What's Going On With 2 Meters?
I came across the open discussion in this forum regarding “What’s Going On With 2 Meters?
The above language is quite often used by many Hams, especially new hams.
There are numerous reasons why repeaters are quite often silent most of the time, all of the issues for this problem can’t be answered on the forum, however, I wanted to contribute to just a few of the reasons why 2 Meters and VHF/UHF frequencies silent most of the time.
First of all, I’m 67 and earned my first ticket in May of 1980, so I’ve been licensed for roughly 32 years and now hold an Advanced Class License. Being 67 quite often tags me, as are so many older hams, as being an “Old Fuddy Elmer”, further, older hams are quite often categorized as being part of the aging amateur radio population.
When I became involved in Ham radio, the hobby was still very active and attractive, we were bread-boarding lots of our gear, involved in the beginnings of Packet Radio, involved in fox hunts, Field Day activities, emergency communications (ARES & RACES), provided West Link Reports on our repeaters (assuming we owned one), allowed general chit chat on the repeaters, had monthly meetings, joint projects, and much more. We welcomed everyone, and we encouraged the amateur radio population in our area to use the repeater. Our repeaters were “Open” not “Private”, they were a focal point for area Hams, and we just had a lot of fun, including a few laughs, and enjoyed helping others ….. period.
When I lived in Wisconsin I erected and owned the N9BKJ 2M repeater on 146.925/146.325, built and provided the Central Wisconsin Packet Hub, was involved in ARES/RACES as both the county EC and RACES Officer, provided weekly WestLink Reports, however, that didn’t make me any more special than any other Ham. I enjoyed providing the repeater and services to the local Ham population and always promoted “open and free access” to the system, including auto-patch. I didn’t provide these services for gratification, I did it because I wanted to contribute to the Ham community.
Over time, several issues started to evolve that were detrimental to repeater activity on area repeaters:
1. Many repeaters became “private”, you had meet the repeater owner’s special stringent criteria and fulfill his particular expectations of what he/she expected of you, determined what was appropriate in order for you to use his/her repeater, another words, a personal operational “guideline / constitution of sorts”, if you didn’t meet his/her specific guidelines of what “proper was”, you were banned from the repeater, some even went so far as to require that you fill out a questionnaire that would be reviewed by the repeater owner / administrator, and hopefully approved.
2. A large majority of repeaters became “clicks”, and if you weren’t part of the “click”, you weren’t welcome.
3. If you dared talk about anything other than “technical electronics subject matter”, you became an outcast and tagged as an idiot … did any of these so-called experts ever think about helping Hams not so gifted and help them with electronics education?
4. Almost every state, county, and local community became flooded with repeaters that fit into the description outlined above. All you have to do is purchase a repeater directory, or go online and get a list of repeaters in your state or county, it’s as big as the Yellow Pages, there’s an overwhelming population of repeaters that just sit silent 99% of the time. I guess it’s just became a self gratifying ego thing to have a personal repeater with no activity.
Now I’m not against a repeater every 20 feet of geography, that’s fine, but what’s the point of expending considerable resources to erect repeaters if they lie silent 99% of the time due to what I have outlined above, you’re better off to go fishing?
Amateur radio, especially repeaters, can be a wonderful enticement to both young and old Hams, and to those that would like to become part of the Ham community.
Now I don’t want anyone to get me wrong on this subject, there are many, many dedicated Hams who have committed substantial resources and time to providing repeaters, inviting the local Ham population to use and enjoy the services they provide, and encouraging young and old to become Hams, however, there’s definitely been a down turn in the wrong direction in making the Ham population at large feel welcome to use these systems.
The subject matter I have touched on here, is only a small part of the over problems affecting Amateur Radio.
I challenge every Elmer, repeater owner, and licensed ham in America to do their part in growing the amateur radio population, let’s make everyone welcome, and let’s hear those repeaters come alive again, not just an ID every 10 minutes. Repeaters are a great place to revitalize the growth of Amateur Radio, and dare I suggest, just maybe, we’ll see a revitalization of CW on the bands, that microphone isn’t going to do a damn thing for you when there’s no other way to communicate. Remember those sailors at Pearl Harbor that tapped out Morse Code on the hulls of ships sunk in the harbor with a wrench, that was the real art of emergency communications that saved lives, an art has saved lives over and over again over the years.
I know that there will be some criticism regarding my post, that's OK, I just wanted to help with a little insight on the issue being discussed. I'm not necessarily the sharpest knife in the drawer, just a Ham that wants to see Amateur Radio succeed in the years ahead and make it fun for everyone.
N7BOO
