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Old April 3rd 11, 11:31 PM
Channel Jumper Channel Jumper is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jan 2011
Posts: 390
Default Repeater question - serious answers please

I have a question and I would like an honest answer.

For anyone that understands Vo IP - voice over IP, the question is - what are the rules as they pertain to repeaters when a bunch of repeater owners gets together and links up a bunch of repeaters on a repeater system.

This question pertains to a group of people who obtained a grant from the Office of Homeland Security and linked 30 repeaters together and then linked that system to another system that also has a bunch more repeaters - called the Target system.

What I am wondering is - is there any rules that they have to follow or are they allowed to do as they please when it comes to repeaters and repeater etiquette?

The reason I ask is because there is a bunch of guys that hooked their repeaters into one system and then hooked those repeaters into another system to utilize the entire system.
But the problem is - that the government gave them money to do it in the interests of public safety and then when they decided that since they were repeater owners that they could do as they pleased and then they decided that they could camp out on the frequencies for hours at a time and the problem is - when you link a bunch of repeaters together - you don't know how long the hang time is between when you let go the mic and when the repeater hangs up.

The problem there is - if they key the mic up too quick - it ends up sounding like the CB radio and when the repeater doesn't drop off - no one else except the people who are talking on the repeaters can talk on the repeaters and if there is a emergency and you can't use the repeater - because someone 60 miles away is talking on it - on a different repeater - but they are all linked in - then it doesn't work.

The other problem is - when you have repeaters in remote locations and a person cannot just walk out into their back yard to shut it off or reboot the computer and it transmits for a day with no call sign identification and it locks up all the other repeaters - because it is controlling all the other repeaters - because you cannot send the remote codes over the radio to terminate the transmissions because the other repeater has it all locked up - then what can be done.

At some point - someone has to say that if it is transmitting for more then 2 minutes that it is broadcasting - and not just repeating and that it is illegal.

The repeater owners only linked their repeaters into the backbone system because they wanted to be able to talk anywhere they went and they wanted someone to talk to when they were driving down the road and because of the way that they were acting in the past - they chased off most of the local traffic and they alienated the local ham radio community - clubs etc and it is to the point of when one club is having their net on the repeater - the other clubs can't have their net on the other repeaters - because if someone is constantly transmitting - then you cannot send the commands to terminate the connection to the repeater that is hooked up into the system.

Can you see my point?

How can you take money from the government and tell them that you are doing it in the interest of public safety and then use it for your own personal business and not let the people who would benefit from the use of the repeaters use it?

I understand part 97 and that it says that the repeater owners - owns the repeaters and they can dictate who does and doesn't use the repeaters and that no money is supposed to change hands when it comes to being able to use the repeaters - hence a club cannot charge dues for the electric bill or maintenance of the repeater - yet when this system is implemented fully they plan to ask for donations....

Is this legal?