This from Ringway Manchester asks the same question again
Is Amateur Radio Dying? Nobody's On The Air Anymore!
Why are you not on the air on 2m and 70cm?
I Turned On My Ham Radio... Where Is Everybody?
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@M0YNG what about UKAC Tuesdays? is anybody participating?
@M0YNG The secret is to put out some calls. I often wonder about all the hams listening to their radios and then declaring the bands are empty without stirring the pot. Even on my tiny island, I can usually raise someone on 2m or 70cm while driving around.
Ofcom should mandate that radio hams must emit an attempt to make a contact at least once a week in order to keep your licence. 😆
@isleofmandan it's fair, but when I do I very rarely get a reply.
Just now I've been looping through the repeaters I have saved, no replies.
Especially annoying when I call, get no reply, a couple of minutes later someone appears to call their mate who replies immediately and they proceed to chat.
Edit, one popped away for a moment so I called in, got ignored. Screw you guys I guess.
> when I call, get no reply, a couple of minutes later someone appears to call their mate who replies immediately and they proceed to chat
This was my experience of repeaters
Seemed like if they don’t already know you, they just won’t talk to you. If you do get one talking and a mate pops up, they drop you like a hot rock - but that’s just humans being more comfortable talking to their own tribe!
If I had more time, I’d push through and get known - but I have other stuff to do!
@M0YNG Oh that's bad. Sorry. Maybe not all hams are nice people and I've just been lucky!
For me, the quietness and lack of reply when I do call makes me less likely to bother calling, so it's a self fulfilling prophecy.
But also, not to be rude, I'm not that interested in talking to the other hams nearby.
@M0YNG
There was the guy in Greece that didn't want a QSO. I want DX, he said.
He was further from me than Newfoundland.
Also on HF nearby, but too far for ground wave needs NVIS, which a narrow range of frequencies. I'll hear UK or Donegal, but not the guy reading the IRTS news, most weeks on 7.123 MHz.
I'm near Shannon Volmet / Ballygireen and on 5505 that is often worse than someone in England on 5400.
I do prefer a contact that communicates rather than only interested in collecting.
There's a handful of repeater systems linked across my region (relatively rural part of "inland Pacific Northwest USA), and I wouldn't describe the 2m/70cm bands as inactive, but it's mostly weekly social nets or nets related to EmComm groups.
As to why I don't do more -- it's a lot of what you said, outside of those, there's not often a reply, but none of the nets really give me the warm fuzzies about joining on a regular basis either.
I used to scan the repeater frequencies when driving around, but I wasn't driving frequently, or at regular times until recently when we got a second car 😞 -- and lately I've been using a mobile HF radio in the car, with an antenna that works well on 20m, so I'm listening to that more often.
@M0YNG there are some decently active repeaters in my area but people often can’t hear me when I’m indoors with an HT. I could maybe improve my antenna situation but mostly, it’s just not that interesting to me.