Monday night, I checked into a local 2 meter sideband net I had heard about. 
The Rocky Mountain VHF+ ham club has three nets a week.  Monday nights they 
meet on 2 meters, Tuesday nights they meet on the 220 band, and Wednesday 
nights, a few guys show up on 432 and all on the sideband part of the band. 
Monday night, there were about 50 check ins and we had two guys from 
Cheyenne Wyoming which is only 110 miles north of Denver, one guy from 
Nebraska, two guys from western Kansas, and beside two guys from western 
Colorado, at least 300 miles from Denver, we had one guy from eastern Utah 
check into the net.  I am only using a short 9 foot diamond dual band 
vertical on 2 meters at about 15 feet above ground on my roof, which isn't 
the accepted polarization for 2 meter sideband of course, but I could copy 
both the guys in Cheyenne and one of them was Q5 copy.  I could not copy 
either of the Nebraska or Kansas stations nor, of course, the western 
Colorado check ins nor the Utah station but I heard 99 percent of all the 
Denver stations in about a 60 mile radius.  I'm getting a little 4 element 
horizontal beam for 2 meters and also putting up a small Cushcraft 3 element 
yagi on 6 meters on a 38 foot tower with a 10 foot mast but my vertical on 6 
meters is doing amazing things so far.  I've also discovered that the 
VHF/UHF hams seem very willing to assist in antenna projects and help each 
other out which has really surprised me since my experience with local FM 2 
meter repeater clubs in the Denver area has been just the opposite over the 
years.  There is quite the community of 6 meter active hams in the Denver 
metro area and during contests, you could easily work, within a 50 mile 
radius, at least 100 stations just on 2 meters alone.  If you want to read 
more about the Denver VHF Plus group, go to:

www.rmvhf+.org

There is also a local Denver ham, who is big time into antenna construction 
and how-to articles, by the name of Dave with the call of W6OAL, who sells a 
4 element horizontal 2 meter yagi kit for 60 dollars but he also details all 
the parts and instructions how to build it, written in plain text format, 
without having to buy his kit if anyone is interested.  4 elements on 2 
meters doesn't sound like much but 10 DB forward gain is like switching on a 
KW amp when running 100 watts barefoot.

Phil.
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