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Text File
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1992-03-01
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5KB
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104 lines
Fellow Hams,
I am a relative newcomer to the VHF 2-meter spectrum. I was
licensed 30 years ago and spent all of my time then on the
HF spectrum. I have some very good memories of those early
days in amateur radio and I could mention several. However,
in the interest of brevity I'll only mention one. And that
is the kindness, the consideration, the helping hand that
was always there and extended to help a fellow ham, especially
a newcomer. For, after all, you became a member of a very elite
fraternal group of young and old and men and women alike who were
dedicated to the hobby and what it stands for; one of service to the
public and most certainly each other. 99% of these
members were (and I believe still are) friendly people who
could be proud of what they stood (stand) for.
Well, allow me to talk a little about the present now. I haven't
been on HF since I became active again, so I really can't speak
to what's going on there. But, I can tell you that we, you and
me, have what I perceive to be a definite problem on VHF and
quite possibly UHF, etc. The problem is one of attitude, an
attitude that does NOT belong in amatuer radio. It seems that
the FCC in Part 97.205(e) states in part "LIMITING THE USE OF
A REPEATER TO ONLY CERTAIN USER STATIONS IS PERMISSIBLE." For
the life of me, I don't understand how that ever got into the
regulations! This means that I and others can put up a repeater,
tie up two frequencies (input and output) and choose to invite
whomever we please. Initially, I thought if it's associated with
ARES or RACES, then I could appreciate that one would want to keep
the frequency clear. But, the more I thought about it, I had to
keep telling myself that if there is an emergency situation that
arises, the stations that are operating on the repeater at the
time will certainly allow the breaking station access to the
repeater (wherever autopatch or emergency speed call exists) or
be more than happy to assist them with the emergency. So, I
find it difficult to accept that as a legitimate reason either
for keeping a frequency quiet. After all, we didn't get into
the hobby to keep quiet, we got into it to communicate with each
other and learn new people and at the same time provide a service
whenever possible to the public. In my estimation, there is
no need to have QUIET frequencies except in emergency situations
when emergency traffic is being handled. And, even then, the
frequency (ies) is (are) not quiet. They're being used to assist
someone or group of people who have need for emergency care. I
have taken this matter up with our state frequency coordinator,
but in the meantime would like to hear from any and all interested
and concerned parties such as myself. For this purpose, I have
prepared a survey sheet and would very much appreciate you taking
the time to fill it out and either send it back to me via this
bulletin board or drop it in the mail to me.
Repeater Use Survey
Name____________________________ Call_______________________________
Street__________________________ City_______________________________
State___________________________ Zip________________________________
Do you use repeaters on any amateur band? ______________________________
If so, which bands? ____________________________________________________
Have you ever encountered an individual or individuals that have
told you that their repeater is private and asked you not to use
it? ____________________________________________________________________
What frequency (ies) did this occur on? (optional) _____________________
________________________________________________________________________
Did you feel they were within their right to ask you not to use
their repeater? ________________________________________________________
Were you aware of FCC Regulation Part 97.205 (e) as stated earlier?_____
Do you agree with what it states? ______________________________________
If not, what do you think the policy for repeaters should be? __________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Please provide any additional comments you may have ____________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for taking the time to fill out the sheet. I hope I can be of
service to you someday.
If you are electing to mail this to me, my address is:
Paul Kelley - WB9EEK
Attention: Survey
1280 N. 68 Street
Wauwatosa, WI 53213
Incidentally, I definitely want to hear from anyone who does not agree
with me too. Who knows, maybe you can convince me that there are some
good reasons for keeping frequencies quiet. By all means, give it your
best shot!
Very best of 73s ... WB9EEK ... Paul