Kris Kirby wrote: > On Mon, 5 Mar 2007, Eric Lemmon wrote: >> talkative. Most of these blabbermouths consider setting the TOT on >> their own radios as "too restrictive." >> >> Every user radio in my commercial fleet has the TOT set for 30 seconds. In >> my mind, that's more than enough time to get any important message across. >> Unfortunately, many Hams think otherwise... > > That's not a bad idea. I'd probably want to set it at 120 seconds; one > of the repeaters I grew up using had a 4-minute timer. > > I program most of my radios for 300 seconds or five minutes, just in > case of stuck keys. >
What is done on ham gear is one thing, but on commercial fleets, it should never be more then 90 seconds, and for public safety should be no more then 60, preferably 30-45 seconds. While I was driving to work yesterday, and had my local fire dept repeater in scan, a dead carrier suddenly appeared. In listening, it was obvious that someone was sitting on their mic button. You could faintly hear talking, and mobile flutter. It continued for, oh, maybe 20 minutes or so. Either they never programmed the TOT on the radio, or, knowing FD's, they have an old radio that doesn't have one, like an HT-90 or something, maybe even an MT-500 or HT-220... MAJOR issue... -- Jim Barbour WD8CHL
