[CTSARA] [GNARC] Projects and Activites: An Idea and InformalSurvey

[Chris- KB1QXR]

Hello again and sorry for yet another overly verbose QXR post...


>From what I gather the WECA system is using voting receivers, an excellent
way of providing improved coverage especially to mobile units with low-power
transmitters.  I don't actually have them programmed in my radio right now
but I will give them a shot...


The basic point with the link though is this- any method of communication is
only as useful as the number of people you can reach with it.  From what
I've heard (using my trusty HT) of the Stamford and Norwalk machines, they
both have great coverage.  The problem is that because they are separate
machines, John standing by on the Stamford machine won't hear someone
looking for a QSO on norwalk.  And the lack of use doesn't attract users
looking for a friendly QSO.
Take LIMARC (a large long island linked repeater system) for example, around
here we can get their W2VL machine, 146.850-, 136.5 PL.  Tune in any time
during the day and more often than not you'll hear at least 2 hams, if not 3
or more.  Sure they have an impressive network, and they cover more people,
but their biggest advantage is that they have lots of traffic.
To make an analogy- Let's say two friends invite you to two parties on the
same night.  One party has 3-4 guys sitting doing nothing, the other has
food and music and tons of people having fun.  Which one would you go to?

I'm not saying we should compete with LIMARC.  But in the above situation,
lets say the only party was the boring one- sitting at home and watching a
movie now seems like a better option, no?  But if enough people came to the
boring party (perhaps by combining several boring parties together), it
wouldn't be boring anymore and **more people would want to come to the
now-fun party**.
(and for the record that's just an analogy- I'm not saying anybody is boring
:) )


Links are also good for EMCOMM use, in an emergency situation a linked
system that covers the whole 'foot' of southwestern CT would surely be quite
useful.  However I am personally reluctant to trust anything VoIP as
'emcomm-ready', look at california a few months back- fiber cuts in 3 places
and the city's whole infrastructure becomes a headless chicken.  A
site-to-site RF link seems like a much more reliable idea.

The main downside to the link is that overall capacity goes down (IE a qso
in stamford ties up the norwalk frequency pair), however from what listening
experience I have, I don't think the area ever really has so much traffic
that it would be a problem.



Lastly, as for getting people together- in my experience with my group of
friends, the best strategy is to first (2weeks in advance) send out an
informal survey suggesting 4-6 possible times for an event and/or asking for
suggestions.  From this, make a hard schedule about 1week in advance, and
send out a reminder 24hrs before the event...


73's and sorry for the long post....

--Chris KB1QXR


-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Solomon [mailto:jonstv at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 9:00 AM
To: kb1qxr at arrl.net
Cc: ctsara Mailman
Subject: Re: [CTSARA] [GNARC] Projects and Activites: An Idea and
InformalSurvey

Chris-

You bring up some good points.  Frank, you do too.  I'm in, though, right
now, I'm more passive than I want to be.

Chris, the linked repeaters is an interesting idea.  WECA is already a set
of linked, or rather tied, repeaters, seeking the strongest signal.

As for the SARA (at least VHF) repeater, John, WB1GRB is often on the  
side, especially when he's working, and Bill (KB1IFY?) is on as well.   
But the "problem" is that I'd guess most people who use the repeater aren't
able to work the repeater during the day.

But it boggles my mind that when I leave work (sometime between 5p and 10p,
I hardly ever get a QSO.  Rumor has it the GNARC 'NLK repeater is active
during the rush hours.

Anyway, Frank, I think the best way to get people to join is to be
definitive... Pick a date, forget about people who can't come (unless it's a
major day, like the first Monday night football or
something...) and have the meeting.  Do that enough times and people will
come.

Perhaps something "regular" like a Sunday breakfast the 2nd or 3rd week of
the month; something to keep people going between regular club meetings.
Weather it's official (ie a "club" get together) or unofficial.

Great... now I'm out of change (har har... my $0.02)

Off to work.
Jon
W3EIC

On Aug 19, 2009, at 5:27 AM, Chris- KB1QXR wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> I've been licensed for about a year but didn't do much with it until 
> recently, so forgive me if this is a 'dumb' idea...
>
> There are a number of repeaters in this area going up I-95, 
> westchester, stamford, norwalk, etc.  Why not link them all, or at 
> least a few of them?
>
> I don't know about other machines but it seems there isn't much 
> daytime activity on the Stamford repeater (at least from my (limited) 
> experience).
> In contrast, LIMARC (which as I understand it operates several linked 
> repeaters on Long Island) almost always has a good conversation going.
>
> Let's say you did a 3 way link- WECA (westchester) - SARA (stamford)
> - GNARC
> (norwalk)... this would cover a good chunk of southwestern CT, greatly 
> expanding the number of operators that might be listening at any 
> point.
>
> Ideally this would be done with RF and site-to-site links for optimal 
> resiliance in emergencies, however that is of course expensive, so if 
> this were to be tested it would seem like VoIP would be the way to go 
> at least in the short term.  It seems to me (and of course I could be 
> way wrong) that it would greatly increase the utility of the area 
> repeaters for very little effort...
>
> Plus which this provides an opportunity for another fun acronym :)   
> Perhaps
> SCAN- Southern CT Amateur Network?
>
>
> On another note, I'd also be interested in app_rpt related stuff.  I 
> figured I was probably the only one that had even heard of Asterisk...
>
>
> just my 2c...
>
>