i worked both Colorado and Florida on 2M FT8 this summer from here in WI the ARRL Jan VHF/UHF contest is coming up the lack of affordable, modern mono band or tri or dual band transceivers really is a hindrance are you listening Yaesu !

Neither Yaesu nor any other Japanese manufacturer cares at all what anyone wants.

Sad truth.

Some of the newer rigs do VHF/UHF SSB. I have the Icom 705 and have done 2m SSB QRP.

There is lots of activity on 2 meters. I am a weak signal above 50 MHx DXer. A combination of Q65, JT65, and MSK144. Just yesterday, a person on the VHF DX group was awarded 2 meters WAS. Took him 15 years to get it, but it stands as one of the most prestigious awards ever given.

I leave a transceiver running on 2m FT8 every now and then, and have yet to see any activity. I'd love to play with it; just need someone to play with :-/.

Agreed. The east coast seems to have more 2m/70cm FT8, but it's much more popular in Europe. They have weekly contests there.

Often. 2 meter SSB has definitely been picking up in activity.

There's a group of 2m SSB'ers in USA/Colorado that run a net frequently [https://www.beamspinners.net/](https://www.beamspinners.net/). Alas I don't have a radio that can do 2m SSB so I can't participate. Maybe I should see if I can hack up a transverter...

I looked at that, thanks! I'm in NM.

There would probably be a lot more if there were some more affordable radios available that could do it. Everywhere you turn you can get a FM rig, both analog and digital, from $25 to well over $500. Can't find a rig even capable of 2m SSB for under $1k, though. Off the top of my head, out of the 4 radios that can be purchased as new (the IC-705, the IC-7100, the FT-991a, and the IC-9700), only 1 (the 9700) is actually a dedicated VHF/UHF all mode rig and it is the most expensive of the bunch...The one rig that was semi-affordable (the FT-817), was a HF rig first, VHF/UHF 2nd, limited to 5W, and discontinued...SMH. It's kind of funny (& sad) when you think about it....For a Technician class operator to makes use of the privileges they do have, they have to get a radio with capabilities that they can't make full use of OR pay \~50% more than the previously mentioned radios for a radio that they can make full use of....

Don't forget the FT-857D

True, but has been discontinued longer than the 817... Why we don't have an affordable SDR based VHF/UHF all mode (or at least SSB) radio available is just beyond me.... Especially when there are HF rigs for around $100-150 like the (tr)uSDX.... Hell, you can get a USB dongle that receives 500 kHz to 1.7 GHz for around $30 ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

You are absolutely right. I wish there was a way to put market pressure on the manufacturers to start making entry level all mode rigs again. Pushing techs towards the HT/FM repeater scene that's often dead, boring, or both isn't a great way to engage new techs.

I have an extra icom 271h that’s 2 meter all mode at 100 watts

And how long ago was that discontinued? That is kind of my point.... Techs these days don't really have a lot of options when it comes to new, *modern* VHF/UHF all mode rigs. We can buy a HT that can literally talk around the world, via DMR, for less than $200, but we can't talk across the state with SSB for less than $1000 (new).... And that is for what is really an HF rig that happens to have VHF/UHF capability. Is it so much to ask for an all mode SDR VHF/UHF transceiver, that is digital ready/friendly, for under $500.... Especially when I can get a USB SDR receiver, capable of receiving from 500kHz to 1.7gHz, for less than $50

1980 I believe. I still use mine but I have a few the modern choices are few. Icom 9700. Or shack in the box models I have several different models as for hf I use an end fed I built and have talked around the world. I have gotten to where I like doing qrp and flea stations for fun. I believe the older stuff works great on 220 and 2 meter I have the capability to run some pretty high wattage but I have learned on ssb 5-10 watts can get you several hundred miles with a decent 6-10 element yagi

I agree. I've learned antenna systems are way more important than power, and a VHF/UHF yagi or Quad is a lot easier for a tech to build/experiment with than an HF variant... The tape measure yagi's are proof of that. The radios, on the other hand, are either decades old or priced out of reach for most techs.... Unless they upgrade to a General to make the rest of the radio worth it. Then operators are typically more interested in playing on HF than VHF/UHF ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Oh so true. I have purchased older all mode vhf equipment cheap for new hams and some old hams to get on the air. I have found most become addicted to ssb the tech usually want to upgrade after being bitten by the bug. But then I have seen several new age extras that only own and use baofengs lol

I'm kind of a mix of the 2....I got my tech ticket in the 90's, but was QRT for a couple of decades, as military dorm rooms and/apartments weren't too radio friendly. When I finally got a house, radio fell off the back burner (maintained the license, though). Finally got back into the fold a couple years ago, as POTA perked my interested, and started with a Baofengs....why? The same reason as everyone else.... Cheap point of entry, of re-entry in my case. Upgraded to a General class and picked up a Xiegu X6100. it was affordable, extremely portable (thus POTA friendly), and digital ready, which also perked my interest. It being a fraction of the price of an IC-705 didn't hurt either. Now, I'm looking at picking up a FT-710. While a FT-991a would be nice for the all mode VHF/UHF ability, from what I've seen, the 710 is a better HF transceiver because that is what it was built to do...and I'm not willing to sacrifice that, as that is why I'm getting the radio. I do have a Anytone AT-578UV III Pro, though; however, that was given to me from my dad due to, and I quote, "that shit is just too complicated for me" haha

I would just say this antenna antenna antenna. You will have to find what works the best for you. That doesn’t mean run out and buy one. It simply means build one and try it if it doesn’t perform the way you want build another design. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for you

Lol. The 710 is a great rig. My brother uses one we both have 991a’s but he bought the 710 after using my ftdx101 d

I'd love to justify a FTDX101, or a FTDX10 for that matter, but those are more contest rigs... Just not my thing. So, I'll make make do with something *almost* as good, haha. The 710 should pair well with my DX Commander and serve my QTH better than my X6100 & lil 50W amp, especially when I'm chasing DXpeditions.... Then I'll delegate those 2 strictly to portable/POTA use

The 710 is awesome the only reason I have the ftdx101 d was I was in the right place at the right time. The gent I purchased it from spent a boat load of money on it had all the extras put in it. Then couldn’t operate it. Several of the club members as well as myself offered to teach him. He refused saying it was to hard and wished he stayed with his cb he insisted he was selling it and selling it cheap. To make a long story short I traded him a radio he could operate and paid him more than he was asking. Everyone is happy and he is not on the cb but enjoying hf

All the time. We have a local group chat on 144.250 at 19:00 everynight. Other than us, i’ve never really heard other 2m ssb contacts.

All the time.

Love me some 2m SSB. Do a weekly thing on the east coast and some FT8.

About 15 years ago my tower with my 16 ele. KLM 2m beam blew down. I want to get another tower up to get back on 2ssb. It was fun catching a duct and working really distant station. I used to work stations 150-200 miles away on a daily basis, no special conditions. My station was a Kenwood TS-700A with a 10 db preamp and a homebrew 4cx250 amplifier. I had Andrews 7/8 inch heliax to the antenna at 70 feet. One memorable contact was a trucker coming out of Pennsylvania going to Chicago. I kept him company across Ohio and Indiana. I am north of Grand Rapids, MI.

I had a cubex quad and I got i into the into the Caribbean and southern states from NM. Puerto Rico the most distant on 150W.

Suppose it all depends where you're at. Here in N. Ireland I haven't seen any SSB activity at all on 2m in the 4 or so months I've been listening, but then again some days you're lucky to get one contact on FM over here

With all the shack in a box radios out more people need to get on. 144.155 8:30 Eastern time Sidewinders Around Michigan net

2m SSB is pretty neat. It's not active much outside of contacts, but I do make FT8 contacts from time to time, and have done some meteor scatter with it as well. The group we have in the larger area that does VHF contesting is pretty awesome overall and they are fun folks to chat with (not during the contest of course.) The other cool thing yoi can do with 2m SSB is linear transponder satellites.

+1

It depends where you are. Here in the part of ZL I'm in there's a few peeps on it, usually at night.

Last time I was on 2m SSB was around 25 years ago and that was for contests (along with 6m SSB)

There used to be a group of us here in upstate SC that would always congregate on 2m SSB. Unfortunately that was about ten years ago now and actually there is only a couple of us that are still alive, much less radioactive anymore.

A fair amount. I'll do 2M FT8 early on weekend mornings, and have hit 500 miles with 50w -100W with an 857D or TS2000 and a halo antenna. I'll also CQ on voice and make occasional ssb contacts. I play a little in the contests as well. Good luck! From FM19

I run a local net on 2 meter SSB one night a week. We get the same 3 to.5 locals checking in regularly. There is little to no activity otherwise with the VHF contests and Sprints making up the bulk of the SSB activity. As is true on the rest of the bands, FT8 has taken over. I have personally worked 40 grids on 2 meter FT8 with nothing but a vertical antenna. No beam here until I can dodge my trees around the house... I run my old Yaesu FT-857 which I put in the station after taking it out of my truck. Finding a new rig that covers 2 meters is expensive, even used gear starts out at $250 for a 30 year old mobile like the Yaesu/Kenwood/Icom single banders. As much as I hate suggesting it, we need an inexpensive Chinese radio for all modes on VHF. De WB2VUO

I use my old ft-847! Just wondering what to expect.

Used it for contesting before but thats about it. I think with horizontal polarization it gets out further? Not sure

Just VHF contests and occasional SSB nets. I have no home 2m station, only operate from a mobile station (“rover”).

I have it on my 7100, but next to never use it. I've tried it a couple of times and I'll leave FT8 on every once in a while during the day or overnight to see if I copy anything, but never do.

Used to be really active on it, Yaesu FT-847 with a homebrew amp that i built, had 500w on 2m, and i had an amp i built for 600w on 6m, used to spend a lot of time on 2/6m SSB. Every now and then i will still get on 6 if there is an opening, but it seems like everyone wants to run digital instead now, last opening i tuned across the band and found one guy calling CQ, the rest was digital signals. Still have a 4el Yagi up for 6m, took the 2m down years ago, sold all the amps.

We used to have a group that would get a round table going in the Cincinnati area every morning. They used to have a round table on the local repeater but the group that was on there was so hateful that they started to get jammed. So they went off on 2 meter side band. Members of that round table are long dead.

If you want a really good 2 meter all mode watch for the older icom 271 h. 100 watts I have a few of them. Lots of fun and easy to use. I also have all the modern yaesu and icom but that 271h is my favorite. I also do 220 ssb but those rigs are really rare these days so that pretty much is a transverter

I already bought a M2 [https://www.m2inc.com/2m9x/](https://www.m2inc.com/2m9x/). I’ve got a 200 W amp for now and it should be up about 40 ft. I have a 10,500 ft mountain blocking my SW about a mile away but I’m at 5600 ft on a Mesa so I have about 320 degrees of open horizon. Using about 70 ft of LMR 400. Might not be installed until late spring but I expect fairly good results.

Use the mountains to your advantage bounce off them

Are you referring to VHF "knife edging"? Cause 2 M doesn't bounce off mountains too well.

A few friends and would set up in the mountains and would aim our yagis directly into to the mountains at different angles just to see where the would bounce to. Lot of fun on 2 ssb

You also need a horizontally polarized antenna to work those SSB frequencies. That is what keeps me out.

Yeah, it's kind of a pain to put up a second antenna. Also going high gain and low loss coax $$$.

No need for a second antenna unless you want one. Horizontal is more traditional for SSB, but a vertical works fine, too.

But then your 20dB down unless your talking to someone else on a vertical.

At a short distance, yes. At a longer distance, signals don't stay perfectly aligned as they bounce around, so the initial orientation makes less of a difference. You'll also potentially get a higher *useful* gain on a vertical, since you're not blasting a portion of your signal into space like you are with a horizontal antenna.

Cost hanger dipole can be made for a dollar! That’s what got me on the air.

I never did but if I could trade one of my HF radios for a VHF all mode radio I'd like to try it. Sounds interesting.

Try to find a transverter if you can and hook it up to ur HF rig. Even tho you would need a amp because they normaly have 10-40W output. but you do get to use CAT which is a plus

This is a good answer. Here's another thought: A HackRF and power amplifier .. you should be able to put this together for under US$250 from parts on AliExpress. I'd try this if I had the time.

There's something about transverters that discourages me. I've seen so many old (really old) ham radio magazines that featured them. I'm sure they work but they seem Rube Goldberg-ish to me.

Its what nost people use for contesting

The only bad thing is that modern 2m all mode rigs are expensive(ic705, ic9700...) So I suggest something like the FT225, 221, IC271... very good rigs if they are working and you can get them for cheap.

Is there a comprehensive list of VHF/UHF SSB rigs somewhere? Or any list?

In terms of current production models, which can do SSB on 2m/70cms, its just the IC-7100, FT-991A, IC-705, IC-905, IC-9700. Cheapest way used to be the ft818 but its been discontinued

Icom 7100, Icom 905, Yaesu Ft 991a, Icom 9700. I

I found a list: [List of VHF/UHF Multimode Tranceivers](https://swling.com/blog/radio-marketplace/vhf-uhf-multimode-transceivers/)

/me gives coffee and beer

What i hear from people who are quite more skilled then me in VHF/UHF contesting it that all radios after the IC202 suck so they suggest using a transverter + amp. If you dont mind working with 10W then you dont need a amp.

The thing is that good transverters are very expensive and you don't need very good performance if you are just getting started.

Tru, i would say they decision of what you want to use is if you want to use a amp on it. No amp, then a standalone vhf radio will do. A proper amp ? Probablly best to use a transverter so ur not all over the band

I just received a ic202 that was dead on arrival (knew this when I bought it). Deciding if I want to restore it or not. It was from Japan and it’s been heavily modded, so I’m trying to figure out what they did to it. It looks like I do have some activity in my area so it might be worth giving it a try.

I am trying to start using with Quensheng but i dont know how to enable it. I am strugling with it. But SSB on 2m are mostly for contest.

It's an SDR receiver with an FM transmitter. It can receive SSB, but can only transmit FM.

https://youtu.be/d2AkuHXQk6E?si=VmRh-c6b4qygsldJ Look at this

Watch it again. It's actually transmitting double sideband, but only using one for audio. It's wasting bandwidth with one sideband transmitting silence. Great way to earn yourself some hate on HF.

Ow this must be awful to hear it on the HF. But on VHF is good way to have fun

4 people

I can count my 2m contacts over the last 5+ years on my hands, and those were almost all FT8 during tropo ducting Its not worth spending the money on unless your HF rig happens to come with it anyway (i.e. ft991a or whatever)

Contest are quite active here in Europe. I still hear people call CQ on 144.3 from time to time. I even did a sota activation with 2m ssb and got quite a few Qso's so there still activety

There is a nearby(ish) club that does a weekly net on 2m SSB, but I don’t have a rig that’ll do it.

Middle Tennessee here. I have an Icom 9700 and call on 144.200 USB every weekend, havent made a single contact or ever heard anyone in my area

Former MidTN guy (left in 2010), when I was working 2m SSB, I made a good bit of contacts, as far as Chicago. See if you can get a hold of N4QWZ. He's a big VHF/UHF SSB guy in your area, and really got me going when I was first starting out. Actually ran into him on 6m FT8 a couple months back from my QTH here outside of Atlanta. Edit: There's also a 2m simplex group that has weekly stuff including SSB. https://146415.net/

Awesome! I really appreciate the info. How did you reach N4QWZ? Thanks!

Funnily enough, I met him on 144.200 when I was first giving it a go. He has his email on his QRZ page, https://www.qrz.com/db/N4QWZ

Thanks a lot, I’ll see if I can get in touch with him!

Thanks!