From time to time, as you drive down the highway you will come across a ham radio operator. Usually, the only people who notice this are other ham radio operators. The two biggest giveaways are the antennae that may be mounted on the vehicle and personalized “call sign” license plates.

If you do happen to be driving down the highway and pass or get passed by another ham, you may wish to talk to that person. The problem is that, even if you know the frequency of repeaters in the area, they may not be on the frequency you try them on.

I had an experience like this some time ago where I was driving down the interstate and got passed by another ham. At the time, the only radio I had in the vehicle was a 2 meter hand-held and we were out of range of any repeaters in the area. I tried calling for him (he had “call sign” plates) on 146.520 and got no response.

I did, however, have some scratch paper and scribbled out 146.520 in letters bold enough to be read by someone in another vehicle. After making my little sign and hanging it on the passenger window (just slid it up next to the top of the window) I passed him and drove beside him for a few seconds until he looked over. After I was no longer beside him, I took the sign out of my window.

He saw my message and a few seconds later I heard “ monitoring 146.52” and thus began our conversation. As we were going the same direction, there was no worry about getting out of range and we chatted for about half an hour.

Like I mentioned in my “APRS Radar” article, I am a big fan of using the national calling frequencies in situations like this. I think anyone who has a 2 meter radio in their vehicle should have a 146.520 sign and for those 70 cm radios, a 446.000 sign. They should also (or at the very least) have these frequencies programmed in the radio.