Jim wrote: > How about the fact that if a ham repeater is truly supposed to be for > emergency communications, if it's tied up all day with meaningless > babble, it's not available when it's needed? And let's also not forget > that the more time it's up with that babble, the sooner it will fail? > Yes, it needs to be used enough that users are familiar with it's > operation, and generally how talk into a mic, but ya gotta hit a balance.
Where does anything of any authority say a repeater is only for emergency communications? Are you mixing up Public Safety or Commercial repeaters with Amateur ones, perhaps? Your statement of "fact" you start the debate with is false. Not a very strong opening to the discussion. > Actually, at least my opinion, a repeater that runs all day with babble > about nothing is more of a waste of spectrum than one that's quiet and > ready to go when it's needed. LOL... that's funny. How is one less "ready to go" than the other? If real emergency comms were needed on the busy repeater, a simple plain-english explanation of that by the Amateur with the emergency would suffice to make the busy machine "ready", as in... the other Amateurs would yield the frequency. Good operating procedure applies here. Let's take your analogy out further. Please turn off all your repeaters unless there's emergency traffic. Sound good? Ha-ha... that's rich. Suuuure. I'll get right on that one. (Yeah, right.) If a radio operator can't figure out a way to break into a conversation (hell, mash down the key and double with 'em if you have to... it's an emergency, right?) then that operator might truly need a quiet repeater for their emergencies... as they never learned how a repeater truly works properly, I guess. But I doubt the rest of us care much about that. (GRIN) I'd also argue that the busy machine is in more of a "known state" than the quiet one. If I key up on the busy machine I know a) the repeater is working well enough for THOSE guys to be talking on it, so it'll probably work for me -- and b) that there's people listening, since the whole idea in an emergency is to COMMUNICATE. Calling on a completely dead-quiet machine on the other hand gives me neither of the above points of knowledge -- it's a shot in the dark. That's a bad choice when you have those other two items as known information and you're attempting to find help for you or someone else. > Likewise, I hear folks complain that there isn't enough activity on > their repeater-I listen to the same repeater and frequently have to turn > it off because it's too busy. This sounds like personal preference more than anything. That's definitely why they put the OFF switch on your radio. Of course, the Amateurs who are chatting are actually exercising the priveledges of their licenses and keeping the bands in use so we don't lose them to those who would say "See? They're not using the spectrum!", is that so bad? Obviously if hams only used spectrum when there was emergency traffic to pass we'd only need a very small piece of the spectral pie, and even that would probably only be given on a shared non-interference basis -- if that's where this is headed. (And it's not.) > I agree that useless repeaters are a waste. There are several around > here that either have crappy range for thier profile, unreliable (on > again off again), tied up all day with useless chatter (sometimes > between base stations who could/should be talking simplex), or at the > other end, aren't even actually on the air, and haven't been for years, > but still send in the paperwork and claim they are. So anyone not capable of finding a high mountain-top site with great coverage or who'd actually like to USE their repeater when it's completed even if they are in simplex range shouldn't build a repeater? These so-called "useless chatter" machines serve a very important purpose besides all of this... Community. Hams from all around tune into busy local repeaters to meet others interested in Amateur Radio and (hopefully) furthering the hobby. And part of furthering the hobby is certainly gaining new friendships and meeting new people. If you extrapolate from the Charter the hobby lives under to serve as International Ambassadors, then those people meeting each other and creating lasting friendships and groups of like-minded individuals who now know they can get help from other local friends and groups -- they are servicing the overall Amateur Charter better than your quiet-ready-to-go-into-emergency-mode-oh-my-god-keep-off-my-frequency repeater. It's the useless one. You sound quite upset that other Amateurs enjoy the hobby and use their radios??? I don't understand your position at all. That's just silly if you want to see the hobby stay active. Perhaps this isn't the way you meant to come across? I don't know. "Paper repeaters" are definitely another story. Coordination bodies should pull those coordinations after a reasonable period of time, especially if others are waiting to use the pairs. Many do. All should. All coordination bodies I know of are volunteer -- so you can probably change this problem in your area by volunteering to do the job for a while. It's a thankless job with a lot of complaints that make zero sense. If you truly want it fixed, that's the way to go, though. Fair 'nuff? Amateur Radio Operators should Operate Radios. Amazing plan, eh? Big enough idea to take over the world with? Cool. Build 'em to talk on 'em!!! Nate Duehr, [EMAIL PROTECTED] - WY0X Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
