How to put off getting responses

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paulears
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How to put off getting responses

Post by paulears »

I bought a new Uniden scanner and made the big mistake of adding our local DMR repeater. I'm a G4, licensed in 1980, but was silent for over 25 years, returning maybe 6 years back as mainly a curious listener.

Over the past few days, I've had to lock out the local repeater, because on all the talk groups it has, another G4 continually calls and calls and calls. He asks for quick radio checks then if somebody answers, he keeps going for half an hour talking about the weather and how he cannot use bandmeister because he has not got a password. The same topic dozens of times, and calling on TG1 worldwide asking if anyone is about because it is quiet, just makes me despair about the anti-ham comments we hear all the time - because they are dead right. Every single day the same phrases, and worse, he has a very annoying loud laugh at totally inappropropriate moments.

I expect he's lonely, and he gets some excellent advise on which talk groups he might like to use to get off 1,2 or 235 or whatever, but he just carries on regardless. Often he even goes through his preset schpiel like the phone calls you get, then does it exactly the same with the next contact five minutes later.

When you used to get this locally, it wasn't too bad, but now you get this inflicted on the whole world.

It's embarrassing enough that when I get visitors to the office, I have to turn it down. Sometimes, he almost pleads for somebody to respond. I used to stand up for radio hams, and tell people their comments were wrong, or unjustified - but in a week of having loads of talk groups available to me, he's everywhere!

Discovering DMR on the private channels in marine band is much more interesting to be frank.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by Alan Pilot »

The guy with the annoying loud laugh i think i know who you mean.
On tg91 using blue-dv dongle ??????????????.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by paulears »

The welsh chap today went on and on and on. He's now started asking for signal reports, and when people respond, he just starts. One fella responded saying he was at work so had just answered the request for a signal report. He tried to not be rude but he doesn't pick up on these things. People answer a signal report request and he wants them to pop off to a different group for a chat. He has at least found somebody to get his password enabled for bandmeister. He says the same thing to every person he gets in touch with and reads their name from a display, but often seems to call people by the wrong name, despite them constantly repeating it. I skipped him on so many talk groups today. He was on them all! He keeps calling saying there is no-one about, but I bet there are hundreds on TG1 all over the world who are not responding.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by bigpimp347 »

Aaah good old Amateur Radio...

via the internet..enough said.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by Ant »

I've been asked for signal reports on repeaters, there's a bit of a mutter when I say that the signal is the repeaters signal. Once even the repeater keeper (a G8 so should know better) around here said he can read someone at an S9 +40db (the someone wanted a readability report, fair enough) I reminded him that's the repeater signal strength and not the caller.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by paulears »

I'm not so sure on this one? You can be noisy into a repeater, or a nice signal, or on some, you can hear when they're very strong, so I'd not get disturbed by the S9+40dB comment - as the repeater keeper he might well hear the fully quieting artefacts. My Kenwood repeater has three distinct 'sounds' - weak in but consistent and usable, normal and then very strong. I know what you're saying and you're right - but a signal report request on a repeater is fine - you have no way to know how well 'in' you are.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by Ant »

No, you can't give a signal report into a repeater. The signal you receive is the repeaters strength, not the strength of the other persons signal. You can only give a readability report but not signal as you've no idea what his signal is.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by dc260 »

Ant wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 15:21 No, you can't give a signal report into a repeater. The signal you receive is the repeaters strength, not the strength of the other persons signal. You can only give a readability report but not signal as you've no idea what his signal is.

Although you can listen to their signal on the input of the repeater (Reverse mode) and give them a signal report that way, that's if you are in range of hearing them on the input though.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by Ant »

dc260 wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 15:34
Ant wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 15:21 No, you can't give a signal report into a repeater. The signal you receive is the repeaters strength, not the strength of the other persons signal. You can only give a readability report but not signal as you've no idea what his signal is.

Although you can listen to their signal on the input of the repeater (Reverse mode) and give them a signal report that way, that's if you are in range of hearing them on the input though.
Yes I often do that on local nets out of interest.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by bigpimp347 »

dc260 wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 15:34 Although you can listen to their signal on the input of the repeater (Reverse mode) and give them a signal report that way, that's if you are in range of hearing them on the input though.
and if they can hear each other on the input why are they using a repeater :D
the mind boggles..

but that said
signal reports via the internet are the best.
echo links and that digital rubbish giving reports, makes a mockery of the test if the operators are that stupid as to give reports on any repeater.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by Ant »

bigpimp347 wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 18:37
dc260 wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 15:34 Although you can listen to their signal on the input of the repeater (Reverse mode) and give them a signal report that way, that's if you are in range of hearing them on the input though.
and if they can hear each other on the input why are they using a repeater :D
the mind boggles..

but that said
signal reports via the internet are the best.
echo links and that digital rubbish giving reports, makes a mockery of the test if the operators are that stupid as to give reports on any repeater.
To communicate with others some distance away. You may well be in listening range of the repeater, but not everyone in the group will be.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by bigpimp347 »

Ant wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 18:44
To communicate with others some distance away. You may well be in listening range of the repeater, but not everyone in the group will be.
if there were only two of you.

if there was a group of you that's a different matter, seeing as repeaters are no longer used as a tool and used as a local geriatric club night meeting place..it doesn't matter if you can or can't be heard on the input.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by Alucard »

bigpimp347 wrote: 09 Nov 2021, 19:44 if there was a group of you that's a different matter, seeing as repeaters are no longer used as a tool and used as a local geriatric club night meeting place..it doesn't matter if you can or can't be heard on the input.


:lol:
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by stinkybob »

I'm guilty of occasionally asking for a "a quick signal check" into a repeater but I have an excuse (I think).

I'll take one of my handheld radios and a few antennas out into a good location and then use the Repeaterbook app on my phone to see what repeaters there might be at what distances, and then sometimes out of curiosity I will try to hit one very far away just to see if the setup I'm using can do it. It helps me decide which antennas work best on which of my radios. The repeaters I do this on are usually at least 75 miles away and I don't natter endlessly about the weather or my prostrate. I'm just in for a quick verification that I can hit the chosen repeater from my distant location.

Having done that I can then be reasonably assured that my radio setup should work fine into local repeaters or simplex, which usually seems to be the case. I do a lot of listening because I'm still relatively new to all this and about the only time I actually have conversations with people is when they specifically ask for it because they're doing a summit or something, and then I keep it brief.

While I was out on the hills after dark recently I heard somebody calling simplex from a hill about a hundred miles away from me who said he was running 60w and was calling out for contacts and I took a chance on responding with my 8w HT, which actually worked. A few minutes later he changed down to 25w as his battery was going down and he was getting ready to trudge back down the hills and I let him know I could still hear him, but we didn't just natter endlessly. He was after signal specifics and I gave my bit and that was that. However, apart from that little interaction I think I've not heard much of anything anywhere by way of repeater or simplex.

I do realize that for some people ham radio is just another form of social media but I am uncomfortable when I hear two people hogging the local repeater from opposite ends of the Earth nattering about the weather. Yes I get the attraction of being able to communicate with somebody in New Zealand but I do think there should be personal limits to how much repeater time you waste doing it.

Having said that, there's a lot of absolute silence on the radio these days, which is also not what ham radio is about. At the moment I run strictly analogue HT of less than 10w with about 20 various repeaters around me programmed in. If I set my radio to scan I can certainly go all day without hearing any radio traffic whatsoever. I suspect the majority of people into ham radio now are going digital or dongle and playing on internet linked services and buying all the fancy newfangled toys because it's fun but there has been a sharp decline in what I hear on analogue over the past year. Even the international chat through local repeaters on Echolink etc has dried up to nothing. I rather suspect old school analogue ham radio is is a dying thing. It's virtually dead around here already.
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Re: How to put off getting responses

Post by InTheClouds »

You are speaking for yourself there. I am having a great time on HF personally speaking and I use my voice no digital modes. Plenty of intercontinental DX happening if you set yourself up correctly and put in the duly required effort. To contextualize, today I worked the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Western US states amongst a tonne of other stations 100W and a short piece of copper wire.

It is all there, the entire world almost daily give or take some seasonal variations. And not even needing a beam and 400W.

You need to find out what you want, then what you need to do, then actually do it. No above and beyond efforts, no dx. Make your choice.
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