Mexstan

Since moving to Mexico I have not used my 2M rig and actually removed it from my truck. I am doing a fairly long trip next week and am going to stick the rig back in my truck. It's an old Icom 207H. Is there anything new I should know about when working any repeaters etc?
My North American Repeater Atlas is way out of date (1989/99) and if I can will try and pick up a new one in the Lavon/Plano, Texas area on my way up. Any ham stores in that area and if so can you provide the address please?
Thanks. VE3AH

TomW

Found one in Austin and one in Plano..

Austin Amateur Radio Supply - Austin, TX (800) 423-2604
Texas Towers - Plano, TX - (800) 272-3467

SoTexRattler

Mexstan, I can't help you as to the stores in the Plano area, but of any part of the state, the Plano/N.Dallas area OUGHT to have some good ham stores left.. Way too many high-tech electronics types still working up there not to have some decent ham oriented retail stores around. (at one time Plano boasted the highest per-capita ham population of any city)

One thing I do know about the repeaters is many of them are now on "tone" access. IMHO, the repeater coordination ****'s have strong-armed many repeater owners into adding tone access to their formerly open access repeaters.
For that reason alone, you will likely need a repeater directory just to get the tones to access the repeaters as you drive cross-country.
Lacking a directory prior to your trip, you might take a look at the websites of some of the ham clubs in each metro area you are going to drive thru. They will likely list their rptr freq's and the associated PL tones which just MAY be the prevailing PL tones for each metro area. For instance, Corpus Christi area's prevailing PL tone is 107.2hz for MOST of the functional repeaters down here.

A VE3 call living in XE land??? Boy! You DO get around Mexstan...

KB5MO

butchera

Stan,

Try this for a search of repeaters in Texas.

http://www.txvhffm.org/RepeaterSearc...9/Default.aspx

Here is another:

http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/states/Texas.asp

Mexstan

Thanks guys for the answers. Will do some research tomorrow as I am too busy today. Yeah, I know a lot of repeaters are 'closed' but there are still a few open repeaters. As I have not been active for so long I am going to have to read my manual again to bone up on how to add the tone access freqs to my rig. Think I prefer the 'good old simple' days.
KB5MO, don't get around as much as I would like to.
I used to be very active with both base and mobile, but have got away from it lately. With mobile at one time I decided to go for my DXCC strictly mobile and got up to just over 70 countries before I quit. Most of that was on 20m SSB. Great fun!

SoTexRattler

Mexstan, I talked to my co-worker today that owns one of the very few wide area "open" un-toned 2m repeaters in this area (147.08). He tells me they (the freq coordination ****'s) are very close to success in strong-arming ham rptr owners across the state to cough up a mandatory $25/year/per repeater (he owns 3 repeaters, 2m, 450 and one on 10m or 6m,)for the "privilege" of keeping their repeater coordinations.. This guy has had his 2m and 450 repeater freqs for the last 25-30 years and has not asked for a dime from anyone to help pay for their operation or repair. Even when the local ham club can't keep their repeaters functional, his rptr's have always been reliable, and are counted on when a hurricane comes. If it comes down to these TXVHF-FM people extorting money out of him just to keep his repeaters on the air, I predict he'll tell them where they can stuff that $25 fee and he'll jerk the plugs. It's not the money, it's the unwarranted control by a bunch of distant, self-serving bureaucratic leeches that chafes him.

So, that's where formerly "open" repeaters have gone...

K.

Mexstan

Thanks for the info.
Ah, the cost of so-called 'progress'! Had my fill of self-serving bureaucratic leeches and I have zero tolerance for them, so would understand if your buddy pulled the plug. Hope not tho, as hamdom need good folks like him.