UK amateur VHF and UHF listening

Most UK hobby listening that is not CB or PMR happens on 2 m (144–146 MHz) and 70 cm (430–440 MHz). Those spans are where Foundation licensees live, where club nets still happen, and where a handheld in a town actually hears something.

Calling frequencies are not chat channels

145.500 MHz FM is the 2 m calling frequency. You call, you make contact, you move. The same idea applies to 433.500 MHz on 70 cm. Sitting on calling all evening with a 4-minute over is how you make enemies. For receive-only, calling is still useful: you hear who is about, then follow them to a simplex channel.

Simplex is where local ragchews and club natter live. Repeaters are for mobiles, handhelds in poor spots, and people who need the extra height.

Repeaters: listen to the keeper, not a screenshot

UK amateur repeaters are identified as GB3 (usually analogue) and GB7 (often digital). The output is what your scanner sits on. Offset, CTCSS, DCS, colour code, and module letters are keeper data. The living index most of us use is ukrepeater.net. If our row disagrees with the keeper, the keeper wins — tell us.

A repeater you can “see” on a map may still be unusable from your kitchen. Terrain, ERP, and your noise floor decide. Try from a hill or a car roof before you conclude the box is off air.

Digital voice, without turning this into a BrandMeister manual

• DMR — 12.5 kHz, two time slots, colour code 0–15, talkgroups. Local TG often sits on slot 1 or 2 as the keeper specifies. Do not assume every GB7 is a copy of the last YouTube codeplug.
• D-STAR — Icom-centric; modules A/B/C are band letters on a gateway, not “channel 1.”
• Fusion / C4FM — Yaesu; many boxes carry analogue as well. If you only hear noise, you may be on the wrong mode.

We record CC, TG, RAN, NAC and module when a submission includes them. Empty fields mean “unknown,” not “zero.”

Band plan is a courtesy document

The RSGB band plans tell operators where FM, digital, SSB and beacons should sit. They are not criminal law, but ignoring them on a busy 2 m Saturday is a good way to get a quiet word at the club. As a listener, the band plan tells you where to bother looking. Our hobby bandplan is a short Cross Reference UK crib — confirm against the current RSGB PDF before you transmit.

HF amateur (160 m through 10 m) is a different hobby: antennas get large, Foundation privileges are limited, and a 2 m HT will not help. We are not trying to be an HF DX cluster.

6 m and 4 m

50–52 MHz and 70–70.5 MHz open seasonally and during lifts. FM calling around 51.510 and 70.450 is the usual hunt. Do not fill a codeplug with every 6 m SSB calling frequency on day one. Leave a memory, wait for a high-pressure summer, and be surprised.

How we list amateur rows

A useful amateur listing on this site has frequency, mode, place or county, and a name that a human would search (“GB3XX output,” “2 m FM calling,” not “CH-12”). Tone or colour code when known. Notes for “output, not input” on repeaters — you listen to the output.

We do not list amateur inputs as if they were scanner channels. Sitting on an input with a wideband radio is how you hear handhelds next to the box, not how you follow the net.

Activity is local

Central Scotland, the M62 corridor, the M25, South Wales valleys, and Belfast will sound busier than a market town at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday. That is not a site bug. Introduce yourself on the regional forum boards and say what you can hear from your QTH. Someone with a similar path will often reply.

Etiquette for listeners who later get a licence

If you pass Foundation, the people you have been listening to are now your peers. Use the calling frequency properly, give your callsign, and do not occupy a repeater with a handheld on low power from a basement. The listener’s habit of “leave it squelched on the box all day” is fine. The operator’s habit of “kerchunk and walk away” is not.

Search the amateur pack, keep ukrepeater.net in another tab, and treat our table as a notebook — not a substitute for a licence or a club.