After a break lasting from 2004 to, well, just now, I have once again procured a ham radio.

It's a simple 2M rig, and I have fairly decent pair of antennae, a medium-gain Yagi and a really nice Diamond Omni Dual-Bander.

Got some good RG-8, wired it all up before the snow started today, and....nothing.

2M is dead, dead, dead. Where did everyone go? I know ham radio is in decline, but is it gone totally?

Many of the old repeaters I used to use are still up, but I call, no answer. I know I'm reaching, I know I have a good signal, I even auto-patched through a repeater and called myself just to see how I sounded - it was fine. But empty!

Pretty darn surprising.

It lost its appeal for me, I'm afraid, shortly after the code requirement went away and the licensing requirements were relaxed. The type of individuals I started running into gradually changed, and so did the content. I moved on, and so did a lot of others I think.

It is very quiet outside of emergency workers out here too. I think it is largely due to cell phones and wireless internet, email etc rather than any changes in the license requirements.

Check out any emergency volunteer groups, they will be active. Just don't count on many 2m or 70cm repeaters to "be listening".

I think the long holdout for reform in licensing left all the old geezers with no one interested in archaic communications. Packet and voice is pretty damn primative compared to all the wonder tools of youth. Who is going to sit in the shack and try and decipher static and voice or worse CW to figure out the temperature in Aukland when a Google search can show you the beach

Check out the ARRL for any emergency groups (RACES) in your area....that is about the only way to find any activity. My wife and I are members in a RACES group and we have a couple of repeaters that are still active.

Yep Cell phone and e-mail has caused a decline in vhf but the radios are somwhat cheaper than they used to be HF is still pretty active 20,30,40, and 75m anyway my radios are in storage because i'm in limbo right now i occasionally listen to short wave. code is still pretty strong and always will be no matter what people think about it or the requirements people who want to learn it will put in the time and learn it i think more will use it now the pressure is off. no matter what form of radio a person is into they will get around to tapping the key.

I was talking to some guys on another forum and they said that the normally use from 20-75m. I think hat what your looking for, Ive never messed with ham radios. Hope this helps some

Most repeaters are totally dead - almost no one uses them. Find the 1-2 in your area that are active, and at that, they may only be active at drive time - for NYC stuff, IM me (You know where)

I don't know.

I have never been into HAM. I can say that most of the people I see on forums talking about HAM are nut-case conspiracy theorists, anti-government 'freemen', gun nuts and ranters. Not the sorts I would feel inspired enough to spend money to talk to.

I hear the related SSB marine community has a good number of friendly, roughly normal, people who depend on it daily for information, communications and company.

As mentioned before, cell phones and the internet took a big bite out of the ham population. There are still areas of activity, though. Here in the D/FW area, there are a number of large clubs, with all sorts of activities. Ham-Com, our regional hamfest, draws several thousand people.

I have a father in law who's in ham radios and i'm personally will be working on my certs very soon.

I'm interested in all of it, but more from a marine stand point.

Huh? I've never met a ham that fits those qualifications (well, I'm a bit of a gun nut - I own 4 ) I have heard a few of them down on the 75m band. Most hams I know are fairly normal folks, except for being, well, hams