Portable ops... ruined by pagers

Yesterday I went out to do some portable ops on 2-meters (FM only considering my equipment though I could have done DMR had I took an adaptor with me for the Anytone which I did not do), I took my Leixen VV-898 as the radio simply because I could go as low as 5 watts (which is QRP in my opinion) if I wanted though I stuck with 10, however no matter what channel I went on in the FM simplex range or any of the repeaters, the radio was wiped out by intermod from pagers in the 155-158MHz range, and though pagers are not as common as they were because of the SMS facility on mobile phones, they are still in use as they work almost anywhere a mobile phone does not as they use high power transmissions from their base stations.

I will of course be doing a test with my QYT KT-8900D to see if it has better rejection of the paging traffic or not in the same location, and will also make a point to promote the hobby at that time and also the local club to try and get some more numbers there, after all it makes some sense.

I have a video of how the VV-898 was swamped by the pager noise in the pipeline, a short one but it gives you an idea of what the problem was, and I will do some footage of the KT-8900D when I go up next to the location to show if the KT-8900D is a better radio or not.

I am also looking at fitting a notch filter to the VV-898 to see if that helps get rid of the pager intermod as that seems to be the worst problem for it.

The pager issue itself will not go away, but there are means to help prevent it interfering with Amateur radio operations.

The video should appear on YouTube and here in the next day or two, and an update regarding if the KT-8900D is also suffering intermod from pagers will be posted as and when.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Edit: the video is live on YouTube and is also available here, comment on YouTube if you have one of these radios and have suffered the same intermod problems

The trusted T2LT antenna for 11-meters, how does it perform over a commercial antenna?

Well to find this out YouTube user "Amateur and 11m radio Tim" (sorry Tim I don't know your callsigns yet) rigged up a commercial antenna, a Sirio 4000, and a T2LT, needless to say those results were impressive.

I have built the T2LT myself as you know, and I know it works as I have got out on it and it pulls in a lot of stations though last time I had it out the conditions left a lot to be desired, however for 11-meters it is the most practical antenna you can get, it can be hung from trees or fibreglass masts and it gets you on the air, how much power it can handle is a different matter entirely as I have never actually tested this and there is no legal way to do that, however the T2LT gets its next outing at the end of June.

Going back to Tim's video, it is here so you can make your own decision on whether for portable 11-meter operation a T2LT or a commercial antenna is the right choice for you.

73 de 26CT730