[InHam] OT: Region OP QRMing Lafayette repeater

[Stephen M. Parker]

It's time to address this issue officially before it gets even further out
of hand.

I am President of the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization that
owns and manages the 147.135 repeater in West Lafayette, Indiana, the
Western Indiana Radio Emergency Services (W.I.R.E.S.). This repeater has
been owned and operated by W.I.R.E.S. for over 25 years and presently uses
the club call sign WI9RES.

The local ham who first mentioned the alleged "interference" to this
repeater has not contacted any of the club officers of W.I.R.E.S. with his
concern. He is not a W.I.R.E.S. official, but one of the net control
stations for a weekly net that is held on our machine.

The individual in the Chicago area that was referenced in regard to
occasionally bringing up our repeater in West Lafayette was identified and
contacted a few years ago. His identity is no mystery, as he legally
identifies when engaged in conversation. We do not consider his
transmissions as interference, merely a distant station bringing up our
repeater. And this happens VERY rarely, mainly during Spring morning band
openings on 2M. It is merely a slight annoyance, as we only hear one side of
the conversation taking place. And his signal is weak enough that it does
not over-power or interfere with local conversations taking place on our
repeater any more than other distant signals do when there is a band
opening.

The repeater northwest of the Chicago area that we believe he operates
through does not require CTCSS to access, but he apparently does transmit an
88.5 Hz tone. We are certain this is unintentional and the individual in
question has been contacted about this. Whether he chooses to act upon our
request to deactivate (or change) his CTCSS encoding is up to him. At any
rate, we do *not* consider this to be intentional or harmful interference,
merely a rare annoyance. Most of the local hams understand this.

We have never observed or been advised of any interference from this station
during the Thursday evening net that was referenced in previous emails. I
have monitored that net for many years, served for a few years as one of its
net controls, and have not observed the interference mentioned. If present
management of that net has experienced any problems, we are not aware of
them and have not been asked to look into any issues. That particular net
chooses to disable CTCSS for repeater access, resulting in occasional
transmissions being heard from stations accessing distant repeaters. This is
normal and to be expected - not to be considered interference. That is why
most repeaters use CTCSS for access - to eliminate co-channel interference.

One would expect that any possible problems with a repeater would be
discussed first with the owner or trustee of that local machine, rather than
rallying a man-hunt for a "rogue" operator 100 miles away. As the owners and
operators of the WI9RES repeater, we do not want to cause any hard feelings
for any ham in the Chicago area (or elsewhere for that matter) who may
unknowingly be accessing our system on rare occasions. As Spring and 2M band
openings approach, we will be closely monitoring to see if any actual
interference occurs here. We record all repeater activity to aid us in
investigating any complaints or concerns. If we do hear the one individual
from Chicago who we believe does not require CTCSS to access his local
machine, we will contact him directly to discuss the issue with him in a
neighborly and polite manner. Thank you all for your understanding.

As for the suggestion of swapping frequencies with the local D-STAR 2M
repeater, there are a multitude of valid reasons why this is not even
remotely being considered. As has already been established, there is no
interference issue on the WI9RES machine. Additionally, there are just as
many 146.73 repeaters in the region as there are on 147.135 MHz. Changing
frequency pairs is not something easily and quickly done. In individual's
transceivers, it's a breeze. At the repeater site, quite a different story,
as I'm sure many of you know. And the implication that interference doesn't
matter with D-STAR is, of course, entirely without merit.

I hope this email can lay to rest all of the buzz that has been generated
on, at last count, 7 different email lists to countless individuals. I
apologize for the stir of excitement caused by a situation that should have
been dealt with locally, and likely should not have been brought up at all
to the general ham population of the region. I do not subscribe to most of
the groups that this email topic has been distributed to, so I hope that
word of this being a "non-issue" will spread to those who may be taking this
to task. 73, and thank you for your time.

Stephen M. Parker, WR9A
President, W.I.R.E.S.
P.O. Box 4574
Lafayette, IN 47909-4574


West Lafayette, IN Repeaters:
147.135+ MHz, 88.5 Hz CTCSS  WI9RES (SKYWARN, ARES)
146.760- MHz, 88.5 Hz CTCSS  W9YB (IRLP 4315)
444.500+ MHz, 88.5 Hz CTCSS  W9YB
 53.190- MHz  W9YB
224.960- MHz  W9YB
443.775+ MHz, 88.5 Hz CTCSS  KA9VXS (SKYWARN Link)
444.300+ MHz, D-STAR, W9ARP-B (Linked to W9ICE-B D-STAR)
146.730- MHz, D-STAR, W9ARP-C


> -----Original Message-----
> From: inham-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:inham-
> bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Dean, Gregory A SSG RET
> Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 7:43 PM
> To: Paul Webster; carmachicago; ChicagoAmateurRadio Post; InHams;
> KA9QJGsyahoogroup; KB9YGD Group post; NoonTimeFourm-Post; QCWA Ch 36
> Subject: Re: [InHam] OT: Region OP QRMing Lafayette repeater
> 
> One solution, of course which might be unacceptable, is to swap the
> WIRES frequencies (147.135) with the local D-Star 2m repeater
> (146.730).  The 73 machine does not have many stations in the region on
> its frequencies.  And if 147.135 was on D-Star then the interference
> would not matter.
> 
> The objections would be that everyone would have to reprogram their
> radios....
> 
> N9NWO
> 
> --- On Fri, 2/26/10, Duane Mantick <wb9omc at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > From: Duane Mantick <wb9omc at yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Chapter 36] OT IndianaWeatherOnline covers Ohio & maybe
> parts of other states
> > To: "Paul Webster" <ka9jwx at yahoo.com>
> > Date: Friday, February 26, 2010, 5:45 PM
> 
> > Hey OM, owing to your location
> > (and also the "To:" list in the email I am
> > replying to) you may be able to help
> > me out.
> 
> Down here in Lafayette, we have a repeater
> > (our main local 2-meter machine) on 147.135 output, 147.735
> > input PL 88.5hz.
> 
> There is apparently a similarly
> > paired machine up in "the region" and it has ONE
> > ham who for some reason seems to like transmitting an 88.5hz
> > PL tone to that machine when I am told that it isn't
> > needed.
> 
> I have yet to get a callsign on the guy (and I
> > realize that it would help a LOT).
> 
> On nearly any even
> > slight band opening on 2 meters, he'll be on in the
> > evenings bringing up our machine but seemingly not able to
> > hear it (well........) or with no intention of *working*
> > it.
> >
> > I personally do NOT recall hearing other stations from
> > his area bringing up OUR machine, opening or not, which
> > tends to add some credence to the claim that the other
> > machine either is an open machine or uses a different PL
> > tone (which you would *think* would cause him to be
> > transmitting whatever THAT tone is, and NOT 88.5).
> >
> > I am Assistant Net Manager for the Thursday evening
> > net held here as well as one of the Net Control stations,
> > and yep - he has interfered with our net on occasion.
> 
> > It is S.O.P. for us to drop the PL during our thursday net
> > so that anyone who still is using a rig without PL
> > capability can participate.......in cases where we get
> > either this guy specifically or other interference of some
> > sort we may opt to turn it back on to try and keep such
> > stuff out.
> >
> > What you could do is either spread the word or if you
> > are already aware of a similar situation (meaning it could
> > be the same guy with a bad habit) get me in touch with him
> > via email or with the trustee of that repeater.
> 
> We *think* it is Chicago area, which makes the most likely
> > possibility the W9NXP machine in Markham (PL listed as
> > 107.2) [south side of Chicago, just north of where 80 and
> > 294 split] and the ARRL repeater directory that I have
> > lists the sponsor as "AREA".  Illinois has
> > some other machines on the same frequency and so these
> > cannot be totally ruled out:
> >
> > Savanna N9FID listed sponsor P.A.R.C.
> > Mt. Vernon KB9KDE listed sponsor ARCOM
> > Quincy WB9OTW listed sponsor WB9OTW
> >
> > Any help you can give would be appreciated.
> My goal isn't to stomp on anybody, but just to try to
> > locate the Amateur in question and "suggest" that
> > he may be "accidentally or inadvertently" causing
> > interference under certain circumstances, and possibly
> > without being aware of it (I hope).
> >
> > TNX and 73
> > Duane
> > WB9OMC