Jeff wrote:
"How is this different than picking a pair where there's an active
repeater, or a repeater that is temporarily down? It's not your
prerogative to "pick a pair", just because you think it's unused. That's
what frequency coordination is for, and the reason it exists. Of course
you have an "explicit reason"; that doesn't give you the right to ignore
the law. And yes, it is "the law".


Could you please remind us where the work of the frequency coordinator is
enshrined in law?

Try going without one. Who wins the frequency? the one with th e
strongest signal, I suppose.

Sure there is a legal duty not to cause interference, but as the OP said it
is not possible to interfere with a non-existent system.


Squatting is just bad manners, and not terribly civilized. Hams are
supposed to be civilized. Let's say that you put up an uncoordinated
repeater on a frequency that someone else has coordinated. Then le't
suppose another uncoordinated repeater goes up on the frequency you
picked. Who controls that frequency? You or the second squatter? Who moves?

I looked up the repeater coordination in Hans' area. Although I didn't
come up with 108 allocations, I might not be using the same total area
he is. I used Minneapolis/St Paul, and came up with a hundred - 76 in
Minneapolis and 24 in St Paul. Fairly close at any rate.

On Artscipub.com, they have listed 21 repeaters for Minneapolis, and 1
for St Paul.

Note that 3 of those are in the 6 meter band, and 4 are on 222 MHz band.

That leaves us with 8 on 144 MHz and 7 on 440 MHz. Less than 10 percent
utilization.

There is no reason that application can not be made to acquire one of
those unused pairs. I don't know if it is universal, but in at least
some repeater councils, after 6 months of no use, and no extenuating
circumstances, a repeater pair can come up for re-coordination.

But looking at the disparity between the assigned numbers, the repeaters
in use, and what Hans has to say about the situation, adding a new
repeater is not going to cure what appears to be a severe lack of
interest in V/UHF repeater use in his area. Seriously, that needs fixed
first.

Has anyone tried re-coordination, Hans?

- 73 de Mike N3LI -