Twenty five years ago you could buy one, with crystals, for about $40.... You really need to know what crystals (which repeater freqs) it is loaded with.. Most people don't know that the early FM radios were... CRYSTAL CONTROLLED! There was NO dial-a-freq. ;-)
Congratulations on being the reason most people are not on the repeaters and don't become hams. While a lot of people could use a "ELMER" to learn better, they are not Morons and red neck whatevers. Amateur Radio is useful and fun. If you are the Holy of Holies Grand Master King of Amateur because you learned Morse code who cares, its great to know and its something you can pass on, but from your seat on the Throne you obviously can not see the need we have for people who can teach. So in essence you "subjects" are awaiting your failure to teach them. Either get out there and become part of the solution or simply give up Amateur Radio because we don't need Gods we need Elmers to help us.
OK read all the posts in this thread could we now maybe move on to code/nocode or QRP/QRO or pick another one.
Your declared your comment "End of Story," so I figured your mind was closed, even though you hadn't absorbed all the information. Since you're back for another round, maybe that's not true. On the show, I noted that I have been operating FM and repeaters since the late 60's. Then, any given area only had a few repeaters. I didn't go into the detail in this show, but I have in the past, that most radios had just a single channel, maybe two, and a super-deluxe radio had four. So maybe people were poised and hovering for your short call. For some time now, most of us, no matter where we are, have dozens to hundreds of repeaters available. Radios have hundreds or thousands of channels, and scanners. It can take some time for a receiver to open on your signal.. pretty much the same as tuning on HF. We're not police dispatchers, just waiting for someone to open the squelch. We can be doing other things - listening to broadcast radio or podcasts, yelling at the kids to quiet down. and again, our radios can be scanning. It can take some time to arrive on a frequency that has newly become active. So again, a mumbled 'kn4aqlistening" might not get attention. And even if it did, it might not be motivating. You might need to inject a little personality, a reason for someone to stop whatever else they're doing and talk to you. Then I gave an example of how all activity ceased on my club's repeater after the morning rush hour at 8 a.m. I started a cute little net that brought lots of listeners out of the woodwork. Finally, you seem to suggest that a CQ call with a little energy behind it takes too long. What's the hurry? With the universal complaint that repeaters are empty and there's no activity, what's the problem with taking a little time to generate some? Once again, we are not on police channels, air traffic control frequencies, or dispatching ambulances. There is no need for brevity. - KN4AQ
I make no suggestions. And I never said anything like:'end of story'. I gave the 'story' you did not provide and historically, what was useful to hear. I am, in fact, interjecting the origin of the absence of using 'CQ' on FM REPEATERS. I am astounded that you still do not acknowledge these origins, which I comprehensively articulated. It didnt come from CB; it didnt come from police dispatchers. It came from us, in order to keep initial exchanges short, on what amounts to a single 'channel' rather than a band, with high fidelity exchanges, and lots of potential users on at a time. IOW, we used our smarts. Do --I-- have an objection to someone calling 'CQ' on a dead repeater in 2017? Heck no! Repeaters, 45 years ago, were the equivalent of party lines. In 2017, they function more like (unfortunately) private lines. That is very much against the spirit of ham radio. So go call CQ. Why not? But at least EXPLAIN why hams, in the past, did NOT 'call CQ' on repeaters. Sheesh.
I am surprised that you are still chumming for clicks, Youtube's new ad policy was supposed to start this past Thursday.
Those were your exact words, Chip. See post #6. I have answered a CQ call on our local repeater. I heard it several times, and I knew people were listening and ignoring his call. I stopped what I was doing and answered his call. It was the guy's first call with his new license. I explained to him the 'do's and don'ts' of calling CQ on a repeater, but stressed that their was no rule against it and to go on and see how many contacts he could make. We chatted for a while and he went back to calling CQ on the repeater. I think he got at least four more contacts that evening. I sent him a QSL card with the mode being FM/RPT. Now that I have heard what the Zeddites think, I will try calling CQ on our repeaters one of these days. If anything interesting happens, I will post it here. Probably what will happen is some of my old pals will answer and ask me what I am up to. I will tell them that, as always, I am just having fun on the radio. This time, at the expense of a few Zeddites.
Nope. Take some care to read. I was not defending the absence of usage of 'CQ'. I, in fact, presented the reasons how that developed historically. But we aren't living history, are we? Why would I care if you called CQ on a repeater? That specific presentation of facts is end of story. As are ALL facts. There are NO additional facts that explain the absence of CQ usage, historically. If that was the 'end of story'-- which I did not say beyond those historical facts-- then how do you explain the lengthy additional statements after you found the phrase:'end of story'? I believe that I do not babble.... Happy Easter. Call CQ on a dead repeater. Have some fun 73 Chip W1YW
Just turn on the "roger beep" and you will wake up the "good old boys club". They will crawl out out of the silence quickly so they can protect their "private" channel.
I called CQ DX on my local repeater. I made a contact and got a QSL card and hand written letter from Australia. It was better than a HF contact. I was running 4 watts.
Thank you, Chip. Same to you. Yesterday I was helping a friend who works on semi-trucks. We were using FRS, the trucks had CB's in them and we have a couple repeaters. The only chatter I heard the entire day was one 10 minute long conversation on FRS channel 1. Maybe we should be calling CQ on FRS. Heck, just for the fun of it, I might tell the drivers what CQ means and have them start doing in on CB. How bow da?
No, I think you should polish up the 6M antenna and work me on 50.098 Incidentally, on 50.110--DX calling frequency-- it is common to just say 'W1 Yankee Whiskey listening for DX' with no CQ's. Just like we usually don't say 'CQ' on repeaters.... 73 Chip W1YW
I would love that, except I don't have a 6M radio. Now that I can put up antennas (none up now after a move) I think 6 would be fun to play with. I have been procrastinating about radio because owning an old house that needs work has taken priority. I can hit a 2 meter repeater from in the house with an HT, though. I live about 2 miles from one.
6m is da nutz! Es season begins in mid May and ends roughly in late July, with a SHARP peak of activity (and DX) around the days before the 4th of July. You want to borrow a 450D for the Summer?
