"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...

snip

Mini-rant: Why do almost ALL commerical radios have tx timeout
timers, while almost ALL ham radios don't have this feature?

Is it because we're all known to be gasbags?

Timeout? Why the very *impudence* of that radio!!!

All kidding aside, we had a major repeater outage in San Diego some years
ago. A 50w mobile, in the middle of a hotel parking lot, was on the air for
hours, holdng the repeater. The T-hunters who found the car ID'ed the owner
by his callsign plate and contacted him in the hotel. It was the old
microphone-between-the-seat-cushions trick. Timeout would have helped that
day.

"Sal"