Hi,
Got some things for the DB admin team and management to mull over.
1. Like has been posted in another thread or two, I would like to see subaudible tones put in with a little more care. The majority of repeaters in my area use tone only for the input of the repeater and don't require any tone to listen to the output (and in fact in some cases you will NOT HEAR the repeater if you have a tone enabled, because it's not sending any). I know some admins have argued "well, that's not the way it works (where the admin is posting from)", but it IS the way it works in some places, so please consider doing it the way the submitters send in the info.
2. I'm hoping that as the amateur info is fleshed out and more becomes available, the amateur side of the database will have similar utilities to the rest of the DB. Example - maps of the repeaters in a given area, able to search by frequency or callsign (alpha tag in many cases), etc.
3. There are various networks and affiliations that many ham repeaters link to that would be of benefit to note in the DB in some uniform format. I would like to see extra fields for this kind of data, such as EchoLink node number, IRLP node number, etc. There are also local nets that many repeaters belong to - at least two large ones in my local area, where upwards of 6 to 10 repeaters across a huge area are permanently linked together. Perhaps yet another field for indication of these local links/nets would be appropriate.
4. In browsing some of the amateur data already in the DB, I see some frequencies that I'm curious whether or not should be in the DB, and am looking for an admin/manager's input. At least one county in my province has 144.39 listed as a "simplex/digipeater". That's a frequency used North America-wide for APRS comms, and there are about a dozen digipeaters in any given city on the continent, depending on the city's size and popularity of amateur radio. Should frequencies like this be in the DB? It's kind of like posting 146.52 as a "calling frequency" when that's another NA-wide standard.. or mentioning the NIFOG channels in a random county's public safety listing.
5. Not sure if this is already in (I suspect it is and I just haven't seen it yet) but if D-STAR and other digital modulations in the ham hobby aren't legitimate modes in the DB schema, I respectfully suggest they be added.
Got some things for the DB admin team and management to mull over.
1. Like has been posted in another thread or two, I would like to see subaudible tones put in with a little more care. The majority of repeaters in my area use tone only for the input of the repeater and don't require any tone to listen to the output (and in fact in some cases you will NOT HEAR the repeater if you have a tone enabled, because it's not sending any). I know some admins have argued "well, that's not the way it works (where the admin is posting from)", but it IS the way it works in some places, so please consider doing it the way the submitters send in the info.
2. I'm hoping that as the amateur info is fleshed out and more becomes available, the amateur side of the database will have similar utilities to the rest of the DB. Example - maps of the repeaters in a given area, able to search by frequency or callsign (alpha tag in many cases), etc.
3. There are various networks and affiliations that many ham repeaters link to that would be of benefit to note in the DB in some uniform format. I would like to see extra fields for this kind of data, such as EchoLink node number, IRLP node number, etc. There are also local nets that many repeaters belong to - at least two large ones in my local area, where upwards of 6 to 10 repeaters across a huge area are permanently linked together. Perhaps yet another field for indication of these local links/nets would be appropriate.
4. In browsing some of the amateur data already in the DB, I see some frequencies that I'm curious whether or not should be in the DB, and am looking for an admin/manager's input. At least one county in my province has 144.39 listed as a "simplex/digipeater". That's a frequency used North America-wide for APRS comms, and there are about a dozen digipeaters in any given city on the continent, depending on the city's size and popularity of amateur radio. Should frequencies like this be in the DB? It's kind of like posting 146.52 as a "calling frequency" when that's another NA-wide standard.. or mentioning the NIFOG channels in a random county's public safety listing.
5. Not sure if this is already in (I suspect it is and I just haven't seen it yet) but if D-STAR and other digital modulations in the ham hobby aren't legitimate modes in the DB schema, I respectfully suggest they be added.
