SDR CTF: 2M Amateur Repeaters

Requirements: Basic audio client, windows or linux
Capability:Reception of VHF 2-M Ham Band

Between the commercial FM band and the weather band you can find the 2-Meter Amateur Radio band between 144 and 148 MHz. Here you'll find a lot of hand-held and mobile traffic from local amateurs either in simplex or facilitated through a repeater. It may be useful to identify which repeaters are used by your local EMCOMM and Skywarn groups.

It should be very easy to find signals coming from the output of the repeaters, since that's what they're designed for. For a bit of a challenge, see if you can spot signals intended for the input. It should be + or - 0.6 MHz from the output signal. For extra bonus points,see if you can determine the CTCSS tone. If you're licensed and have your own HT, you can cheat by hitting the repeater with your own HT.

Next Steps:

While we're in the Amateur 2M band, let's try our hand at decoding a digital mode like APRS. link

Tune down in the VHF band for Aircraft. link

Tune even further down as far as the RTL_SDR will go to the 6M Amateur band.