There is quite a bit of confusion and debate about which bands are good or bad. So here is the first of some cold hard facts that can help in selecting radios.
Which bands have more open repeaters, better propogation, and more paths of communication out of the Swarthout Valley?
Using the JPL Radio club repeater directory as a resource, here's a comparison of open vs. closed repeaters. Remember only OPEN repeaters are open to use by anyone, for free, without joing a club. Many 440 systems are hundreds of dollars per year to join.
Looking at the four major counties that surround us, LA - San Bernardino - Riverside - Orange here is how it breaks down between frequencies and open vs. closed machines.
2 Meters 130 total repeaters 94 are open That's 72%
220 has 97 total repeaters 63 are open That's 65% pretty similar
440 has...ready 320 repeaters only 44 are open That's only 13%
There is one reason I don't, and won't, own a 440 radio.
Those percentages don't stray too far even if we look at just San Bernardino County.
2 meters 25 machines, 21 open, 84%
220 13 machines, 7 open, 53%
440 52 machines, 8 open, 15%
But what about propogation? The lower the frequency the better the propogation in mountain environments. Here are two real world examples from public service radio.
When I was with the Sierra Madre Search and rescue team, we had Rescue Team Radios in 155.16 Mhz (pretty close to 2 meters right?) and also used Los Angeles County Sheriffs Dept. radios on around 39 Mhz. When we could'nt get a call through on our VHF radio team radios, we usually could on the old 39 Mhz units. Then the LASO "upgraded" their system and went to 470Mhz (close to ham 420-450) radios. And guess what. They would hardly work in the mountains at all, and many of the Sheriffs Rescue units insisted on keeping the old 39 Mhz radios. Lower is better in the mountains!
If you listen to a scanner, ever wonder why Fire Station 101 in Wrightwood is not heard on the County 800Mhz system. Desert comm still uses the 154 Mhz VHF band to talk to 101 because the 800Mhz radio does not work well in the mountains!
Simply stated UHF is a bad band for trees, and ridges and canyons!
Now about repeaters that will work to communicate from the Swarthout Valley to the outside world. On a hand held radio, heck even on some base radios, there are only two repeater sites you can hit reliably from almost all of our village. One is on Table Mountain the other on the Blue Ridge at the Frost repeater site above Mt. High. From some parts of town you can hit Quartzite Pk. out above Adelanto.
Table Mt. has a 2 meter repeater that hits some of the LA Basin just the far south areas, but the 220 repeater can be linked (it's available to anybody) to JPL in La Canada and can reach the whole LA basin. Oh and there is an open 440 there but you can't link it unless you work for JPL.
There is a 220 repeater on Blue Ridge that works in the entire LA basin and Orange County. No 2 meter or 440 though.
And if you can hit Quartzite, pretty much only the east end of town can, you can access the Condor Connection, again only on 220, and talk half way up the state and into Arizona and Las Vegas.
