Very good video. Don't forget seasonal effects on the band. Warm days and cool nights lends to thermal ducting, especially on 2 meters. And UHF doesn't do as well in the rural summer as it does in the winter mainly because of the attenuation from foliage. Sorta like a leaf is about a wave length and it's grounded, sorta like the microwave door. Rural fire departments tried UHF and found they had no range in the summer W9DLP
Asking which frequency band or mode of modulation is “better” than another depends on the intended application. Each of them have a different nature to them and so asking which one is “better” depends on the situation at hand. The same as radio waves can be measured in Hertz (amount of sinusoidal cycles per second) or in wavelength (peak of the cycle wave to the peak of the next cycle wave). The same as asking which fraction of a wavelength antenna is better than another (it sounds like Ria will address this in a later video). This is how you determine the length of a dipole antenna to resonate at a certain wavelength (alternate measurement of frequency). If the length of the antenna isn’t the same as the wavelength of the radio wave being transmitted, resistance to the radio wave will be created. When this happens heat is created and the radio waves will travel back down the feedline into your radio. High enough amounts will damage the final transistors in your radio. This is referred to as the Standing Wave Ratio (SWR). Seeing as radio energy transmitted is in the form of Alternating Current (AC) there is always SWR present. The lower the ratio of transmitted waves to returned waves the better (due to resistance, and the energy has to go somewhere), the better. The ideal ratio is 1.1:1. It is very rare to get this but the lower the better. Once you understand the theory of electromagnetic waves and radio wave theory it all starts making sense. Great job explaining this Ria!
Really love the content Ria. You're really helping me learn amateur radio. I watch the guys but your presentation style is much more comfortable and engaging to watch :) atb. Gillian. UK
I am in western NY and we have mixed urban rural places. for that reason the best coverage repeater is a linked system. 440 and 144 also 1.25 meter . 900 MHz and 29Mhz 10meter all on one link system . we have a 1296 MHz repeater but is too far away for me . years back was a 6M link . great info thank you ! 73's
Hi, Ria. This was a fantastic video explaining VHF vs. UHF and urban use vs suburban use. In all the years of my ham radio experience I never knew or realized this. Very Useful! Alan KZ6B
Thank you Ria. I'm in the market for a dual band HT. Your briefing makes sense to me and pushes the point that adding 70cm & 2m together in one HT is worth the extra expense.
I just subscribed to your channel because of this video, you literally helped me understand something interesting about my microwave, radio and cellular device
Well the advantage of VHF and UHF is it’s much easier to “tuck” away a vertical antenna when you need to hide it and not let anyone know you have an antenna. Maybe Ria can do an episode for fellow hams with really restrictive HOA’s who need to hide their antennas but still have them work. Luckily with VHF and UHF you can just use some tape and “tuck” them away so they are not visible. At least with VHF and UHF the smaller the antenna the easier it is to hide.
Also, somewhat related to the video... a couple of years ago I was part of a test in the SR 99 tunnel in Seattle. We tested 2m, 70cm, and 800MHz radios to see how far into the tunnel we could be heard. No surprise that the city’s 800MHz digital radios outperformed our ham HTs.
I'd be surprised if they didn't have repeaters at the tunnel with leaky coax. I went through the Washburn tunnel in Pasadena, Texas many years ago, and a radio station I was listening to was completely gone the instant I entered the tunnel. That station was local at 100k watts. Typically radio waves don't travel through the earth, so whatever you could hear in the tunnel would have to be transmitted directly into the tunnel at either end. If there is a bend in the tunnel then the radio waves would stop at that point.
To me, HF is best. It opens up the world to you! All Technician licensees have HF privileges: CW on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters. They also have SSB privileges on 10 meters. With a little study for an upgrade to General, you get all modes and nearly all HF frequencies! Back in the olden days I started out on a Novice license. It allowed CW only on 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters at 75 watts or less with crystal frequency control only! With a little 35 watt transmitter I communicated with other hams all over the USA and Canada, and di a fair amount od DX too -- including Japan from my home in southeast Virginia! Yes, VHF & UHF FM and even SSB & CW are a lot of fun, but HF is definitely the best!
@@n2rj Well therein lies the beauty of Amateur Radio. There are so many facets to it that you can choose two or three or ten to enjoy now and still have many more to fascinate you at some other time! More power to you Ria. I thoroughly enjoy you videos. I've been licensed for fifty years now and still find is an endless well of challenges and delight. I started as a high school junior in 1971. I Have been into VHF, UHF, and Microwave. For a long while I did Fast Scan Television. I started into0 satellites wit Qscar-6 but didn't enjoy it much with the crude station I used then. That's ripe for a redo now that I'm retired and have greater resources! Still, nothing has replaced basic HF CW for me. Throughout all my other escapades in radio, it has remained my constant joy. 73 and I hope to meet you on the air! Steve, WA4BRL
I love this video, but I do wonder about the 220 band 1.25 cm It puzzles me as to why it seems to do better than 2 meters in most places I've been. For years 2 meters was my thing. But here in the mountains of PA 1.25 cm seems to work much better. It's almost like the mountains aren't there. I would love to see some content on that band. BTW thanx for what you do for the Ham community 😊
A number of locals have been experimenting. There are a number of interesting differences and similarities between these two bands,. We have found the answer is "it depends". On what? Vegetation, buildings, hills, weather, along with a number of other factors.
Thanks for the video! I know that VHF antennas are a little easier to tune, as tuning gets more and more "fiddly" as frequency increases. the dual band 2m/70cm antennas I've built I always had to be more careful tuning the 70cm side. I had a really good ducting contact on 2 meters long ago. I keep listening out for tropo-ducting when it's in season. 73 de N2NLQ
well done Mrs. Ria I was impressed with your knolage on the two bands 2 Meter and 70 CM . how long have you been a ham operator I have been a ham for 3 years and about to take my General test 73s from KN4RBJ Carl South Carolina
I've heard it said that 2m will travel further LOS where as 70cm will travel further through barriers such as walls and dense foliage. This is why GMRS is in the 70cm band. Do you agree?
my experience on uhf in a trunking capacity 150-200km with caveat that you have be within 2km of the repeater for contact purpose hand helds within the .05-5 watt come pretty useless past 1km in most cases in dense bushland outside of repeater use you have 500 meter or less use, from a mobile radio (car mounted) no repeater use you have a radial distance of 2.5km with overlap principle in place.. VHF has longer wave form it might offer a longer connected distance extending your range without repeater use.. though keeping to the 5watt pep or less I suspect VHF will also have similar distance limitations.. from what I have seen done on wide band, narrow band and digital communications unless you are segregate wide, narrow and digital rather than overlay it and cause cross talk situations you are going to cause a lot of issues per standard..
I like the video..you mention 70cm band is geared more for urban use. My only problem with understanding this is the fact that it’s still line of sight.. and with all the big buildings in urban areas, wouldn’t that cause even greater reception problems? 70cm is so much shorter and this suffers higher attenuation over same distance as 2m correct? Of course repeaters may solve a lot of the problem but it seems 70cm is too much of a short range freq. I live in a suburb of Lafayette La and have no luck with the local 70cm repeater on my little Baofeng. But the 2m repeaters I do really well with. Ive even gone so far as to drive into Lafayette and was very close to the repeater, only to have crappy reception.. but the repeater on 2m was superb in the city (as well as a few miles away in my little town. I’m sure there’s a lot more reasons as to why that’s so.. my experience is purely anecdotal
It is reflections. Think of :UHF (or any radio) as a light; it illuminates buildings and a receiver sees the illumination. UHF is a bit better at this illumination concept.
I lived in three boroughs - Manhattan, queens and Brooklyn. Once I was in a 13th floor apt on Roosevelt island. HF was kinda doable if I hung a wire off the balcony. In queens I did limited HF with small antennas. Honestly I was miserable in the city. Didn’t like it much.
and another question... Im a Filmmaker , and I used to do sound, there I learnt the principals of sound... so since we humans hear in the (app) 20-20000hz spectrum and in the higher freq the band width is very small (millimeters) how is it that VHF is referred to as 2 meter and UHF as 70 centimeter considering band width please help me this questions will keep me up at night
The wavelength of audio frequency is very large. 300/f in MHz is how you find wavelength. For the top end of human hearing it’s 15,000 meters wavelength. For the very bottom (20Hz) it’s 2x10^-5 MHz or 0.000002MHz and the wavelength is 150 million meters. The 2 meter band is 144-148MHz so at the top end it’s 300/148MHz or 2.02M. The naming convention of the band isn’t exact wavelength. It’s a hodgepodge based on historical approximation and conventions that just stuck. It’s pretty stark on HF - you have the 41 meter shortwave broadcast band being 7.2 to 7.45 MHz, but the 40 meter amateur band is 7.0 to 7.3MHz which is actually a longer wavelength. Totally doesn’t make sense at all. If we used exact wavelength the amateur 40 meter band would be the 42 meter band, and the broadcast band would still be the 41 meter band. I may do a video on this. Thanks for the idea.
"VHF is referred to as 2 meter and UHF as 70 centimeter Make unit the same: VHF 2 meters UHF 0.7 meters. OR VHF 200 centimeters and UFH 70 centimeters. It is the approximately 3 to 1 frequency/wavelength relationship that makes dual band antennas possible and easy.
Hi there... Im a Kayak Guide currently constructing a guide class in the Patagonia and for us Radios are very important, could you please tell me why the UHF frequencies can go trough objects and VHF can't? I understand it has something to do with the band Width but I don't know how.
UHF signals have a shorter wavelength and thus “fit” through things like windows and openings between trees. VHF tends to be too big and thus has problems. VHF is great for long distance over open areas such as fields or on the sea or lake. This is why Marine radio for short distance comms is on VHF for example.
I recently sub'd and then read about the recent events. Did you just actually illustrate 2m wavelength and compare it to that social distancing crap? You might be losing my sub.
I made 130 mile contact on 2 meter once from a $30 HT and a rubber duck. At that moment I knew I was a ham sandwich.
Hahahahaahahah
Wow that's.... amazing.
Very good video. Don't forget seasonal effects on the band. Warm days and cool nights lends to thermal ducting, especially on 2 meters. And UHF doesn't do as well in the rural summer as it does in the winter mainly because of the attenuation from foliage. Sorta like a leaf is about a wave length and it's grounded, sorta like the microwave door. Rural fire departments tried UHF and found they had no range in the summer
W9DLP
Thank you. Great video.
We are strung out here in north western Missouri. So it's 2 meters and HF.
Have a great week. 73
N0QFT
Asking which frequency band or mode of modulation is “better” than another depends on the intended application. Each of them have a different nature to them and so asking which one is “better” depends on the situation at hand.
The same as radio waves can be measured in Hertz (amount of sinusoidal cycles per second) or in wavelength (peak of the cycle wave to the peak of the next cycle wave). The same as asking which fraction of a wavelength antenna is better than another (it sounds like Ria will address this in a later video). This is how you determine the length of a dipole antenna to resonate at a certain wavelength (alternate measurement of frequency). If the length of the antenna isn’t the same as the wavelength of the radio wave being transmitted, resistance to the radio wave will be created. When this happens heat is created and the radio waves will travel back down the feedline into your radio. High enough amounts will damage the final transistors in your radio. This is referred to as the Standing Wave Ratio (SWR). Seeing as radio energy transmitted is in the form of Alternating Current (AC) there is always SWR present. The lower the ratio of transmitted waves to returned waves the better (due to resistance, and the energy has to go somewhere), the better. The ideal ratio is 1.1:1. It is very rare to get this but the lower the better. Once you understand the theory of electromagnetic waves and radio wave theory it all starts making sense.
Great job explaining this Ria!
Your teaching style works for me, so thanks for posting.
Really love the content Ria. You're really helping me learn amateur radio. I watch the guys but your presentation style is much more comfortable and engaging to watch :) atb. Gillian. UK
Hello Gillian! Glad to be of help. I also hold a UK call, M0RAJ. Take care, Ria
I am in western NY and we have mixed urban rural places. for that reason the best coverage repeater is a linked system. 440 and 144 also 1.25 meter . 900 MHz and 29Mhz 10meter all on one link system . we have a 1296 MHz repeater but is too far away for me . years back was a 6M link . great info thank you ! 73's
Hi, Ria. This was a fantastic video explaining VHF vs. UHF and urban use vs suburban use. In all the years of my ham radio experience I never knew or realized this. Very Useful! Alan KZ6B
You're an AWESOME Lady!!!
Thank you Ria. I'm in the market for a dual band HT. Your briefing makes sense to me and pushes the point that adding 70cm & 2m together in one HT is worth the extra expense.
I just subscribed to your channel because of this video, you literally helped me understand something interesting about my microwave, radio and cellular device
Thanks,greetings from Belgium.
Thanks, God bless! Greeting from Brazil
Great content, I always loves coming back! Keep up the great work Ria!
It’s nice too see more female operators I have been licensed 10 years
Well the advantage of VHF and UHF is it’s much easier to “tuck” away a vertical antenna when you need to hide it and not let anyone know you have an antenna.
Maybe Ria can do an episode for fellow hams with really restrictive HOA’s who need to hide their antennas but still have them work.
Luckily with VHF and UHF you can just use some tape and “tuck” them away so they are not visible.
At least with VHF and UHF the smaller the antenna the easier it is to hide.
I understand you more than any other video i found on RUclips. Thanks
Excellent explanations on various topics....thank you!
Glad to see there are women hams out there good job
Thank you
Also, somewhat related to the video... a couple of years ago I was part of a test in the SR 99 tunnel in Seattle. We tested 2m, 70cm, and 800MHz radios to see how far into the tunnel we could be heard. No surprise that the city’s 800MHz digital radios outperformed our ham HTs.
I'd be surprised if they didn't have repeaters at the tunnel with leaky coax. I went through the Washburn tunnel in Pasadena, Texas many years ago, and a radio station I was listening to was completely gone the instant I entered the tunnel. That station was local at 100k watts. Typically radio waves don't travel through the earth, so whatever you could hear in the tunnel would have to be transmitted directly into the tunnel at either end. If there is a bend in the tunnel then the radio waves would stop at that point.
To me, HF is best. It opens up the world to you! All Technician licensees have HF privileges: CW on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters. They also have SSB privileges on 10 meters. With a little study for an upgrade to General, you get all modes and nearly all HF frequencies!
Back in the olden days I started out on a Novice license. It allowed CW only on 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters at 75 watts or less with crystal frequency control only! With a little 35 watt transmitter I communicated with other hams all over the USA and Canada, and di a fair amount od DX too -- including Japan from my home in southeast Virginia!
Yes, VHF & UHF FM and even SSB & CW are a lot of fun, but HF is definitely the best!
I’ve been an HF operator for a long time and I find HF to be overrated. I find weak signal VHF and UHF to be a more fulfilling challenge.
@@n2rj Well therein lies the beauty of Amateur Radio. There are so many facets to it that you can choose two or three or ten to enjoy now and still have many more to fascinate you at some other time!
More power to you Ria. I thoroughly enjoy you videos. I've been licensed for fifty years now and still find is an endless well of challenges and delight. I started as a high school junior in 1971. I Have been into VHF, UHF, and Microwave. For a long while I did Fast Scan Television.
I started into0 satellites wit Qscar-6 but didn't enjoy it much with the crude station I used then. That's ripe for a redo now that I'm retired and have greater resources!
Still, nothing has replaced basic HF CW for me. Throughout all my other escapades in radio, it has remained my constant joy.
73 and I hope to meet you on the air!
Steve, WA4BRL
Ii just listen to your "are we killing ham radio" and I agree with you. I learn by doing.
Thanks Ria for this incredible infotainment video.
Cheers!
New Delhi
Thanks, Ria!! Always fun to watch your videos!! See you next time!! 73!!
Just found your channel. Great explanations at a pace that I can understand. Thank you!!
Thankyou ,73
Really good video, thank you.
This is a fabulous description! Thank you for taking the time to help us newbies learn !!♡♡♡
Be well #hamFam :)
🤜🏻👍🤛🏻
Thanks so much for the awesome explanation
I love this video, but I do wonder about the 220 band 1.25 cm
It puzzles me as to why it seems to do better than 2 meters in most places I've been. For years 2 meters was my thing. But here in the mountains of PA 1.25 cm seems to work much better. It's almost like the mountains aren't there. I would love to see some content on that band. BTW thanx for what you do for the Ham community 😊
That sounds like an idea.
She is kickass.
A number of locals have been experimenting. There are a number of interesting differences and similarities between these two bands,. We have found the answer is "it depends". On what? Vegetation, buildings, hills, weather, along with a number of other factors.
Thanks for the video!
I know that VHF antennas are a little easier to tune, as tuning gets more and more "fiddly" as frequency increases.
the dual band 2m/70cm antennas I've built I always had to be more careful tuning the 70cm side.
I had a really good ducting contact on 2 meters long ago. I keep listening out for tropo-ducting when it's in season.
73 de N2NLQ
Why isn't the 1.25m or 229 band as popular as 2m and 70cm?
Excellent video ... thumbs up.
New sub here. I followed you since you were on the RUclips bunch with Jason of Ham Radio 2.0. Good video.
Nice video. Very informative. Keep them coming.
well done Mrs. Ria I was impressed with your knolage on the two bands 2 Meter and 70 CM .
how long have you been a ham operator
I have been a ham for 3 years and about to take my General test
73s from KN4RBJ Carl
South Carolina
Im a fan of Ultra
Thanks Ria for your informative videos. Also, I am pleased to see a female ham at the helm. 73.
This is great! Can you do a video on HF vs VHF/UHF please?
I've heard it said that 2m will travel further LOS where as 70cm will travel further through barriers such as walls and dense foliage. This is why GMRS is in the 70cm band. Do you agree?
my experience on uhf in a trunking capacity 150-200km with caveat that you have be within 2km of the repeater for contact purpose hand helds within the .05-5 watt come pretty useless past 1km in most cases in dense bushland outside of repeater use you have 500 meter or less use, from a mobile radio (car mounted) no repeater use you have a radial distance of 2.5km with overlap principle in place..
VHF has longer wave form it might offer a longer connected distance extending your range without repeater use..
though keeping to the 5watt pep or less I suspect VHF will also have similar distance limitations..
from what I have seen done on wide band, narrow band and digital communications unless you are segregate wide, narrow and digital rather than overlay it and cause cross talk situations you are going to cause a lot of issues per standard..
"VHF or UHF, which is better for ham radio? "
MYHF is best!
This is 🔥
Sophie's Choice with bands...deep..... :) Who do you love more????
You are talking about the 2M band, only. For distance, VHF always generally the better choice (repeaters not withstanding).
I talk about both. VHF is better for distance. UHF is better for penetrating buildings, but less distance.
I like the video..you mention 70cm band is geared more for urban use. My only problem with understanding this is the fact that it’s still line of sight.. and with all the big buildings in urban areas, wouldn’t that cause even greater reception problems? 70cm is so much shorter and this suffers higher attenuation over same distance as 2m correct? Of course repeaters may solve a lot of the problem but it seems 70cm is too much of a short range freq.
I live in a suburb of Lafayette La and have no luck with the local 70cm repeater on my little Baofeng. But the 2m repeaters I do really well with. Ive even gone so far as to drive into Lafayette and was very close to the repeater, only to have crappy reception.. but the repeater on 2m was superb in the city (as well as a few miles away in my little town. I’m sure there’s a lot more reasons as to why that’s so.. my experience is purely anecdotal
I have had 70cm contacts at 100+ miles peak to peak in the Rocky Mountains. 5 watts out of a 38" mobile antenna.
It is reflections. Think of :UHF (or any radio) as a light; it illuminates buildings and a receiver sees the illumination. UHF is a bit better at this illumination concept.
Hello Ria just found your channel LOVE your channel keep up the GREAT WORK ! KB3GKX
@@n2rj I will ! Jason Ham radio 2.0 's channel is good !
I'm in Las Vegas. 70cm works best for me out here.
what part of nyc were you in and how was it like on hf back then?
I lived in three boroughs - Manhattan, queens and Brooklyn. Once I was in a 13th floor apt on Roosevelt island. HF was kinda doable if I hung a wire off the balcony. In queens I did limited HF with small antennas. Honestly I was miserable in the city. Didn’t like it much.
and another question... Im a Filmmaker , and I used to do sound, there I learnt the principals of sound... so since we humans hear in the (app) 20-20000hz spectrum and in the higher freq the band width is very small (millimeters) how is it that VHF is referred to as 2 meter and UHF as 70 centimeter considering band width please help me this questions will keep me up at night
The wavelength of audio frequency is very large. 300/f in MHz is how you find wavelength. For the top end of human hearing it’s 15,000 meters wavelength. For the very bottom (20Hz) it’s 2x10^-5 MHz or 0.000002MHz and the wavelength is 150 million meters.
The 2 meter band is 144-148MHz so at the top end it’s 300/148MHz or 2.02M.
The naming convention of the band isn’t exact wavelength. It’s a hodgepodge based on historical approximation and conventions that just stuck. It’s pretty stark on HF - you have the 41 meter shortwave broadcast band being 7.2 to 7.45 MHz, but the 40 meter amateur band is 7.0 to 7.3MHz which is actually a longer wavelength. Totally doesn’t make sense at all. If we used exact wavelength the amateur 40 meter band would be the 42 meter band, and the broadcast band would still be the 41 meter band.
I may do a video on this. Thanks for the idea.
@@n2rj yes please… thank you so so much
"VHF is referred to as 2 meter and UHF as 70 centimeter
Make unit the same: VHF 2 meters UHF 0.7 meters.
OR
VHF 200 centimeters and UFH 70 centimeters. It is the approximately 3 to 1 frequency/wavelength relationship that makes dual band antennas possible and easy.
Ria could you do something on GMRS ? Please new subscriber.🙏
I have found in general that voice sounds more natural over 2m than 70cm. Why is that?
Shouldn’t be different whatsoever.
@@n2rj I find 70cm sounds like people are talking on a cb whereas 2m sounds almost like phone quality.
Hi there... Im a Kayak Guide currently constructing a guide class in the Patagonia and for us Radios are very important, could you please tell me why the UHF frequencies can go trough objects and VHF can't? I understand it has something to do with the band Width but I don't know how.
UHF signals have a shorter wavelength and thus “fit” through things like windows and openings between trees. VHF tends to be too big and thus has problems. VHF is great for long distance over open areas such as fields or on the sea or lake. This is why Marine radio for short distance comms is on VHF for example.
@@n2rj thank you so much... my students will appreciate this very much
HF is better than vhf or uhf
Can you communicate with a gmrs radio?
To other GMRS users, yes.
OFF TOPIC;
Why does América uses different metric systems than the rest of let's say the entire south America region
Hi Ria. I just joined LICW Club. Are you a member too? 73
Metric is a lot simpler.
146.520 lots of daily activity. 446.000 hardly ever.
When you give the statistics on the differences between the 2 would that be called a riastat? JK! ;o) Very 73 de KU4GW
HAM people are confusing me
I recently sub'd and then read about the recent events. Did you just actually illustrate 2m wavelength and compare it to that social distancing crap? You might be losing my sub.
Neither hf is better ..
Well, HF is certainly different.
@@n2rj 🤣🤣indeed...
It's a bit difficult to walk around with a HF antenna in an urban environment.
Loo lol yup u] h
None of them is better because 1.25 meters is boss
She said the metric system is better - hate speech.
I have come to the conclusion, most if not all Ham's must be Democrats. Big government, less humanity. In essence, stick in butt syndrome.
How do you come to that conclusion? I'm not in the US but from what I hear, the chats in the US on 80m and 40m are apparently rather right wing.
Clearly,you know nothing about radio.goodby