Hi Nate- You are correct, you don't know the situation. There are plenty of systems that provide good metro coverage with 1 or maybe 2 repeaters here in Portland.
Simply put, these people don't play nice. They often make their gain by character assination, and have a lengthy record seen by several people. The squelching problem is repeater receivers blowing squelch noise for on a regular basis for months, I call that serious! The audio has often sounded poor to bad in the past, I call that cosmetic. I don't chose to talk on the repeaters. Once, about years ago I allowed my son to talk on their repeater using my callsign with me there as the control op. He was having a plesant conversation with someone there and the system was then shut down. The repeater owner statements made it clear he did not like a youngster using their repeater. That is hardly what I call good amateur practice. The last time I was in Denver, I had no problem finding inactive 2 meter repeaters to talk to NP4AI on. ------ Original Message ------ Received: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:57:58 PM CST From: Nate Duehr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For HT's they might. (Not saying they do, I don't know the > situation... just saying -- 5W HT's to 50W repeaters (after the > duplexer) isn't balanced, and never performs right.) > > Ever offered to help them fix the squelching problems? They're > (apparently) not going away. You know the old adage, if you can't > beat 'em, join 'em. It's not a competition anyway. Too much of that > sentiment in repeater operation already anyway... > > Just out of technical curiosity, what's a "squelching problem" > anyway? Are you saying the machines are receiving crud and > continually open up on it, or are you saying you don't like the way > the squelch action sounds? They're kinda two different levels of > "problem". One is serious, the other is mostly "cosmetic". > > > Often times, their repeaters sit idle. > > Talk on 'em. :-) > > > Mean while, the waiting list keeps growing. > > It always will until people learn to work together. It's a great > sociology thesis paper waiting to be written: > "Ham Radio: How people don't help each other but complain about each > other's systems incessantly." (GRIN) > > I'm not picking on you personally, your note is just a great example > of the problem at hand in MANY cities: It's a sociology paper because > there will ALWAYS be the "I can do it better" crowd owning and > operating repeaters. You don't like how their systems sound, so you > get on a waiting list to show them you can "do it better". How we > break this cycle of disfunction, I don't know. How about fixing their > machines? > > (I've made verbal offers to other clubs to merge our clubs, remove or > re-task repeaters that offer similar coverage, and build links that > can be connected/disconnected at-will. No one's interested. And > Denver's got a lot of good technical folks and repeater builders. If > the only "interesting" thing about building repeaters is to say you > did yours the way you want to, this problem will never end. Sadly, I > think the only thing that could ever cause a merger would be really > hard times. Some club would have to be in such financial dire straits > that they'd want to sell off their repeater assets to someone else.) > > Anyone reading along have any ideas on how to stop this madness? At > every site my club has a machine at, there's at least four other > Amateur systems -- not always on the same band, but often yes. I > often ask myself, "What's the point?"... but our members don't > interact with the other club's members, and vice-versa. It's nuts. > > -- > Nate Duehr, WY0X > [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
