Comrade Wingray, Couple of corrections. 1. Amazing ranges can also be achieved on 2 metres, not just 70MHz. 2. 70Mhz is actually the 70 metres band because the "M" in "MHz" means metres. so 70MHz means 70 Metres HoriZontal polarisation. So, 2 metres as a frequency is 2MHz.
Uhh, no. In Amateur Radio, the 2-Meter band is 144-148 MHz. 2 MHz is the top of the 160-Meter band. Go back to your basic Technician or Novice studies. Wavelength and frequency are inversely related. Example: 1.7 MHz, the top of the AM Broadcast Band, is ~185 meters. The bottom of the band, 530 kHz (or 0.53 MHz), is ~570 meters. The newest Amateur Radio band (at least in the US, I don't know about other countries) is at 135.7-137.8 kHz in the VLF range. This equates to 2,200 meters.
It was good to catch up this morning, and thanks for the plug for the Genesis Radio Group. When 4m is open it works very well. It gets me to places that 2m won’t reach. Alas, I could only hear your good self, none of the other stations.
This is the first time ive watch ham radio in action. Honestly thought it was boring etc but after watching this.. Something i need to do research into!
We don't have 4m. 6m gets a little use. And we've had periodic fevers for "unused bands" like 1.25m and 33cm, with vendors eagerly selling gear at hamfests and club meets. Everybody went crazy buying radios and putting up repeaters. But the crazes never seem to last and what traffic there is tends to go back to 2m/70cm or the HF bands.
A bunch of hams here are still running an old commercial system around 4m. 25w mobiles and repeaters bring impressive coverage for mobile stations. It propagates in a really interesting way compared to high vhf. That it also runs with selcall is just a fun bonus!
This band was used for broadcast FM in Eastern Europe. I remember, when the last broadcast station in Budapest (MR1 Kossuth) was moved to the 88-108 MHz band in the 200's. 67.40 to 107.8 MHz. We had a PLL tuned receiver (Videoton RT7300) with dual FM band. FM1 was from 65-72 MHz and FM2 is from 87.5 to 108 MHz.
@@jacuswoczega9180 First station in the CCIR band showed up in the 80's in Hungary (radio Danubius) at the area of the Balaton broadcasting in German for tourists. Most of the stations disappeared in the middle of the 90's in Hungary from the old OIRT band, but the last one, radio station MR1 Kossuth in the region of Budapest moved up later, in the 2000's from 67.40MHz to 107.8, as it has also an AM tramsmitter at 540 KHz.
@@TonyLing It looks quite unlikely because that frequency allocation. Is used by three full-power TV stations, 110 low-power TV stations according to the FCC US.
Work 4m a lot - SSB, FM, and FT8 - especially in the summer when conds are better for DX. I live in Norway. Worked a few European countries. Mostly Elecraft K3 with transverter, or IC-7300 for "DX", and a old Anytone mobile rig. We use 4m FM frequently for local QSO's. But hope more Hams i Norway will discover this band. 73 de LA1BNA
Some good observations there, Lewis. I was keen to get on 4m as soon as it was released to Class B's in the 80's. I started off with a Pye Westminster and a set of crystals to give me the calling channel (70.450) and 70.425. A quick tune up gave me 10 watts out and a reasonably sensitive RX. That was home operation sorted out, and then I moved on to mobile op with another Pye Wessie. Great people on the band, lots of tech talk. I found that from my van I could have QSO's with ops over in Prescot and St Helens, not bad from ground level as I drove around my morning calls around Ashton and Hyde. I made a couple of homebrew transceivers too. I had to abandon the band a few years ago as the local noise level shot up. Cheers G1HBE.
So many 4M stations up here in East Yorks - net on a Friday night 1930hours 70.425 many of us using beams so feel free to drop in. The Icom 7300 is a great 4M set and of course the sideband option is there for some great DX work 👍
I modified a Pye Bantam to work on 70.26 MHz. At home I heard a b.c. station, Poland as it turned out, conditions were good, so loaded my 3 el h/b Yagi into my Land Rover and up to what c.b.'ers called the Budgie Perch. Worked into Cheshire, Lancashire, east coast and topped it with a guy near Glasgow in the hills, 59 each way, about 180-200 miles. Not bad for my half Watt a.m. Nobody on 70.26 a.m. these days and years since I had a QSO. Just acquired an AnyTone AT-779 so need to look on the internet to find how to use it. That was never a problem with Pye stuff! G4GHB
One evening during the minimum sunspot phase around the end of 2009, I worked New Zealand with 20 watts (PSK31) and saw a 4X4 call him immediately afterwards. The band was open worldwide at that moment.
Since America has abandoned low VHF frequencies for television, I wonder why the FCC has not given us an allocation for 4Meters corresponding with yours? It would be exciting to see if we could make comms across the Atlantic to the U.K. I have made a QSO to Wales on 6 meters with the QSL to prove it, so 70 MHz would be very interesting to try! 73's de W4FJF.
I would love to try the 4 meter band but it is not available in the US. We do have our own under used band, and that is 1.25 meters. It is a great band.
Ive just recently started using the 1.25 M band, hard to find radios that include it. I bought a number of Radioddity QB-25 "quad" band radios as they are inexpensive and include 222. Realy only a tri band as it includes a 350 Mhz band that is not available in the US. Great cheap radio to throw in a car of Jeep where theft of a $500 + radio would make me very sad. I have one in my work truck as I work in a city that can be theft prone.
Been on it for years. It's picking up round here now, so I'm told. Had (still have) a couple of 4m FM1000s, now added a transverter and just had my first contact on a 500mW 4m handy. I'm going to add a transverter output to my RCI2950 to use it for 4m full time.
I've always had a soft spot for 4mtrs. In my area there is more activity on 4mtrs than on 2mtrs these days. The reason it has always been a technical band was, that you had to do some work to get on to it. Only recenty that commercial radios have been available. But of SSB this is still mostly the case.
The more I watch your videos I start thinking that I need to get back into radio. It's probably 50 years since I was really into it. I loved making things and had transmit and receive teleprinter and slow scan tv which I used quite a lot. I spent more time building for myself and others rather than chatting. 🙂
I had a dash mount cambridge which had been converted to fm with 3 channels in the 80s..it had a qqv0310 pa and a ringing choke inverter for ht that used to give me headaches
That was very interesting I had never heard of that band but I was active in Australia. Australia had some strange allocations. From what I have just read. TV Channel 2 was on the 4metre band TV Channel 5A went across international FM broadcasting band. the 11-metre CB band was allocated as an 11-metre Amateur band. But Hams lost it with wailing and gnashing of teeth. As the analogue TV has been turned off there have been petitions to get 4 metres. Not been active for over 20 years And back in the UK.
Can say first hand VHF Channel 4 here was in the middle of the FM broadcast band. Was useful in the 90s recording new music off Rage on a saturday morning
No 4m amateur band here in Sweden. But we got 69mhz private citizen band, open to all. No license required, which is just great because it lowers the hurdles for the interested for their radio journey.
Looks like you had a good morning there Lewis, I bought a Motorola GM350 at the NARSA rally in Blackpool this year and cobbled a mobile antenna out of a whip from an old CB antenna and a PL259, not made any contacts on it yet as my previous job left me little to no time to do any radio at all. With the GM350 only having 4 channels I am limited on what frequencies are available, the calling channel on 70.450 is one so I think I should give it a try and see who comes back
Nice band, but not in the US I think because of TV band here not allied here, but we have 222 MHz instead, which I think DAB 🤔 is used at thos frequencies in Europe 73 de W2CH Ray, New Hampshire.
I had to play this a few times to hear "Four Meters" rather than the 70 mhz This is called Low Band VHF because its down the bottom of the VHF closer to the 30 mhz bottom of the band. Back in Australia in the late 70's and 80's we used old government radios that were in the 45 mhz to 60 mhz and found really good range mobile to mobile using a quarter wave. The bonus is that at 4 meters, a Quarter wave antenna is about a meter long so its easy to put in a full quarter wave antenna. Great to see 70 mhz in use in the UK.
A few years back i aquired a "KEY" brick, a 70 mhz pmr ex-prison officers radio converted to 4m ham. i used it from the trig point on Titterstone Clee hill radar station and spoke to many stations. i also tried to build a 1/2 wave over 1/2 wave over 1/4 wave colllinear vertical which i could not get the swr down to acceptable levels, despite this i still spoke to stations over 30 miles away .
You gents in the UK have 4m and we've got 6m (50-54mhz). A lot of people don't appreciate the signal propagation for just FM... There's not as much dedicated 6m gear as you have available for 4m. We've got Alinco that offers One 6m mobile. The rest of 6m gear is a tri or quad band Yaesu, or an addition to HF rigs by ICOM or Yaesu. At one time, back when AES was still in business, there was a company called ADI that had a 6m FM portable. Wouxun did/does ? have a dual band portable 6m/?. Here in the States there's a largely deprecated (FCC lingo)/abandoned segment of the VHF band, 32 - 48mhz. 38 - 42mhz (simplex) was what police and fire departments used until the migration to higher frequencies & repeaters. I wish the FCC would reallocate at least SOME of the mostly unused VHF low band to the Amateur, and open another Licensed public service (like GMRS) I'd pay as much as what the OLD GMRS license fee was. For public safety simplex comms, 32-48mhz is obsolete. However the radios today wouldn't be much, if any larger than what you guys are using, and you don't need a 90 inch whip anymore. Maybe what I'm suggesting is too much like work for the FCC. There's very little 6m FM going on... Mostly SSB. To be honest, Amateur comms above 70cm isn't AFFORDABLE. We've got 33cm (902-928, shared with unlicensed ISM) and there is NO dedicated Amateur gear. Everything is modified stuff for public safety. 23cm - Alinco makes a TriBand portable 2m/70cm/23cm. A couple of ICOM all band base stations have 23cm. The FCC has frequencies above 23cm for amateur use... and it's not used. Let us have a little piece of something we CAN use. Good video Lewis !
I love messing around with my VHF military gear on 4m. There are regular nets and simplex chats down here on the South coast. I have yet to experience some decent DX though, although it is bound to happen sooner or later when conditions allow, especially with the allocation being made available to so many more countries in recent years. G7TXU
I think the epitome of handheld 4m radio probably goes to the Racal Cougar PRM4515-L and the 400mm long antenna. You can always tell a knowledgable ham if they can tell what band your using by the length of the antenna….. you don’t need a crystal ball to see 4m handhelds walking towards you. Downside! NATO tone is hard to disable on some so squelch won’t unlock until you switch it to whisper, antenna length is a pain, 1.5w max, channelised 25khz spacing that has to be pre-programmed with expensive programmers. Upside, long battery life, able to work long distances, homebrew programmers can be made, incredibly robust. Probably why Yaesu and Icom now include 4m as an option in modern radios. Downside 😮 not enough bandwidth here in the UK for repeater usage other than parrot (perhaps a video on parrot repeaters). 70mhz to 70.5mhz and 70.5 to 71.5mhz for digital TV use here in the UK. 160w max power with 100w 70.5 to 71.5mhz. For those unfamiliar with working conditions with some NGR restriction particularly towards Scottish boarders and Coast line (interference with other countries).
Great to see 4 metres still so popular. Just recently dug my ex pmr out of the loft. I have had to replace the micas the Macon mics disintegrate with age
I have an Anytone AT-588 on it's way to me as I'm typing this, I think it's basically the same radio as your Retivis. I'm only a short 15min drive from a good spot in the the Peak District at well over 1400ft so should get out pretty well in all directions👍I've already made up and tuned couple of antennas to try, a Slim Jim for use on a 10m telescopic pole and an elevated 1/4 wave ground plane for more portable, hill climbing ventures. Can't wait to try them!😂👍
I loved 4m from my old QTHs in New Mills and Oldham. I have all modes with an FT710 in Urmston but just need to put a resonant antenna to use on the band. 73 Bob G0IMB
I do like these videos where you demonstrate various bands, giving some insight on what to expect along with modes of propagation. This is one of my favorite bands because it`s still mainly homebrew especially for SSB. I once used 70cms but all activity seems to have ceased there apart from the boxes on the hills, of which I have never been a fan. I prefer to work stations directly and if I need more range, I will used the low-bands. It`s a great channel you have here, don`t listen to anyone who offer disrespect to you and your content. This is one of the better radio related channels on you-tube in my opinion.
I was on 4m mobile in the 80's with ex-pmr gear on 70.26 MHz. Great DX band especially from high ground, I also remember the Buxton GB3BUX beacon on 70.0. Great stuff! 73 Alan G0NFY (was G1CRO back then)
Nice to see an operating vlog. Surprised I've not spoken with you on-air yet - am just "down the A6" near'ish to New Mills and listen on HH / MN / MI, etc. Hopefully catch you for a chat soon.
I have soft spot for 4m it fantastic band to work on DX and local chat am mostly work on FM just local chat round Stoke on trent just need more people to come on 4m. I've made slim jim antenna works fantastic I've worked about 45 miles on 10 watts since I had my licence January this year. Great video
Hi Lewis I'll listen out for you on the 4 meters I've got a Garex 4001 just for the FM but it's got every single frequency on 4 meters which is great and it is a brilliant little radio very basic it's a bit like a CB with just the channel number and volume and squelch and that's it but it is still a really good radio from in the past during the 90's. Anyway take care and hope to speak to you very soon mate OK cheers. Stephen M3SNV 73's.
Thanks Lewis. Must try 4m again. Last time I used it was about 10 years ago, using a converted PMR rig and an indoor home-brew magnetic loop which I fed via a ferrite ring. It worked well, despite the receiver being quite deaf, and the band certainly lived up to its name.
The 7300 does work well on 4m even given the reduced RF power. Audio reports are always favourable on FM. Best 73 G7TXU on the South coast, South of London.
I think 70 MHz band will be perfect replacement for 27MHz CB , which has too much skip when condition are good. nobody want lower VHF anymore even TV stations. AG6JU
No Biggie, but regards location definitions, have those working mobiles considered What 3 Words? I’m not a advocate of the App, just a casual user. Though I suppose phonetically spelling out the location might be a bind.
Yeah but you get 220MHz and we dont. Plenty of surplus commercial Band III equipment about for 220MHz that all got binned because it was worthless to us. I do have a set of 6 220MHz handhelds in the cupboard though.
@@Ayrshore Not any 1.25 meter activity around me. I scan it on a Whistler TRX-1 and have not recieved anything. I am Technician so I am limited to transmitting 2M and 70CM bands plus some CW on lower bands. I am constantly monitoring. I do not do CW yet; all I know is SOS and that tends to freak hams out. Lol. KC3UWT. 73.
I wish we had 4M previlidges here in the US. I would love to experiment there. I do have radio control equipment for 70mhz but it is very outdated. I've tuned around and I have heard NOTHING there. TNX.......WB6FQZ
Lewis, please let know when going on Winter hill when I am in the shack I always have 70.450 MHz in SW Cumbria we get Freeview tv from Winter Hill 73' G0MEJ
Would love to use that band but it is not available for those of us in VK We have access to 6m tho and 2m we have 144.000 to 148.999 as in the whole 4mhz keep up the interesting videos
Wanted to ask, I am taking a party on an excursion, they will all be on FRS units for Convoy's and Expos, as party leader, my wishes is to use baofeng uv-5rm to lead the party, is there a way of reducing my min 1w to 0.5w to keep this with parameters, or would it be acceptable (for emergencies) to use 1w to connect to my FRS party, I'll be on an FRS also, but if something was to go wrong, would it be OK to power up W to get them home safe? Or would it be OK to do so in a situation or frowned upon by the pro liscenced to use an extra 0.5w?
RingwayManchesterI can you advise me have a UV5R since 2016 and I dont even use it anymore I tried to hook it up with the computer software but I cannot pick up anything but static do you think I ruined it with the pc software CHIRP, I see a lot of videos about setting the radio back to FACTORY SETTINGS but pressing the transmit without an aerial??? could this be a government sponsored scan to break or Burn out your radio??? I really am learning a lot from you my friend and if I had the money I surely would Buy a Coffee Peter Ireland
4 meters dead around my QTH unfortunately, 70cm gone the same also since our local repeater died. Like people say, back to faithful 2m or HF. Shame really.
Hi Lewis I love your videos but have one question - why do you identify as M3HHY/M while you’re stationary? My understanding was that /M is while travelling and /P for stationary? Just a thought. Michael 2M0GUI
Because it’s true that’s why. Commercially made dedicated 4m stuff has only been out in large volume in very recent years. Virtually everyone I speak to runs ex pmr kit and always have
The 4m allocation sits slap bang in the middle of the Low Band PMR allocation. PMR equipment needs no modification to work on four metres, it merely needs re-programming.
I use ex-PMR Motorola kit on 4m, when I picked it up at a junk sale everyone joked it had come off a bin lorry. Got me on 4m FM cheaply; £2 for the radio and £7 for a power lead off ebay 👍
@@RingwayManchester this coupled with the large scale abandonment of low band PMR in favour of mobile phones by councils, police, water boards, taxi companies etc. means plenty of spare radios knocking about, sometimes completely free of charge. The biggest hassle is getting the kit to program them.
i dont know the bands you can hit. but i checked the zed i see you dont say anything on HF. ??? not classed for it or just dont play on it ? also with they give us 4m here. i love 6m. cut my toothers on it back in 95 on a old heathkit 110a. sold it back in 95 and found it in 2015 at a hamfest. the same one i sold back then. grabed it and wont let go of her again thats for usre.. love the valves. but anyways. if you do come across this. iam gen over the puddle. so if can secd a HF ..
No 4m in Oz 🙃…. The WIA ( The oldest amateur radio association in the world) is negotiating with ACMA in Australia to get an allocation but currently allocated to land mobile. 73 de VK2AOE (The LunaticPainter).
I am from Salford how can I get a cheap set up more portable better also il like to have digital as in pipe it to PC write some code 5 liners because, I also do a touch of hardware software stuff we could exchange ideas, I could try make you this hand held antenna when iv finish a thousand other projects 😀
Comrade Wingray,
Couple of corrections.
1. Amazing ranges can also be achieved on 2 metres, not just 70MHz.
2. 70Mhz is actually the 70 metres band because the "M" in "MHz" means metres. so 70MHz means 70 Metres HoriZontal polarisation.
So, 2 metres as a frequency is 2MHz.
😂😂😂😂❤️❤️❤️❤️
What? 2 meters is 144 to 148 MHz.
@@dave-wk4t
2 metres is 2MHz.
MHz = Metres Hertz.
Hertz means "cycles per second".
So, 2MHz means it travels at 2 metres a second. Up to a 2 miles.
Uhh, no. In Amateur Radio, the 2-Meter band is 144-148 MHz. 2 MHz is the top of the 160-Meter band.
Go back to your basic Technician or Novice studies. Wavelength and frequency are inversely related. Example: 1.7 MHz, the top of the AM Broadcast Band, is ~185 meters. The bottom of the band, 530 kHz (or 0.53 MHz), is ~570 meters. The newest Amateur Radio band (at least in the US, I don't know about other countries) is at 135.7-137.8 kHz in the VLF range. This equates to 2,200 meters.
@@erzahler1930 - Don’t bother. Obviously someone that just wants to cause chaos.
It is a wonderful band. I've been on FM for over 20 years, buy only multimoded for the last four years. A great band.
Very pleased to know this.
It was good to catch up this morning, and thanks for the plug for the Genesis Radio Group. When 4m is open it works very well. It gets me to places that 2m won’t reach. Alas, I could only hear your good self, none of the other stations.
This is the first time ive watch ham radio in action. Honestly thought it was boring etc but after watching this.. Something i need to do research into!
Go for it. Get yourself the Foundation Now book (make sure it’s the latest edition) then sign yourself up for the Essex Ham online course - it’s free.
We don't have 4m. 6m gets a little use. And we've had periodic fevers for "unused bands" like 1.25m and 33cm, with vendors eagerly selling gear at hamfests and club meets. Everybody went crazy buying radios and putting up repeaters. But the crazes never seem to last and what traffic there is tends to go back to 2m/70cm or the HF bands.
No one uses 2m or 70cm in my area. - all gone very quiet these past two years.
222 MHz is a great band, & I suspect would be the analog to 4m for us in Region 2.
@@ianwilliams5915 Smartphone killed it.
70MHz is better than 2m when it comes to distance of communication?
@@ianwilliams5915 Have you tried QSOing instead of listening to the quite of the 2m band?🎙🤷♂️👍
A bunch of hams here are still running an old commercial system around 4m. 25w mobiles and repeaters bring impressive coverage for mobile stations. It propagates in a really interesting way compared to high vhf. That it also runs with selcall is just a fun bonus!
This band was used for broadcast FM in Eastern Europe. I remember, when the last broadcast station in Budapest (MR1 Kossuth) was moved to the 88-108 MHz band in the 200's. 67.40 to 107.8 MHz. We had a PLL tuned receiver (Videoton RT7300) with dual FM band. FM1 was from 65-72 MHz and FM2 is from 87.5 to 108 MHz.
This was very old time, early 1990 years. maybe only Russia remains in this band, but NOT "eastern Europe"
@@jacuswoczega9180 First station in the CCIR band showed up in the 80's in Hungary (radio Danubius) at the area of the Balaton broadcasting in German for tourists. Most of the stations disappeared in the middle of the 90's in Hungary from the old OIRT band, but the last one, radio station MR1 Kossuth in the region of Budapest moved up later, in the 2000's from 67.40MHz to 107.8, as it has also an AM tramsmitter at 540 KHz.
Great fun! Sure Wish Canada had that band
In the US we are not permitted operation of 4-meter band (70mhz). Instead we have 6-meter (50mhz) band.
In the UK, we are allowed both 6m and 4m. I hope the land of the free gets a 4m allocation soon.
@@TonyLing It looks quite unlikely because that frequency allocation. Is used by three full-power TV stations, 110 low-power TV stations according to the FCC US.
Same in Italy mate, we’re not allowed.
Hi Lewis, I was using my IC-7300 when we spoke today 74 DE Bill G4CFP
Great stuff bill thanks so much was brilliant to speak to you
It's Bill, no bones about it!
Work 4m a lot - SSB, FM, and FT8 - especially in the summer when conds are better for DX. I live in Norway. Worked a few European countries. Mostly Elecraft K3 with transverter, or IC-7300 for "DX", and a old Anytone mobile rig. We use 4m FM frequently for local QSO's. But hope more Hams i Norway will discover this band. 73 de LA1BNA
What's the simplex range on 4m?
Finland is a better country than Norway.
Some good observations there, Lewis. I was keen to get on 4m as soon as it was released to Class B's in the 80's. I started off with a Pye Westminster and a set of crystals to give me the calling channel (70.450) and 70.425. A quick tune up gave me 10 watts out and a reasonably sensitive RX. That was home operation sorted out, and then I moved on to mobile op with another Pye Wessie. Great people on the band, lots of tech talk. I found that from my van I could have QSO's with ops over in Prescot and St Helens, not bad from ground level as I drove around my morning calls around Ashton and Hyde. I made a couple of homebrew transceivers too. I had to abandon the band a few years ago as the local noise level shot up. Cheers G1HBE.
My 4 meter Pye Wessie has 5 channels and i will never give it up, I love the little radio.
Still use a Pye Westminster on 4m AM & modified Pye/Philips Transceivers on FM. I agree it is a nice band to use with a different feel to 2M.
So many 4M stations up here in East Yorks - net on a Friday night 1930hours 70.425 many of us using beams so feel free to drop in.
The Icom 7300 is a great 4M set and of course the sideband option is there for some great DX work 👍
446 vs 70cms activity, same as 934MHz vs 2 n 70 combined, yet it was the more popular more expensive 934 that was binned, unbelievable!
I modified a Pye Bantam to work on 70.26 MHz.
At home I heard a b.c. station, Poland as it turned out, conditions were good, so loaded my 3 el h/b Yagi into my Land Rover and up to what c.b.'ers called the Budgie Perch. Worked into Cheshire, Lancashire, east coast and topped it with a guy near Glasgow in the hills, 59 each way, about 180-200 miles.
Not bad for my half Watt a.m. Nobody on 70.26 a.m. these days and years since I had a QSO.
Just acquired an AnyTone AT-779 so need to look on the internet to find how to use it. That was never a problem with Pye stuff!
G4GHB
We also have the band in South Africa, but we are not allowed to use FM. Only the digital data modes. Very sad.
One evening during the minimum sunspot phase around the end of 2009, I worked New Zealand with 20 watts (PSK31) and saw a 4X4 call him immediately afterwards. The band was open worldwide at that moment.
That wouldn't be 4M.
Since America has abandoned low VHF frequencies for television, I wonder why the FCC has not given us an allocation for 4Meters corresponding with yours? It would be exciting to see if we could make comms across the Atlantic to the U.K. I have made a QSO to Wales on 6 meters with the QSL to prove it, so 70 MHz would be very interesting to try! 73's de W4FJF.
There are still TV stations there.
I would love to try the 4 meter band but it is not available in the US. We do have our own under used band, and that is 1.25 meters. It is a great band.
Ive just recently started using the 1.25 M band, hard to find radios that include it. I bought a number of Radioddity QB-25 "quad" band radios as they are inexpensive and include 222. Realy only a tri band as it includes a 350 Mhz band that is not available in the US. Great cheap radio to throw in a car of Jeep where theft of a $500 + radio would make me very sad. I have one in my work truck as I work in a city that can be theft prone.
Best if you move to a country with 4 metres.
If we only had 4m in the US. Thanks for the video.
Been on it for years. It's picking up round here now, so I'm told. Had (still have) a couple of 4m FM1000s, now added a transverter and just had my first contact on a 500mW 4m handy. I'm going to add a transverter output to my RCI2950 to use it for 4m full time.
I've always had a soft spot for 4mtrs.
In my area there is more activity on 4mtrs than on 2mtrs these days.
The reason it has always been a technical band was, that you had to do some work to get on to it. Only recenty that commercial radios have been available. But of SSB this is still mostly the case.
You have a "soft spot" for 4 metres because you are soft in the head.
My FT 710 has 4mtrs and I fancy giving this band a go. I am going to look into antennas that do 6 and 4 and give it a try.
The more I watch your videos I start thinking that I need to get back into radio. It's probably 50 years since I was really into it. I loved making things and had transmit and receive teleprinter and slow scan tv which I used quite a lot. I spent more time building for myself and others rather than chatting. 🙂
I had a dash mount cambridge which had been converted to fm with 3 channels in the 80s..it had a qqv0310 pa and a ringing choke inverter for ht that used to give me headaches
That was very interesting I had never heard of that band but I was active in Australia. Australia had some strange allocations. From what I have just read. TV Channel 2 was on the 4metre band TV Channel 5A went across international FM broadcasting band. the 11-metre CB band was allocated as an 11-metre Amateur band. But Hams lost it with wailing and gnashing of teeth. As the analogue TV has been turned off there have been petitions to get 4 metres. Not been active for over 20 years And back in the UK.
Can say first hand VHF Channel 4 here was in the middle of the FM broadcast band. Was useful in the 90s recording new music off Rage on a saturday morning
No 4m amateur band here in Sweden. But we got 69mhz private citizen band, open to all. No license required, which is just great because it lowers the hurdles for the interested for their radio journey.
I hope 69.420 is a valid frequency
Sweden is a bit rubbish, isn't it?
And it's sometimes open to whole europe(and Hungary,HA) in the summer in sporadic-e season,making FM DX contacts easy.love it!
This band 4 meters is illegal in the USA it is used for public safety and wireless microphones. Just an FYI not sure about Canada.
A petition to the FCC to allocate 4m to hams was rejected (earlier this year?). There's still some TV stations using the band for channel 4.
Handy to know
Looks like you had a good morning there Lewis, I bought a Motorola GM350 at the NARSA rally in Blackpool this year and cobbled a mobile antenna out of a whip from an old CB antenna and a PL259, not made any contacts on it yet as my previous job left me little to no time to do any radio at all.
With the GM350 only having 4 channels I am limited on what frequencies are available, the calling channel on 70.450 is one so I think I should give it a try and see who comes back
Sounds like a great band, too bad we can't use it here in the states though maybe someday though that could change.
Nice band, but not in the US I think because of TV band here not allied here, but we have
222 MHz instead, which I think DAB 🤔 is used at thos frequencies in Europe 73 de W2CH Ray, New Hampshire.
I had to play this a few times to hear "Four Meters" rather than the 70 mhz
This is called Low Band VHF because its down the bottom of the VHF closer to the 30 mhz bottom of the band.
Back in Australia in the late 70's and 80's we used old government radios that were in the 45 mhz to 60 mhz and found really good range mobile to mobile using a quarter wave.
The bonus is that at 4 meters, a Quarter wave antenna is about a meter long so its
easy to put in a full quarter wave antenna.
Great to see 70 mhz in use in the UK.
A few years back i aquired a "KEY" brick, a 70 mhz pmr ex-prison officers radio converted to 4m ham. i used it from the trig point on Titterstone Clee hill radar station and spoke to many stations. i also tried to build a 1/2 wave over 1/2 wave over 1/4 wave colllinear vertical which i could not get the swr down to acceptable levels, despite this i still spoke to stations over 30 miles away .
Excellent Video-Summery..Thank You 👍
You gents in the UK have 4m and we've got 6m (50-54mhz). A lot of people don't appreciate the signal propagation for just FM... There's not as much dedicated 6m gear as you have available for 4m. We've got Alinco that offers One 6m mobile. The rest of 6m gear is a tri or quad band Yaesu, or an addition to HF rigs by ICOM or Yaesu. At one time, back when AES was still in business, there was a company called ADI that had a 6m FM portable. Wouxun did/does ? have a dual band portable 6m/?.
Here in the States there's a largely deprecated (FCC lingo)/abandoned segment of the VHF band, 32 - 48mhz. 38 - 42mhz (simplex) was what police and fire departments used until the migration to higher frequencies & repeaters. I wish the FCC would reallocate at least SOME of the mostly unused VHF low band to the Amateur, and open another Licensed public service (like GMRS) I'd pay as much as what the OLD GMRS license fee was. For public safety simplex comms, 32-48mhz is obsolete. However the radios today wouldn't be much, if any larger than what you guys are using, and you don't need a 90 inch whip anymore. Maybe what I'm suggesting is too much like work for the FCC. There's very little 6m FM going on... Mostly SSB. To be honest, Amateur comms above 70cm isn't AFFORDABLE. We've got 33cm (902-928, shared with unlicensed ISM) and there is NO dedicated Amateur gear. Everything is modified stuff for public safety. 23cm - Alinco makes a TriBand portable 2m/70cm/23cm. A couple of ICOM all band base stations have 23cm. The FCC has frequencies above 23cm for amateur use... and it's not used. Let us have a little piece of something we CAN use. Good video Lewis !
Hey mate as always, thanks for your comments I always appreciate them.
It's not obsolete. I use 43MHz land mobile equipment when in rough terrain with my mine services company.
Many new technologies can be used on low band VHF. It's not obsolete.
@@Porty1119 You didn't read the part "Public Safety"
what a cracking video.
US is a little slow...we don't have 4 or 8 meters or the 43 mhz CB band. There are still commercial and public safety users on those frequencies.
I love messing around with my VHF military gear on 4m. There are regular nets and simplex chats down here on the South coast. I have yet to experience some decent DX though, although it is bound to happen sooner or later when conditions allow, especially with the allocation being made available to so many more countries in recent years. G7TXU
Can you please elaborate on the South Coast nets?
I think the epitome of handheld 4m radio probably goes to the Racal Cougar PRM4515-L and the 400mm long antenna. You can always tell a knowledgable ham if they can tell what band your using by the length of the antenna….. you don’t need a crystal ball to see 4m handhelds walking towards you. Downside! NATO tone is hard to disable on some so squelch won’t unlock until you switch it to whisper, antenna length is a pain, 1.5w max, channelised 25khz spacing that has to be pre-programmed with expensive programmers. Upside, long battery life, able to work long distances, homebrew programmers can be made, incredibly robust.
Probably why Yaesu and Icom now include 4m as an option in modern radios. Downside 😮 not enough bandwidth here in the UK for repeater usage other than parrot (perhaps a video on parrot repeaters). 70mhz to 70.5mhz and 70.5 to 71.5mhz for digital TV use here in the UK. 160w max power with 100w 70.5 to 71.5mhz. For those unfamiliar with working conditions with some NGR restriction particularly towards Scottish boarders and Coast line (interference with other countries).
Great to see 4 metres still so popular. Just recently dug my ex pmr out of the loft. I have had to replace the micas the Macon mics disintegrate with age
As a British Ex-Pat now living in the US for over 20 years I can honestly say that I miss the 4M band. We don't have it in Region 2.
I have an Anytone AT-588 on it's way to me as I'm typing this, I think it's basically the same radio as your Retivis. I'm only a short 15min drive from a good spot in the the Peak District at well over 1400ft so should get out pretty well in all directions👍I've already made up and tuned couple of antennas to try, a Slim Jim for use on a 10m telescopic pole and an elevated 1/4 wave ground plane for more portable, hill climbing ventures. Can't wait to try them!😂👍
I loved 4m from my old QTHs in New Mills and Oldham. I have all modes with an FT710 in Urmston but just need to put a resonant antenna to use on the band. 73 Bob G0IMB
70mhz falls in the FM broadcast band which goes from 108mhz to 87mhz here in the states.. Theres a full power local station at 96.9mhz near me...
70 MHz is actually in the low VHF TV band, specifically channel 4 in the United States.
@@scratchpad7954TV is poison... I'd rathter replace it with radio
I do like these videos where you demonstrate various bands, giving some insight on what to expect along with modes of propagation. This is one of my favorite bands because it`s still mainly homebrew especially for SSB. I once used 70cms but all activity seems to have ceased there apart from the boxes on the hills, of which I have never been a fan. I prefer to work stations directly and if I need more range, I will used the low-bands. It`s a great channel you have here, don`t listen to anyone who offer disrespect to you and your content. This is one of the better radio related channels on you-tube in my opinion.
this is one of the best radio related channels on UA-cam, I'd say the best personally. Lewis does a smashing job
I was on 4m mobile in the 80's with ex-pmr gear on 70.26 MHz. Great DX band especially from high ground, I also remember the Buxton GB3BUX beacon on 70.0. Great stuff! 73 Alan G0NFY (was G1CRO back then)
Wish we had 4m in the US
I don't
Shame the IC7300 doesnt have a seperate input for 4m, I'd probably use it more often.
We need to show the antenna, it’s size and mounting on vehicle and location related issues.
Oh we do do we?
We do not have 4m here in the states. 2m and 6m. I think there has been some trial use at 8m.
Thank you for the information!
Nice to see an operating vlog. Surprised I've not spoken with you on-air yet - am just "down the A6" near'ish to New Mills and listen on HH / MN / MI, etc. Hopefully catch you for a chat soon.
I have soft spot for 4m it fantastic band to work on DX and local chat am mostly work on FM just local chat round Stoke on trent just need more people to come on 4m. I've made slim jim antenna works fantastic I've worked about 45 miles on 10 watts since I had my licence January this year. Great video
You have a "soft spot" for 4metres because you are soft in the head.
@@stakkerhmnd lol
Quite a few of us monitor 70.400Mhz in North Staffordshire.
Hi Lewis I'll listen out for you on the 4 meters I've got a Garex 4001 just for the FM but it's got every single frequency on 4 meters which is great and it is a brilliant little radio very basic it's a bit like a CB with just the channel number and volume and squelch and that's it but it is still a really good radio from in the past during the 90's. Anyway take care and hope to speak to you very soon mate OK cheers. Stephen M3SNV 73's.
a realy good band lewis i live down warminster in the west country i have an old ascom with the sirio cx 4 antenna works a treat thanks
JQ2QIA from Japan, nice QSOs. Your rig displays wavelength, my Japanese rigs displays frequency only. TKS for nice movie.
Thanks Lewis. Must try 4m again. Last time I used it was about 10 years ago, using a converted PMR rig and an indoor home-brew magnetic loop which I fed via a ferrite ring. It worked well, despite the receiver being quite deaf, and the band certainly lived up to its name.
This is a very interesting video! I have tryed 70Mhz as I have in my IC7300, but very little stations there. The best from LB1NH in Oslo Norway🙂
The 7300 does work well on 4m even given the reduced RF power. Audio reports are always favourable on FM. Best 73 G7TXU on the South coast, South of London.
PS, I collect Tandberg gear
@@TonyLing I thought so.
We don't have a 4 meter band here in Canada.
not available here, but I've enjoyed 6m over the years 🖖
excellent lewis. you're 4m vids are so popular, there is a shortage!
I think 70 MHz band will be perfect replacement for 27MHz CB , which has too much skip when condition are good. nobody want lower VHF anymore even TV stations. AG6JU
Yes! 27MHz AM CB is very noisy.
No Biggie, but regards location definitions, have those working mobiles considered What 3 Words? I’m not a advocate of the App, just a casual user. Though I suppose phonetically spelling out the location might be a bind.
It’s an idea, I suppose it’s getting people onboard
I think you have an ic7300 same as me and it does 4m but doesn't state it.
Nice presentation of 6m. Poor us in the states do not have 6m. 4m and 2 m is what we get. KC3UWT from Delaware.
I thought we had 6m but not 4m
@@AddieDirectsTV I sent a spurious emission. Sorry Hams. We have 6 meters (50.0 MHz to 54.0 MHz) and 2 meters (144.0 to 148.0 MHz). My faux pas.
Yeah but you get 220MHz and we dont. Plenty of surplus commercial Band III equipment about for 220MHz that all got binned because it was worthless to us. I do have a set of 6 220MHz handhelds in the cupboard though.
@@Ayrshore Not any 1.25 meter activity around me. I scan it on a Whistler TRX-1 and have not recieved anything. I am Technician so I am limited to transmitting 2M and 70CM bands plus some CW on lower bands. I am constantly monitoring. I do not do CW yet; all I know is SOS and that tends to freak hams out. Lol. KC3UWT. 73.
Hey Watson, it's 4m you big dummy!
Did You take Your radios to Turkey?
Sadly the FCC rejected amateur use of the 4m band, so us yank hams are missing out.
wow, cool. wish we could use this band in the U.S.
is it frequency-modulated? (sounds like it to me)
I wish we had 4M previlidges here in the US. I would love to experiment there. I do have radio control equipment for 70mhz but it is very outdated. I've tuned around and I have heard NOTHING there. TNX.......WB6FQZ
Lewis, please let know when going on Winter hill when I am in the shack I always have 70.450 MHz in SW Cumbria we get Freeview tv from Winter Hill 73' G0MEJ
cool vid dude will have to try that band m6eya 73
Would love to use that band but it is not available for those of us in VK
We have access to 6m tho and 2m we have 144.000 to 148.999 as in the whole 4mhz
keep up the interesting videos
Wish we had the 4 M Band in Australia.
Jealous. I'd love to operate 4M.
Hi there, Antenna suggestions for handhelds and base please? 73s Kev
Allocated frequencies, USE them or LOOSE them to the commercial market.
Wanted to ask, I am taking a party on an excursion, they will all be on FRS units for Convoy's and Expos, as party leader, my wishes is to use baofeng uv-5rm to lead the party, is there a way of reducing my min 1w to 0.5w to keep this with parameters, or would it be acceptable (for emergencies) to use 1w to connect to my FRS party, I'll be on an FRS also, but if something was to go wrong, would it be OK to power up W to get them home safe? Or would it be OK to do so in a situation or frowned upon by the pro liscenced to use an extra 0.5w?
Sorry, FRS was ment to be PRM obviously.
Still new.
Currently a scanner and decide if I wish to go full liscenced.
RingwayManchesterI can you advise me have a UV5R since 2016 and I dont even use it anymore I tried to hook it up with the computer software but I cannot pick up anything but static do you think I ruined it with the pc software CHIRP, I see a lot of videos about setting the radio back to FACTORY SETTINGS but pressing the transmit without an aerial??? could this be a government sponsored scan to break or Burn out your radio??? I really am learning a lot from you my friend and if I had the money I surely would Buy a Coffee Peter Ireland
Legal in the UK
Nice video. 73
4 meters dead around my QTH unfortunately, 70cm gone the same also since our local repeater died. Like people say, back to faithful 2m or HF. Shame really.
Hi Lewis
I love your videos but have one question - why do you identify as M3HHY/M while you’re stationary? My understanding was that /M is while travelling and /P for stationary?
Just a thought. Michael 2M0GUI
Mobile or stationary in a vehicle is /M Michael.
“Most use converted pmr” - why would you think that?
Because it’s true that’s why. Commercially made dedicated 4m stuff has only been out in large volume in very recent years. Virtually everyone I speak to runs ex pmr kit and always have
The 4m allocation sits slap bang in the middle of the Low Band PMR allocation. PMR equipment needs no modification to work on four metres, it merely needs re-programming.
I use ex-PMR Motorola kit on 4m, when I picked it up at a junk sale everyone joked it had come off a bin lorry. Got me on 4m FM cheaply; £2 for the radio and £7 for a power lead off ebay 👍
@@RingwayManchester this coupled with the large scale abandonment of low band PMR in favour of mobile phones by councils, police, water boards, taxi companies etc. means plenty of spare radios knocking about, sometimes completely free of charge. The biggest hassle is getting the kit to program them.
i dont know the bands you can hit. but i checked the zed i see you dont say anything on HF. ??? not classed for it or just dont play on it ? also with they give us 4m here. i love 6m. cut my toothers on it back in 95 on a old heathkit 110a. sold it back in 95 and found it in 2015 at a hamfest. the same one i sold back then. grabed it and wont let go of her again thats for usre.. love the valves. but anyways. if you do come across this. iam gen over the puddle. so if can secd a HF ..
Quick question, are you a foundation licencee? Or are you just using the old callsign still? Love the videos
I’m a foundation licence holder
@@RingwayManchester Surprised you haven't thought about upgrading
What’s your current callsign?
@@RingwayManchester I'm also currently a foundation licence, I'm new to the hobby and still learning
@@RingwayManchester Callsign M7DMV
Weren't you in the Beatles?
It would be mildly funny if I had a Liverpool accent but you’re a whole city, county and about 40 miles off the mark…
No 4m in Oz 🙃…. The WIA ( The oldest amateur radio association in the world) is negotiating with ACMA in Australia to get an allocation but currently allocated to land mobile. 73 de VK2AOE (The LunaticPainter).
I want 4m in US. :(
I am from Salford how can I get a cheap set up more portable better also il like to have digital as in pipe it to PC write some code 5 liners because, I also do a touch of hardware software stuff we could exchange ideas, I could try make you this hand held antenna when iv finish a thousand other projects 😀
Is this FM
Hi Lewis, what’s the 4m radios you are using ?
Thanks m8
Rt9000d from Retevis
@@RingwayManchester thanks I’ll check it out
un used in the US closed to Hams
used for RC cars and airplanes
👏👏👏👍
I took your advice, tried that band but now the Feds are at my door, what do I do? US here, unfortunately that band is not available to us.
Six meters is better, more available radios and handhelds.
The speaker on those retrivis9000D are crap and terrible I had one for use on uhf 467.425-=477.412
My QTH has hills on 3 sides, I wonder if 4m will let me get out, 2m and 70cm are hopeless
my qth has MOUNTAINS (not hills, but literal mountains) on 3 sides and i talk as far as 120miles on 2meter FM on only 25 watts.......
Here in Au there's nothing in or around 70 meg at all. Army once upon a time maybe.