Receiving one side of conversation.

[nohumanman]

Hello,

I am Matthew and am aspiring to become an amateur radio operator, I was wondering if you could help me with the following conundrum:

The ‘problem’ is the fact that when there is a transmission - and where I live there is an amateur radio club within the same town and they transmit every Tuesday at 9:45, without fail - and in this transmission I can only receive one persons transmission, I can only hear one side of the conversation. At this stage - I am not looking to transmit, I have no license as of this time. I do however wish to listen to others and hopefully regain some knowledge so that - when I do gain a license - I will not be bewildered when transmitting and will be able to understand operations easily.

Do you have any recommendations?



Info:

I use currently a baofeng GT-5TP, the baofeng’s antenna can be screwed off, leaving a female SMA - it then connects to a SMA to male coax - which then connects to a female to female which then connects to the antenna. The antenna is a slight fear of mine - I am not keen to spend too much money on an antenna - The current one I have is a spare VHF tv antenna, I figured since I am trying to pick up a VHF transmission it would make sense to use it.

I appreciate any help you can give me.

Sincerely

- Matthew

73

[5B4AJB]

A TV antenna (Yagi) is only sensitive in one direction.

TV's coaxial cable is 75Ω as opposed to your 50Ω transceiver - it won't make much difference receiving, but can cause problems transmitting.

Also, it could be you're listening to a repeater input, try adding 600kHz to your frequency and see if you can hear the group.

VHF only describes a range of frequencies between 30MHz and 300MHz, the usable resonance of nearly all antennas is only a couple of hundred kHz, so, if your antenna is tuned for 50MHz and you're tuning your receiver to 145MHz only a tiny fraction of the signal will be "scooped" up by the antenna.

Antennas can get expensive. For VHF & UHF the coax can cost as much as the rest of the station. I'm not trying to put you off, but good coax is the difference between contact and no contact on those bands - start saving and enjoy!

[Psi*]

You might be listening to the input side of the repeater and directly receiving that ham's transmission. Find the repeater's tx freq and set your baofeng's rcvr to that.

[brandon lind]

If they are on VHF, most 2m repeaters use an offset of (+ or -) 0.600MHz. Try going up or down by 600kHz. If it is a 70cm repeater, those offsets are usually + or - 5MHz. This is the standard but its not always followed. Thats where I would start.

[JohnD]

You might be listening to the input side of the repeater and directly receiving that ham's transmission. Find the repeater's tx freq and set your baofeng's rcvr to that.

That was my guess as well. You may be hearing an individual who lives near enough to you to hear his transmission going into a repeater. As noted above, try tuning 0.600 Mhz above or below the frequency on which you are currently listening, and you should hear the output of the repeater, which will give you the full conversation.

Hurry up and start studying for your license and get in on the conversation.

Good luck!

[nohumanman]

A TV antenna (Yagi) is only sensitive in one direction.

TV's coaxial cable is 75Ω as opposed to your 50Ω transceiver - it won't make much difference receiving, but can cause problems transmitting.

Also, it could be you're listening to a repeater input, try adding 600kHz to your frequency and see if you can hear the group.

VHF only describes a range of frequencies between 30MHz and 300MHz, the usable resonance of nearly all antennas is only a couple of hundred kHz, so, if your antenna is tuned for 50MHz and you're tuning your receiver to 145MHz only a tiny fraction of the signal will be "scooped" up by the antenna.

Antennas can get expensive. For VHF & UHF the coax can cost as much as the rest of the station. I'm not trying to put you off, but good coax is the difference between contact and no contact on those bands - start saving and enjoy!

- cheers! I will try these and get back to you.

Thank you.

-Matthew