[HCARC] "Big" repeater

[Gary Johnson N5BAA]

"dues are $20.00 per year. We seem to be doing quite nicely at this level"

Interesting you should bring this up Kerry, however in talking to Bill 
Anderson about the clubs budget before last meeting, he indicated to me that 
each year we are eating down a couple of hundred dollars each year in the 
$$$ that HAD been carry over from year to year,  There are a number of other 
things the club should be planning for (replacement antennas, radio, etc) 
that would seem to have a greater or at least equal precedence over deciding 
to replace a perfectly good and adequately working repeater.

Gary J
N5BAA
HCARC Secretary 2013

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "SARA SANDSTROM" <kerryk5ks at hughes.net>
To: <hcarc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 3:43 PM
Subject: [HCARC] "Big" repeater


>
>
> Well, once again, I wasn't going to get involved in this repeater 
> discussion, but....
>
> Our club is a relatively small club with many diverse interests. We have a 
> few members who are quite involved with the repeater, perhaps half a 
> dozen. We have about 20 more who manage to get on the Monday night Hill 
> country FM Net. That is probably less than a quarter of our active 
> members.
>
> A wide area coverage repeater on a 400' tower is a very different animal 
> than the repeater we currently have. It will take a lot more people to 
> support a "Big" repeater than the half dozen or so we have supporting the 
> current club repeater. How many Austin and San Antonio area hams do we 
> think will be using a "big" repeater? Right now our repeater is 
> underutilized because it has a small coverage area. We really don't have 
> any problems with users because of this. If we have a wide area coverage 
> repeater, do we really think we won't have a lot more problems? Speaking 
> of problems, at times we have a fair amount of problrms with intermods and 
> spurious signals from other local VHF users (non-ham). How much worse do 
> we think it will be on a 400' tower? Do we have the technical people who 
> have the knowledge and interest to put together a repeater that won't be 
> overwhelmed by these intermods and spurs?
>
> Lets talk finances for a minute. Lee kind of touched on this with the 
> requirements to get the repeater installed. Right now our club dues are 
> $20.00 per yeasr. We seem to be doing quite nicely at this level. The 
> repeater costs are really quite minimal. The biggest one being the need 
> for a new repeater a couple years ago and the only recurring ones being 
> phone and power. Do we really think that a repeater on a 400' commercial 
> tower will be as inexpensive? I doubt it.
>
> Finally, we need to think about the kind of club we are. I can see with a 
> "Big" repeater, the repeater will come to dominate the club, both 
> financially and manpower. Many of the clubs that have repeaters have ended 
> up splitting into two clubs, one for the repeater and one for other ham 
> activities with separate dues, meeting and officers.. I don't think we 
> have the people out here to do that. I don't think there are enough people 
> really interested in the repeater that could maintain and operate it for 
> very long. I also see most of the club not particularly interested in a 
> repeater and being less than willing to work on it and finance it.
>
> Incidently, while there are a few club members who are involved with 
> SKYWARN and the NWS and with the Red Cross and their emegency 
> communications, it is by no meaqns a majority. The primary usefulness of a 
> "Big" repeater would be to support those activities, in my opinion.
>
> These are the things that an executive committee needs to think about. One 
> of the worst things that can happen, in my opinion, is open something like 
> this up to a popularity vote by the general membership most of whom 
> haven't been involved with this kind of operation nand have little idea of 
> what it entails. It doesn't matter how great an idea something is if the 
> club doesn't have the people and finances to support it.
>
> Kerry
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