Where is everyone?

Got my antenna set up and listening to lots of stuff from Europe not so much local stuff.
When do people get on because all I get is French and Italians blasting across 3 channels.
Any ideas. I am home base in North Herts.

When the propagation is running Kev you'll hear Continental Europe (and further seeing USA etc. romping in recently) but at the same time not hear anyone local. Not unusual when there's a bit of "skip".

Then again I found CB activity a bit lackluster in my area even when there was no skip (apart from a lot of QRM) which was why I eventually went and got my 'ticket'.

Maybe that's a shame but when I did try for CB contacts I ran across the usual two-hats that frequent the airwaves who then in the same breath often moan about no one being on-air anymore. Go figure?


Worth keeping at it as you never know you might come across some good local activity one of these days and be smitten from there on in.  

(Might even be worth checking out for any local PMR activity in your area too with handhelds and basic UHF sets being cheap enough to play around with.)

CB is dire here in my location apart for local nets.
The 9900 stays in it's box most of the time.

Hi Kev, I was in a similar situation to you when I first started. I was all reved up and excited to get on the air.  Drove out to a good spot, on with the radio and nothing but folks talking in languages that I can't speak or understand.  So I started looking on YouTube and found a few channels showing the sort of thing that interested me.  One of which is Fred in the Shed, the legal anniversary ones seemed spot on to me.  That will be with us again next month and if my geography is any good you are in a similar area to Fred and the folks he talks to.  I believe they are on air daily using Mid Band 30/27.305USB.  I would recommend looking through the Nets and Scheds section here for times and frequencies to find some you can join in with and become part of you local radio community.
Best wishes
Al
TD133 & CT4617