I am still trying to decide on what my first project is going to be. In the mean time, I am trying to test of the equipment that I do have and seeing what it can reach.
Since I also have a GMRS license, I was able to test two GMRS repeaters that are near me. While I didn't get a voice reply to either of my tests, I did get ID response from at least one of the repeaters. Since many repeaters are setup to do something like that, I feel confident that I am being heard. I suspect that I also hit the other repeater as well. While it did not send a Morse Code Id response, I did get some sort of transmit of dead air response each time I did a test call out.
I still need to test several of the HAM repeaters that are listed. Right now I've been trying to see if my HT can hit one of the APRS Digipeaters from where I am at. From what I can see so far, I can hear the Digipeaters, but I don't think any of them can hear me. I am getting some packets decoded but none of my transmit packets seem to show up on aprs.fi. At least for APRS, I am not too shocked. There doesn't seem to be a lot of APRS activity around here and there are few digipeaters.
I think I will try a few of the HAM repeaters this afternoon. I hope that I can hit a few of them at least.