Repeater, Nat Call or something else?

WUZombies

Adventurist
When you're driving out of your usual area do you flip your dual-band over to one of the typical national calling frequencies on 2M and/or 70cm, do frequency scans, do you check Repeater Book and try new repeaters, leave your radio off or something else?

Depending on how bored I get (e.g. how bad traffic is), I might let my radio sit on 146.52, let it run through frequency limited scans for traffic or try random nearby repeaters that I've found on the Repeater Book app on my phone. Rarely do I have my HAM radio turned off. I've made good QSOs with simplex check in's and with local repeaters. Sometimes the repeater from Repeater Book is a linked repeater and I didn't know.

What do you do?
 
Mine's always on: usually low volume or muted, and usually passively monitoring (not broadcasting ID) 146.460 and 146.520. 146.460 because I've had more than a few hails come in since many "overlanders" assume any 4x4 with an antenna is monitoring the freq :). 146.520 because I'm normally busy enough experiencing the trip, and figuring out which repeaters are still used is pretty hit and miss.

The exception would be when I'm traveling near a repeater I used to sit on, then I'll often drop .520 and see if any old friends are around.
 
Mine's always on: usually low volume or muted, and usually passively monitoring (not broadcasting ID) 146.460 and 146.520. 146.460 because I've had more than a few hails come in since many "overlanders" assume any 4x4 with an antenna is monitoring the freq :). 146.520 because I'm normally busy enough experiencing the trip, and figuring out which repeaters are still used is pretty hit and miss.

The exception would be when I'm traveling near a repeater I used to sit on, then I'll often drop .520 and see if any old friends are around.

I've tried reaching out to other like minded people depending on what antennas I see on their rig, so far I've had exactly zero luck getting a response using 2m, 70cm or CB. I have had some really neat conversations with locals sitting in their radio shack via 146.52. Some guys are running serious equipment for VHF with directional beam antennas.

Anyways, if I can't find someone on simplex I'll often do a query via the Repeater Book app on my phone with a set radius (more accurately my wife will since I'm driving) and give it a try. Luckily the Yaesu I run is super easy to key in frequencies and PL tones with automatic offsets, etc. I've run the smart scan function a few times with limited success. For the big multi-family trip coming up this July I did some research for the areas we'll be in and already CHiRPed a new memory bank with the repeaters entered, this is the first time I've tried doing that for an area I haven't been to before. We'll see if it works out. At the very least I sent the radio image to the other operators in the group so they can copy and flash their own radios.
 
So, this sort of answers a question i had in mind. What simplex frequencies in the 2 meter or 70 cm bands, and/or CB do overlanders/ offroaders typically use?
 
I typically either leave it on 146.520 (or 550, 580, etc) or have my radio scan the local repeaters.

If I'm in a new place and going off-road, I'll use Repeater Book to pre-program the local repeaters - and test them before getting on any trails. This is more for emergency use than anything else.

For highway travel the RepeaterBook web site has a great tool in addition to the normal proximity search.
There's a travel link (https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/travel.php) that will let you pick a highway and enter some filters like band and whatnot.
Then it will give you a list of repeaters along your route and sort them for you. It'll even put them into Google Maps if you like.
 
Thanks, I'm really sort of new to comms - VHF/UHF and/or CB. Tested for Tech and General ticket last week.
 
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