Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
Ya know, we've thought about doing that on a few occasions, but figured it just wasn't worth the effort. They have several different dispatchers, and usually get new ones every year. The thing we can't figure out is why Park Operations insists on having international employees with HEAVY accents calling out ride downtimes. We usually have to make a phone call or more to find someone who actually understood the dispatcher. Chris N9XCR Mike Morris wrote: Walk into the dispatch area with a handheld and say OK, I'm transmitting. Key down and over-ride my thumb on the button and make your voice come out of my speaker. Don't feel alone, I had to do just that to make a paving company dispatcher come to their senses. And the idiot had the nerve to call my boss and complain because I made her feel stupid after I went to extra trouble to show here when there was no one else in the room. Mike WA6ILQ At 04:19 PM 03/10/07, you wrote: I work for a theme park, and our seasonal supervisors carry GP300's. It never fails; someone's radio ALWAYS gets wet when it rains. They'll be transmitting for at least 5-15 minutes straight. The company that maintains/programs our radios never program the TOT in the damn things. Now, Park Operations always says the same thing when a situation like this occurs: Park Base to all units. Please check for an open mic. You can try to tell them all you want that the person who is transmitting and walking around the park IS NOT going to hear them, but of course they know better. Base overrides the portables. They truly believe that the person transmitting is going to hear them. Oh, and 90-95% of everyone wears and earphone. Chris N9XCR Jim B. wrote: 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
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
I work for a theme park, and our seasonal supervisors carry GP300's. It never fails; someone's radio ALWAYS gets wet when it rains. They'll be transmitting for at least 5-15 minutes straight. The company that maintains/programs our radios never program the TOT in the damn things. Now, Park Operations always says the same thing when a situation like this occurs: Park Base to all units. Please check for an open mic. You can try to tell them all you want that the person who is transmitting and walking around the park IS NOT going to hear them, but of course they know better. Base overrides the portables. They truly believe that the person transmitting is going to hear them. Oh, and 90-95% of everyone wears and earphone. Chris N9XCR Jim B. wrote: 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
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
Walk into the dispatch area with a handheld and say OK, I'm transmitting. Key down and over-ride my thumb on the button and make your voice come out of my speaker. Don't feel alone, I had to do just that to make a paving company dispatcher come to their senses. And the idiot had the nerve to call my boss and complain because I made her feel stupid after I went to extra trouble to show here when there was no one else in the room. Mike WA6ILQ At 04:19 PM 03/10/07, you wrote: I work for a theme park, and our seasonal supervisors carry GP300's. It never fails; someone's radio ALWAYS gets wet when it rains. They'll be transmitting for at least 5-15 minutes straight. The company that maintains/programs our radios never program the TOT in the damn things. Now, Park Operations always says the same thing when a situation like this occurs: Park Base to all units. Please check for an open mic. You can try to tell them all you want that the person who is transmitting and walking around the park IS NOT going to hear them, but of course they know better. Base overrides the portables. They truly believe that the person transmitting is going to hear them. Oh, and 90-95% of everyone wears and earphone. Chris N9XCR Jim B. wrote: 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
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
Richard wrote: My opinion is that a repeater should be used a lot, that way it's known to be reliable in case of emergency use. Plus, as you say, there'll be people listening. hmph-the more a repeater is used, the less likely I am to want to listen to it... Who wants a radio tied up all day long with chatter? You wind up missing something important on another frequency. And let's not forget-the longer a transmitter is up, the sooner it will fail. -- Jim Barbour WD8CHL If it was made by man, it will fail-someday.
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
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
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
Off subject, but do you remember a time back in the '70s that this repeater was shut down due to a duct to Hawaii that let an 82 repeater in Hawaii come booming through in LA. I had a Wilson handi-talkie with a 1/4 wave ant taped to the roof of my rent car in LA and worked a guy walking on the beach in San Diego using a talkie through the Hawaii repeater. Still my longest distance DX on 2 meters. 73 - Jim -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wed, 7 Mar 2007 9:55 PM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh The 146.82 repeater in Los Angeles has been on a 30 second timer since the late 1960s. 30 seconds is longer than you think - you can get a lot of info across in that much time if you think before you start talking. Mike WA6ILQ Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and industry-leading spam and email virus protection.
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
At 3/7/2007 20:55, you wrote: At 06:24 PM 03/07/07, you wrote: On 3/6/07, Kris Kirby [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 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... Many hams think otherwise, because it's HAM radio -- not commercial. :-) I can't think of how you'd conduct a typical ham radio Net with 30 second timers without sounding rediculous. The 146.82 repeater in Los Angeles has been on a 30 second timer since the late 1960s. 30 seconds is longer than you think - you can get a lot of info across in that much time if you think before you start talking. I many others have actually timed out that repeater while trying to pass traffic hazard info. 60 seconds is IMO the minimum practical timeout value. I know of no other repeater that had a shorter value except the old WR6ANY on Flint Peak: it was 37 seconds - go figure. Bob NO6B
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
If you are giving a traffic report and it takes over 30 seconds, you are not giving a report. You are having a conversation. Keep It Short and Simple. Remember , the person on the other end is trying to filter the basic facts from all the bs. Johnny The 146.82 repeater in Los Angeles has been on a 30 second timer since the late 1960s. 30 seconds is longer than you think - you can get a lot of info across in that much time if you think before you start talking. I many others have actually timed out that repeater while trying to pass traffic hazard info. 60 seconds is IMO the minimum practical timeout value. I know of no other repeater that had a shorter value except the old WR6ANY on Flint Peak: it was 37 seconds - go figure. Bob NO6B
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
If you speak long enough to take a breath, you've talked tooo long. Steve NU5D
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
At 3/8/2007 09:38, you wrote: If you are giving a traffic report and it takes over 30 seconds, you are not giving a report. You are having a conversation. Incorrect. I was passing important information the repeater timed out. Bob NO6B
RE: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
30 seconds is way too short. Sounds like someone put up a repeater but wants to discourage it's use. Richard, N7TGB _ From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 11:47 AM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh At 3/8/2007 09:38, you wrote: If you are giving a traffic report and it takes over 30 seconds, you are not giving a report. You are having a conversation. Incorrect. I was passing important information the repeater timed out. Bob NO6B
RE: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
At 3/8/2007 12:48, you wrote: 30 seconds is way too short. Sounds like someone put up a repeater but wants to discourage it's use. Richard, N7TGB The idea was to restrict traffic to only emergencies, public service, etc. Problem now is I never find anyone listening there to relay the traffic to the appropriate agency, so the original intent is rather diminished the repeater gets very little use. Bob NO6B
RE: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
My opinion is that a repeater should be used a lot, that way it's known to be reliable in case of emergency use. Plus, as you say, there'll be people listening. Richard, N7TGB _ From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 1:02 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh At 3/8/2007 12:48, you wrote: 30 seconds is way too short. Sounds like someone put up a repeater but wants to discourage it's use. Richard, N7TGB The idea was to restrict traffic to only emergencies, public service, etc. Problem now is I never find anyone listening there to relay the traffic to the appropriate agency, so the original intent is rather diminished the repeater gets very little use. Bob NO6B
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
On 3/6/07, Kris Kirby [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 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... Many hams think otherwise, because it's HAM radio -- not commercial. :-) I can't think of how you'd conduct a typical ham radio Net with 30 second timers without sounding rediculous. Just telling the members of whatever organization is meeting what the organization is, how to contact them, and any announcements would certainly take longer than that. 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. We've used 3 minutes on our machines for a very long time... most folks are used to it. We have a Net mode on repeaters that host Nets that extends the timer out further and leaves the transmitter keyed full-time. I program most of my radios for 300 seconds or five minutes, just in case of stuck keys. Sometimes in a big ragchew where lots of questions are being asked or a complex topic being discussed, I've hit the 3 minute timer myself... and my radios are programmed to unkey in 3 minutes, so it's a race between the controller's view of 3 minutes and my radio's. In my view, the only purpose of the timeout timers in a properly built repeater (capable of 100% duty-cycle 24/7) is to allow everyone to have a turn... there's no technical reason for a timeout timer on a repeater that's properly monitored and maintained. Interference and accidental key-downs without an ID dictate a 10 minute timer, but that's about it... If the repeater isn't built for 100% duty-cycle, it's not ready to do our primary mission of emergency communications -- but that's just my view... Nate WY0X
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
At 06:24 PM 03/07/07, you wrote: On 3/6/07, Kris Kirby [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 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... Many hams think otherwise, because it's HAM radio -- not commercial. :-) I can't think of how you'd conduct a typical ham radio Net with 30 second timers without sounding rediculous. The 146.82 repeater in Los Angeles has been on a 30 second timer since the late 1960s. 30 seconds is longer than you think - you can get a lot of info across in that much time if you think before you start talking. Just telling the members of whatever organization is meeting what the organization is, how to contact them, and any announcements would certainly take longer than that. Who says you can't unkey occasionally? 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. We've used 3 minutes on our machines for a very long time... most folks are used to it. We have a Net mode on repeaters that host Nets that extends the timer out further and leaves the transmitter keyed full-time. I program most of my radios for 300 seconds or five minutes, just in case of stuck keys. Sometimes in a big ragchew where lots of questions are being asked or a complex topic being discussed, I've hit the 3 minute timer myself... and my radios are programmed to unkey in 3 minutes, so it's a race between the controller's view of 3 minutes and my radio's. Grin. Been there. That's why my radios are set for a few seconds less than the controllers. In my view, the only purpose of the timeout timers in a properly built repeater (capable of 100% duty-cycle 24/7) is to allow everyone to have a turn... there's no technical reason for a timeout timer on a repeater that's properly monitored and maintained. Interference and accidental key-downs without an ID dictate a 10 minute timer, but that's about it... So true. If the repeater isn't built for 100% duty-cycle, it's not ready to do our primary mission of emergency communications -- but that's just my view... Totally agree. To me, burning in a new repeater includes flipping the Force PTT switch for at least 72 hours. If it's someone elses buildout that doesn't have one, I add it, or use a rubber band on the local mic PTT. Nate WY0X Mike WA6ILQ
RE: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
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. -- Kris Kirby [EMAIL PROTECTED] The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit longer. -- Henry Kissinger
RE: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
Skipp, I think that's a great idea! A few users of the local 2m repeater in my town have no concept of time, and continue for several minutes of a stream-of-consciousness transmission peppered with like I said... and then REPEAT what they just said! I have been thinking about some sort of an announcement which will butt in to inform everyone that the talker is too 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... 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of skipp025 Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 4:14 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh Re: A Monday Laugh Since most of the repeater controllers have some type of audio wav/sound file playback... I thought of a great macro to run on a repeater user/system access timer. Record/sample a low volume level wav/sound file of the Peanuts Cartoon Teacher Wha'...wha sound. After say... 30 to 60 seconds of repeater same user keydown the macro would trigger the wav file to play the sound behind the lock to talk persons audio. Playback would stop and reset upon clearing the repeater input. Call it a time out timer warning message, which I believe is built into the software of some controllers..? Then you'd have to write a macro to disable it for some x-value amount of time after it runs... to avoid abuse. Think about it... you need a laugh anyway... it's Monday. cheers, s.
Re: [Repeater-Builder] A Monday Laugh
That's a great one! There is or was an error macro I heard on one of the repeaters in Atlanta that always chuckled me. Curley from the 3 Stooges: I'm tryin' to think but nunthin happens! The WAV file is all over the net . skipp025 wrote: Re: A Monday Laugh Since most of the repeater controllers have some type of audio wav/sound file playback... I thought of a great macro to run on a repeater user/system access timer. Record/sample a low volume level wav/sound file of the Peanuts Cartoon Teacher Wha'...wha sound. After say... 30 to 60 seconds of repeater same user keydown the macro would trigger the wav file to play the sound behind the lock to talk persons audio. Playback would stop and reset upon clearing the repeater input. Call it a time out timer warning message, which I believe is built into the software of some controllers..? Then you'd have to write a macro to disable it for some x-value amount of time after it runs... to avoid abuse. Think about it... you need a laugh anyway... it's Monday. cheers, s.
