Posted: 5/22/2012 6:52:06 PM EDT
|
We have several radio clubs locally and each club has their own repeater(s). From my house, I can hit more than a dozen different repeaters consistently, not to mention link systems such as Saltgrass or Southwest links. What is the expectation of users who access repeaters? Is it expected that the user will join the club to use their repeater? The frequency & tone info is usually posted on the clubs’ websites, so programming my equipment and actually accessing the repeater is not a problem. I don’t want to freeload, but at the same time, I’m not really interested in joining multiple clubs. What is your practice? School me…. Thanks! |
| Sometimes repeater owners keep them going just off of donations. Sometimes it's donations of just labor when they need help in repairs or extra man power. If you don't have the cash, maybe you can donate some time, or at least offer it to the repeater(s) you use most. |
|
I was excited to see the thread title, but the thread was a little different than what I expected. anyway, I'll throw this out there . . .
what _IS_ the etiquette on repeaters? specifically, my local 2m repeaters, every noew and then go full-tilt-boogie, television-commercial-loud, CW every now and then. why is that? I can see the repeater itself throwing out it's call sign now and again, but are people really hoping to do CW over a repeater while the local club is having "tech night" ? nothing worse than driving to work and barely making out the far off signal, volume cranked, squinting and trying to pick out what he said, and then "DIT DAH DAH DADIT!" at 145db :-) what am I missing ? |
|
Quoted:
The repeater just like any other amateur radio station must identify itself every 10 minutes. Some do it by synthesized voice. Many others do it by sending the stations call by CW. Most likely what you're hearing is just the station ident.
specifically, my local 2m repeaters, every noew and then go full-tilt-boogie, television-commercial-loud, CW every now and then. why is that? And yeah my local machine is loud also. |
|
First get ahold of the ARRL repeater book. I have the traval edition but thats because it was free, the desktop may be a little easier to use. Lately I have been using RFinder and its pretty good.
The reason I say this is because the directories tell you if its an open or closed system. I was griped at one time for using a wx only repeater (new to the area then) but on the other end I emailed a guy from the irlp directory about a local node and he sent a very friendly email with instructions. The issue of open and closed repeaters makes me wonder about nobody "owning" a certain freq |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
The repeater just like any other amateur radio station must identify itself every 10 minutes. Some do it by synthesized voice. Many others do it by sending the stations call by CW. Most likely what you're hearing is just the station ident.
specifically, my local 2m repeaters, every noew and then go full-tilt-boogie, television-commercial-loud, CW every now and then. why is that? And yeah my local machine is loud also. repeaters are only required to ID every hour, not every 10 min. the 10 min thing is if you are talking on said repeater for 10 min. you as an amateur also has to ID every 10 min. |
|
I belong to a group that has several repeaters, including functionality for APRS, IRLP, Echolink and phone patch. The way we treat it, anyone is fully welcome and encouraged to use our repeaters, and they are in place for the public to use. The only thing that is for members only, is full use of the phone patch. Anyone can dial 911 on it, but you need a password to make a normal phone call. I should mention that this is in an area with no cell phone reception.
I view it as a give and take thing. I kick money into the build and maintenance of the repeaters our group has. It is my contribution to the Ham operators in the Western U.S. Because of this, I don’t feel at all bad about using repeaters that others have built and funded. |
|
I'd go broke being a member of every club whose repeater I'm using. Tribal knowledge passed on when the ink on my Tech license was still drying was to find your home machine and become a member of that club. Considered good etiquette as it does cost a bit to keep the thing running, tower rental, etc. Do this and you have met your obligation. Our machine is very open and we're in the process of working with a couple other clubs to link our machines for wider coverage and as backup when the next hurricane shows up.
Support also goes for the Oscar birds. Repeaters on satellites. If you use them become a member of AMSAT and send a donation to the FOX-1 project. Donations to AMSAT is tax deductable. Quoted:
Unless I've missed it somewhere there is no exception for a repeater. You, the guy you're talking to, and the repeater must ID once every 10 minutes. If nothing is going on and no transmission is made there is no requirement for the repeater (or you) to ID at all.
repeaters are only required to ID every hour, not every 10 min. the 10 min thing is if you are talking on said repeater for 10 min. you as an amateur also has to ID every 10 min. 97.119 |