[Boatanchors] The Silence of the Bands

[Glen Zook]

Repeater operation "peaked" in the late 1970s into the early 1980s.  Frankly, there were a few amateur radio operators who "pushed" FM repeater operation and definitely "oversold" this type of operation.  I have to admit that I was one of those persons!  From the late 1960s into the mid 1970s, I wrote a fair number of FM related articles for first 73 Magazine and then from January 1971 until August 1973 I was the first FM Editor of CQ Magazine.


There were others who were also writing articles about how well VHF / UHF FM operation, and especially repeaters, worked.  We did everything possible to encourage this type of operation.  By 1972, hundreds of amateur radio operators would attend seminars concerning FM operation.  Every major amateur radio convention had at least one FM forum and often several with FM operation as the topic.


Then, in the early 1980s, the popularity of repeater operation leveled off and then started to decline.  Today, repeater operation, in many locations, is primarily by newcomers using the very inexpensive Chinese handheld units.  Unfortunately, these handheld units have limited range and many newcomers soon loose interest because of the low power, etc., and they are working the same few people day after day.

 Glen, K9STH 
Website: http://k9sth.net

      From: B Farrell <bradk4rt at gmail.com>
 To: Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net 
 Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2017 10:56 AM
 Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] The Silence of the Bands
   
Bob,

That's an interesting observation about repeaters.  Here in the greater
Washington, DC area there must be around 50 repeaters on the various VHF &
UHF bands but mostly 2 meters and from my perspective there is little
activity heard outside the few club weekly nets.  While the availability of
so many repeaters would seem to be a good thing for emergencies I suspect
that the pool of hams who are monitoring are so spread out among the many
repeaters that few transmissions or conversations occur outside net times.

I think there is a decline in retention of new hams who get their Tech
licenses perhaps because they lose interest.  The ARRL's answer is to
occasionally pursue license restructuring or band refarming. But the League
mucking about in the regulatory process has never solved the problem.