How ham radio endures

> But a Bao-feng handheld that costs around $40 or so can work the local repeaters on 2m or 70cm and is a fine way to get started, learn the lingo, etc.

I’m not sure where you live, but I’ve never lived in a house or apartment where I could hit a local 2m repeater without driving or getting up on a roof.

I also have an 80 watt 2m radio in my truck, and will turn it on when I’m doing long trips. Very rare to encounter anyone else (simplex), let alone be able to chat for more than a very short period of time.

I haven't done a like, systematic survey or anything but when I used to travel for work I'd take my little quansheng and mess around. Basically every american city with at least one "tall" building has a repeater up there that covers the whole metro area. There's one on the sears tower that you can hear in michigan. But even dubuque had one I could contact from a hotel room across town.

So yeah most of the area is rural and there's probably not much out there without big gear. But most of the population lives within 30 miles of a 12-storey building.

Experiences do definitely vary in this regard. I live in a CA Bay Area suburb. Geographically, this is a valley, and there are a fair number of more-or-less active repeaters mounted up along various mountain ridges, and I can generally hit a couple of them from my tiny backyard w/ a 5W HT (and a decent antenna!).

OTOH, while I never got in to it, there is spectrum available to Technician licensees (assuming you're in the US) on 6m and 10m. You're not likely to get NVIS propagation there and hit more local folk that you couldn't hit w/ LOS, but that might get contacts where nothing's available on 2m/70cm, for not too much more initial equipment cost (again, assuming US and an HN user, where moving from $40 to say, $400 isn't completely out of the question).

Fair point. I live in Chapel Hill, NC, and we're fortunate enough to have multiple repeaters that can be worked with a hand-held from where I live. But yes, geography will definitely play a factor. I should probably have noted that originally. Good catch.