundwave between 1400 and 1600 local we'd love the help!

Going for the first time to check out the yard sale. I'll be looking for portable equipment and see what the scene is like.

Hey! Anyone active on the 1.25m repeaters around Portland? I’ve been listening for quite awhile to the ones listed in RepeaterBook while I study for my tech license and I haven’t heard anything

Hi there!

I’m newly licensed and have been trying a few of the different repeater networks on the 2M /70 CM bands, calling CQ and doing some off/on monitoring to see if they are active, and have so far been unsuccessful. Are there certain ones you’ve found to be more or less active? Thinking about monitoring for a net this next week to try but just generally curious. Understand these might not be the most popular bands which might itself be the answer.

Thanks!

Looking to see if anyone knows of any P25 repeaters in the PDX area.

I saw some information that a bunch of the ARRG repeaters are Quantars, but don't know if they're set up for P25 or are analog only.

I'm also seeing conflicting information for the linked states of the ARRG repeaters - if anyone on the ground knows what repeater is linked to what, that'd be appreciated:

• what's on RepeaterBook doesn't match their webpage:
• https://www.arrg.org/Repeaters/Repeaters
• and their repeater scheduling page even has different information too https://www.arrg.org/More/ScheduleRepeater

Hey All,.. please forgive me if this is a "amateur" :P question..

I recently moved to the area (previously in Fort Collins, CO). I have a Baofeng UV82HP (can hold 128 station memory) and while in Northern Colorado I was lucky enough to find someone local who shared their CHIRP config and was able to import it to my Radio w/ basically 0 changes and it worked right off the bat.

Now that I've moved to Portland,.. I'd like to do the same (wipe the Radio clean and import or create a config for various local emergency frequencies I could listen to for Weather or other emergency response info)

I found a website here: https://multnomahares.org/resources/frequency-lists-and-radio-programming-templates/ ... tried importing the MCARES 2021 TEMPLATE .. it appears to have saved to the Radio correctly.. but all I get is silence and I don't understand why ?

I wiped the radio again and tried to go simpler,. only creating 7 x NOAA stations (1 through 7).. But NOAA7 is the only one that seems to work correctly (I can actually hear talking and weather info).. NOAA 1 through 6 are just silence (again,. no idea why).

EDIT - point of clarification here,. so far I've only tried with CHIRP-NEXT on macOS. (maybe it's somehow mishandling the CSV import or something?).. I do have a Windows Laptop as well as an Arch Linux box.. so if trying it on another OS might help the troubleshooting,. I can certainly attempt that.

Would someone be willing to treat my like a 3yr old and hit me upside the head and guide me along a more successful path to getting this working ?

Ideally I'd like to have:

• multiple NOAA stations to bounce around and listen to

• Possibly 2 to 3 Portland University (if that many exist)

• frequencies for public transit ?

• any other useful frequencies you'd recommend ?

I'm new to the area and never lived anywhere w/ Earthquake or Volcano possiblities.. so I've moved Preparedness and "go-bag" and other stuff nearer to the top of my list as it seems logical to do. :P Having a good working emergency radio is critical to that goal.

Thanks to anyone willing to assist or give guidance !.. I want to be a prepared citizen in my new home city.

Forewarned, I only briefly dipped my toes into the radio world last century. So please pretend I'm an idiot and have forgotten literally everything I knew about Ham Radio at one point.

But, I do have a unique opportunity to build a CERT communication setup for my company.

I control a server room that is on an oversized generator, with 20+ U of free rack space, three four story buildings in SE Portland/Milwaukie to put an antenna on, and a mandate to be able to spin up communications to the outside world (described as "outside of our region") at a moments notice for when the "big one" hits. I already have a repeater antenna of some sort on one building, but not sure if that can be made a primary antenna and/or if it will cause conflict with another antenna.

Budget is not unlimited, but I can plan multi-years out. For instance I can easily scope out a dedicated radio room in 2025/26. So a "do this in year one, add these items in year two, etc."

Ideally we'd be able to communicate and coordinate directly with onsite staff if cell coverage is down and local EMT Services all in the same space. We'd want backup radios just in case one died. This is not meant to be a hobby setup, but likely will be used as one on a regular basis to confirm all is working. We have a number of employees who are interested in getting licenses for this very purpose. On top of that, for redundancy, I'd like a setup that a minimally trained person could use in an emergency.

Essentially I'm looking for someone to scope this out, and help build and test it once we've purchased hardware and ran cables. (yes, paid) I've reached out to Ham Radio Outlet, but haven't heard back from anyone there. And I'm not sure who the other local companies might be that could do this.

So I'm a new Ham and wanting to build an Ed Fong Roll up J pole for camping/hiking/SOTA and am wondering where to find ladder wire locally to the PDX area. I know HRO is in Tigard but is there anywhere else?

I have a ton of used radios and parts. When I bought my house, the previous owner was huge into radios. But I guess his kids weren't. And when I bought the house from them they left a ton of radio gear there. Been trying to find a good home for all of it. Lemme know if you wanna come look.

I was reading this, https://www.qsl.net/w3df/sterling/ridhist.pdf, about FCC listening stations during WWII.

And came across the very course description that the Portland, Oregon listening station was "set up in a farm house about two miles from the recording station", and was called POBRU.

But they never really tell us where either the recording station or the listening station actually were.

Does anyone know?

I'm in the market for an older HF radio. Something like a Yaesu FT-850AT or an Icom IC-760. I've been looking at the classifieds on eHam and QRZ.com but it's tough to find anything semi-local.

Are there any good mailing lists or websites to look for used gear available locally?

Hello,

I have had my technician license since early 2020 have been using a Baofeng but want to upgrade to more permanent home shack but everything I find online for what to do costs way more then me on my PPS salary can afford.

So any ideas of what I really need and ways to get it without braking the bank.

Hey folks, I've noticed while scanning around 2m and 70cm that occasionally I'll land on a repeator(s) where I'm receiving a strong signal. I think it sounds like an idleing tractor or a diesel engine. I'm assuming this is some sort of digital mode but I really curious to know what it is exactly. Does anyone happen. To know what it is? Thanks.

So yeah, I got my technician license in the winter as part of pursuing the training and volunteering that comes with having joined the Portland Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NET) last summer. I participate in their weekly check-ins, and I participate with the Multnomah County ARES. I'm a third generation ham, though it mostly skipped my dad, as he never actually got a license and only used some vintage WWII equipment he had come across to listen in on how the Falkland Island war was going while the rest of the family was only getting Argentinian propaganda, but my grandpa used it his whole life and passed away around 2012.

All I've got right now is a yaesu ft60, a lovely little dual band HT, super functional and durable. I've been interested in digital modes and in SOTA and in all the other cool stuff you can do on HF, and I know I'm going to have to upgrade my license to make the most of all that, and should probably pick up some Morse code training. I called my dad to ask if he knew whatever happened to my grandpa's gear, and he said he didn't know, but he volunteered to help me buy starter equipment for HF operating.

I definitely want to be able to operate at low power, both for SOTA and for participating in emergency response activities when power lines may be down, but versatility is important, and MCARES does drills in digital modes. What are some good mid-priced options for a versatile beginner mobile shack? A built-in antenna tuner would be useful, I suppose, but I'm still learning EVERYTHING and would appreciate any reviews or resources you could point me to.

Thanks!

I'm a ham. License a few years back but haven't really gotten into it. It seems like the nets I've seen are full of people who like to "chew the fat" like they say where I'm from. Folks who monologue for minutes at a time telling you a thing, rather than smaller back and forth conversations.

Is this just the sort of things I'm being exposed to? Or is that how it basically all is?

Hi. Just passed the technician exam and I’m shopping for a starter HT. I’m wondering if folks here have advice on a particular brand (or model) that would be better for the Portland metro area. I have a lot to learn and I realize this is probably a dumb request. But if the local community tends to lean toward certain brands or technologies more than others, then I figure I’ll be better off going the same route.

My short-term goals are to 1) experiment with connecting with different folks in different ways, 2) listen to and learn about what’s being communicated on what bands and by who, and 3) to get involved with the Portland Neighborhood Emergency Team program.

I tried looking at the local repeaters on repeaterbook but I see a mix of fm, echolink, fusion, wiresx, etc. and I can’t really make sense of it enough to let it help guide my decision.

Any insight here would be most welcome. I should add that ideally I’d spend $250 or less, though I might be tempted north of there if there were significant benefits for a beginner.