Hey, before we get started, be sure to head over to ham Radio
two dot com forward slash email dash sign up to join my email list of
over nineteen thousand subscribers, where I like to send emails about upcoming events,
upcoming shopping deals, keep you updated with all the stuff going on with my
videos. Once that list reaches twenty thousand, I will be doing a giveaway
of another HF radio sign up today and thank you for the support. Why
is there no activity on the ham radio repeaters near you? Here's some thoughts.
As a follow up to a challenge I issued earlier this year during a
live stream and again on a couple of videos. In early twenty twenty four,
I issued a challenge that said, at least once a day, maybe
twice a day, key up your local repeater and just throw out your call
sign. Now, admittedly I haven't done this myself as much as I wanted
to, But just this morning, about two hours ago, I got in
the truck and I was driving out to get a breakfast sandwich, and I
heard someone else throw their call sign out, and I went back to him
and we had a ten minute conversation on the W five E WEL repeater four
four two dot nine hundred in Uless, Texas, which if you guys are
in North Texas, turnover and monitor that repeater. That's the one I'm usually
listening to if I'm driving around in the area. If I hear a call
sign that I know, I will absolutely come back to you. But if
I hear a call sign I don't know, I will try to come back
to you as well. This is another article I found on Reddit and the
title of it caught my eye and you can see it was posted fifteen hours
ago at the time of this recording, and I really liked what this this
person has to say. He's and this is written by the real Marsupio.
A lot of guys in here don't give their call signs. That's okay,
that's all right, whatever, Okay. I'm case five HWB on Reddit.
There are quite a few amateur radio repeaters around me, both on digital and
analog. I will go over several days and through throw through it, he
says, throughout throw out my call sign on five of the local repeaters as
different times a day. Morning, afternoon, evening, evening has been the
best results, but is still once every ten days I actually get someone during
nets, the repeaters are active, but during non nets they're dead. Why
do you think this is so? I have a thought on that. We
do a DMR net on Wednesdays at seven thirty on our DMR repeater system in
Texas, which is not tied to Brandmeister or tgif for anything else. It
is a repeater only network as far as I know, it's the only net
that is run on DMR that's not interconnected to the world. We have the
original talk Group thirty one to forty eight, which is the Texas state wide
Talk Group. We have a net at seven thirty pm Central Time every Wednesday
night, and the only way you can get into that net is to be
near one of the repeaters. All the repeaters are tied together over the Internet.
They're tied into sea bridges, various sea bridges here and there. But
the only way you can get in there is to be near low repeater and
key up and join the net. And we'll have anywhere from thirty five to
forty maybe upwards of sixty check ins a week. And if you consider that
doesn't really include Internet connected hotspots, that's a pretty good number, I think.
But it's amazing to me that during the week, there's very little activity
on that DMR talk group, even though there's forty fifty sixty people that'll open
it up and key it up on Wednesday night. So I feel your pain.
I know a lot of a couple of the repeater nets around here the
same way. There's a lot of activity on the net weekly check in,
you turn the radio off and they don't turn it back on till next week
at the same net time. I try to get people broken out of that.
He goes on to write, it is quite embarrassing because I'm trying to
get a buddy in the amateur radio and I want to demonstrate its utility.
But every time I go to show him boom, the repeater activity is non
existent. It makes me look like a fool. I know a lot of
the guys in the local clubs use HF more, and a percentage of those
guys use FT eight exclusively, which I find boring and pointless for every day
Okaya eight and HF and repeaters are totally separate things. But okay, okay,
I see what he's saying. Though, I talked to buddies in other
areas and they say, no matter which repeater you key up around them at
any given times, someone will always respond and he kind of leaves it there.
So a couple of the responses and replies. A couple of the comments
got me, and I especially like one comment because it mentions the repeater challenge
that I issued earlier this year. So we're going to read that real quick.
But first let me tell you. If you want to get your HAMD
radio license, go to ham radioprep dot com. Download their free app on
your smartphone, iOS or Android. Get started for free today. If you
decide to purchase the expanded learning lessons on the app or on the desktop,
use coupon code of Jason twenty to save twenty percent off of all of their
courses. They have over ten thousand. I think it's way more than that
now, well into five figures number of people licensed through the ham Radio Prep
course. Sign up today and good luck on your test. The very first
comment at the top says people tend not to answer a call sign listening type
of transmission. I don't know if that that's one hundred percent true. Sometimes
it probably is, but I've had people answer me when I don't even say
listing. I'll just say case five HWB mobile. That's all I say,
tells him. I'm in the vehicle. And if you're in a vehicle,
some of the most fun I've ever had on repeaters is drive times, when
you're going to and from various places. He goes on to say, ask
a question or ask for a radio check. That's that's terrible advice. We're
gonna get to that in a minute. This is more likely to start something
going. But yeah, my area has lots of quiet repeaters. Try the
iss APRS, Digitpeter or voice repeater, Try the FM satellites. Other than
that, get on HF, Get on single sideband CW. There is much
more activity on HF. And that's true, there is, so this guy
responds, ask a question for real tre Many of us who do a lot
of repeater listening now ignore radio check requests. Ask you for a radio check
is unless you actually need a radio check. Unless you're doing a test of
your radio. Someone's told you your audio is bad, someone's told you your
your quality of signal is low. Unless you actually need a radio check,
don't ask for radio check. There's a bunch of Brandmeister talk groups out there
on DMR that just radio check. Radio check radio all day long. It's
radio check. That's one reason I stopped listing to those dumb talk groups out
there, because nobody really wants a radio check, or they just well,
sometimes they do. They want to know that their code plug is coded correctly.
But just get on and start talking. People will tell you for radios
working or not. Way too many people lean on those as a web starting
conversation. If I answer your radio check call, I will tell you whether
your radio is working on and then I'm moving on. Don't mislead the other
station by asking for radio check when what you want is a long winded conversation.
This guy, the original poster replies, yeah, I'm an extra class
hand, but I'll have enough money right now for an HF radio, so
I don't get on it much. Also, why don't people reply to a
call sign listening when that is the acceptable way to enter a conversation. That's
a good question. Equitable crab repeater culture is so broken. Every new text
is drilled in never call seek you on the peeter, and beginners are straight
terrified of the mic, so instead of they just go fishing with call sign
monitoring. Or my favorite is the totor totally superfluous radio check. Yeah.
When I hear call sign listening, I assume the person has some radio buddies
that they're hoping might call back. Now, see, I don't I don't
agree with that statement. When I hear call sign listening, I assume the
person has some radio buddies that they're hoping we'll call back. No, when
someone says call sign listen, if I say k C five HWB listening,
I'm putting out there for everybody. If I have a buddy that I want
to talk to, I'll call him. I'll say, hey, Frank KG
five HJ from k C five HBB, Hey Frank, you're out there,
or just KG five HJ from k C five HBB. So I don't agree
with that. I don't think call sign listening should be synonymous with your looking
for someone specific. And then he says, if I hear them call twice,
i'll know they just want to talk. Well you should know they just
want to talk anyway. Okay, So I think that's improper repeater etiquette and
not etiquette meaning there's anything wrong with that. It's just that I don't think
your I don't think your perception of call sign listening and expecting him that they're
calling someone specific is accurate. I don't think that's accurate. It's such a
silly theater. Decades ago, these repeaters were commodities during commute times and etiquette
was critical. Now they sit idle ninety nine percent of the time. Light
them up, Try some variant of good evening. This is call sign located
in qth on this repeater. Are there any other stations on frequency? But
don't call it CQ or the ots will get mad. Yeah, calling CQ
on repeater is technically a faux pas. It's technically not proper etiquette. But
I must ask this day and age, and technically speaking, if you're having
a rag chew on one for six dot five to two, that's not proper
etiquette either, because one forty six top five to two is the national FM
calling frequency for fmsimplex on the two meter band, so it's not a rag
chew frequency. So technically how that should work is you should put your call
sign out CAC five HWB monitoring. Somebody comes back to me and we're like,
hey, drop down to one forty six five hundred, let's have a
qso and then you talk well, this day and age, there's so little
activity, especially during road trips, during several hour road trips, out of
state road trips, there's so little activity on six top five to two.
If I hear someone on six top five two, I will strike up a
conversation and talk to them for ten minutes or fifteen minutes or an hour if
they're in range that long. So I don't know. Technically calling CQ on
a repeater is wrong, But with the lack of activity on repeaters these days,
should we forget about that? Should we go away from that? Should
we not? I mean, you shouldn't ridicule people anyway. If someone calls
CQ on a repeater, the first thing I think of is, well,
this guy just got his license, he's not used to using repeaters. Well,
that might be a reason to go back to him and say, hey,
man, what's going on case five HWB here? And then after a
five or ten minute conversation, he might start asking you questions. He might
recognize that your call signs older. He might ask you how long you've been
licensed, And then you can say, oh, by the way, yeah,
we don't we're not really supposed to call CQ on the repeater, It's
not a big deal, but some people who are just grouchy and belong on
the qraz forums. Those guys might kind of yell at you, But no
big deal because you and I are having a conversations now this one comment here
to a comment to a comment, reply to a comment. Who are these
no CQ police and where did they get their radio badges? Question mark?
I say, get on there and say CQ two or whatever band CQ two
or whatever band you like, and cause some of them to speak up and
explain why this is forbidden see lawyers uget the worst. And then Katie seven
TKJ replies, this guy has his call sign on Reddit. What do you
know? Don't call SEQ on a full quieting FM link, But also don't
walk into a room and just shout your own name. If you want us
to demo the network for your friends, say so, we might reply to
that where a call signed by itself comes off to me as a game.
I don't agree with that. A call signed by itself comes off to me
as a game, huh? And then the real marsupio. He replies again,
that's interesting because a call sign by itself doesn't come across as a game.
Then forour more replies. Right here at the bottom, I'm gonna open
that up. Call sign by itself says to me, you are there if
I have traffic for you in a message handling network sense, No, disagreed,
I have no traffic for you, So along with you, So along
with you. We all continue listening, expecting me to dream up some traffic
for you based solely on your call sign and no writing prompt. Seems like
a game. Yes, well maybe to you, But in thirty years of
being on repeaters, I've both done it that way and responded to people that
way. It sounds like you almost just are looking for trouble, like you're
just wanting something to complain about. I don't know, real marsupio Again,
I guess I don't see it that way. Maybe because I'm an extrovert and
I don't have time to make traffic for people. I guess I just don't
see it the same way. There's a lot of history in those hills.
The relay and American Radio Relay League is a reference to the message handling history.
You're talking about a message net, Yeah, you're talking about radiograms.
In the early days, we model sales off of telegraph companies and set radiograms.
Eight Royal still operates a national traffic system well sorted, it operates itself,
although most of the traffic these days are artifically generated. Some club sending
welcome radiograms new hands. Mostly here's some reading national traffic system. You're relating
throwing your call sign out on a repeater to a national traffic system. I
don't think I agree with that. I mean, if that's how you want
to look at it, okay, I'm not saying you're wrong, But in
thirty years of being our repeaters, I've never looked at it that way.
And if I hear someone throw their call sign out on a repeater, I
will go back to him. Especially today, we're guess what the whole complaint
is, Hey, there's not enough activity on repeaters. Here's the good one
here K five SNR. Thank you, Dave, Dave Alvarado K five SNR.
This is perfect advice. I did this in conjunction with the hand Radio
two point zero challenge to throw your call sign out on a local repeater every
day for a week. I don't remember saying every day for a week.
I think I said for twenty twenty four. But I said it more than
one time, so maybe I did say for it. Maybe I said,
hey, just try it for a week and see what happens. But what
I meant was try it for a week, see what happens, and if
you get good results, keep going. On my morning and evening commune,
I did a variation of good morning evening everyone, This is call signed mobile
on my way to work and monitory. I think in the course of five
work days I had six or seven QSOs on the local repeaters. Okay,
so five work days six or seven QSOs, you got at least one qso
per day by doing that. Basically, if you want to talk to someone,
make it obvious that you want to talk to somebody, and you'll have
QSOs even on dead repeaters. I've already checked marked the thumbs up the h
approving of that post. So new challenge, guys, or a reiterance of
the former challenge here it is key up your repeater once a day, your
local repeater once a day. If you have more than one good local repeater,
key them both up. Key one up in the morning, key one
up in the evening, key another one up in the evening. If you
have one repeater, if you're like man, I don't want to go through
all these repeaters, just do it to one. Do it to one,
do it to two or three or four, Okay, And if you don't
want to do it every day, make a point to do it a couple
three times a week. I don't do it every day. I was doing
it every day for a while, and I did have some QSOs, and
then I went out of town and I came back and had some stuff going
on. I've been I did a lot of traveling. During the month of
April, I did a lot of traveling. Well, I was out of
town for a little bit over a week for hamvention during the month of May.
Since I've been back in town, I've had several repeater conversations. One
of the best repeater conversations I had, in my opinion, was two days
ago when we had some bad thunderstorm, really high winds. We didn't have
a tornado touchdown near There was one several miles away, but not in my
town. We had some high winds, we had thunderstorms and about fourth and
this all started about four to thirty five o'clock in the morning. Well,
by eight o'clock that same morning, the power had gone out and it stayed
off for three or four hours, and it came back on for an hour,
then it went off for another couple hours, then it came back on.
And it did that two or three times. I used some of my
battery stations to kick up my internet and get online, turn the TV on,
you know, important things. But the whole time I had an HT
sitting right there and on the Uless repeater for forty two dot nine hundred.
They were doing a welfare check. They called. They did this during the
Texas Snowmageddon several years ago. They've done this the last two or three winters
when we've had days of very low temperatures, single digit temperatures in the metroplex,
which is kind kind of unusual for North Texas. But they'll do a
welfare check. They'll get on there and just say, hey, this is
blah blah blah monitoring on the W five eul U list repeater. Very informal
net we're just monitoring today. If anyone needs anything, let us know.
If you want to ragchew, that's fine if you have questions. Weather reports,
power outage reports, which I've reported power outage several times that day,
and it was just a good place to talk and communicate and something to use
while your power was out. Here's the challenge. Key up your repeater,
your local repeater every day for the rest of twenty twenty four. And if
you can't do every day once again, do it a couple times a week.
But put a note on your calendar, put a notification on your phone
or on your watch, and keep up your local repeater and see what kind
of activity we can draw from that. Seventy three