70MHz (4m)

**ei7gnb** · Mon 14th Jan 2008, 12:20

Anybody on 4m? I tried it briefly when my grandad got a rig for it....was dead, if you wanted a QSO you had to phone somebody up :mrgreen:

**M0JJK** · Mon 16th Feb 2009, 01:13

seems pretty quiet this way except for the odd gateway.

**M6IND** · Sat 21st Feb 2009, 23:05

someone from Gloucester on 2m was saying the other week that there is quite a good net on 4m over in Oxfordshire somwhere that he listens to while on top one of the hills around here.

So it gets an airing.

**M0HAK** · Sun 22nd Feb 2009, 06:34

There's a Tuesday night net in the Reading area 70.4250 at 21:30 according to a note I have here. I really should get around to getting on there.

Radio is a Simoco SRM9020 - our local RAYNET group got a job lot of them cheap and I bought one.

**m0bov** · Sun 22nd Feb 2009, 16:57

Not on it myself but been told its resonable in this area with a few enthusiastic stations keeping it going. More than can be said for 70 and 6.

**Alf (G7VGG)** · Sun 31st May 2009, 00:29

Just in case you were'nt aware of it before, FM users on 4m almost always use vertical polarisation and the FM calling frequency is 70.450. However, SSB users almost always use horizontal polarisation and the SSB calling frequency is 70.200. There are no repeaters on 4m, and there are no plans for any in the future. There are beacons but they are all horizontally polarised so you wont pick them up very well if you have a vertical antenna....They seem to there simply for the benefit of SSB users.

I live near Heathrow in West London and its extremely quiet on 4m around here, but I have managed to find a reasonably local hotspot of 4m activity...Banstead in Surrey...Both of my two 4m QSO's were from stations in Banstead.
I'm still debating which antenna to use as I would prefer a dual bander for 6m and 4m...My Fat Jim antenna if a good choice for a vertical but that wont help with SSB contacts so for that I'm thinking of making seperate horizontally polarised Turnstile (AKA Clover leaf or Big wheel) omnidirectional antennas for 6m and 4m.

**ei2glb** · Fri 26th Jun 2009, 01:56

anytime i turn on 4m i can find someone to have a qso with.

i have a 6el yagi @ 20m AGL.

the reason beacons are all horzontal is the are built and installed by dxers to help other dxers know when the band is open.

**M6IND** · Thu 21st Jan 2010, 21:40

The new Cotswold-ARS club may well end up with two 4-element 4m antenne on top of a high hill as long as a radio can be found.

If and when I know anything more about this I will sugest a sked on one of out club nights...

**ei7gnb** · Sun 31st Jan 2010, 19:28

I've resolved to get set up again on 4m, so watch this space! :-)

**2e0sql** · Sun 31st Jan 2010, 19:50

I keep meaning to try it Jon, we have a AKD FM 4m radio in the shack but never had a QSO on it!

**G0DJA** · Thu 3rd Nov 2011, 20:46

It's a good band for meteor scatter and Sporadic-E propagation. My problem is that I don't have a permanent antenna up for 4M so I have to keep getting the 3 element quad out and put it on a temporary pole. I'd like to try some Auroral contacts as 6M was always a good band for than mode of propagation.