[KYHAM] tone squelch etc (long)

[Fred Flowers]

I don't understand how a frequency left untouched will help anything.  You'll have to post repeaters all over the state to make sure that you have coverage where you need it.  Without tone no telling how many will key up & heterodyne   In 1982 installed 40 repeaters on 142.350 for the National Guard.  There were still gaps in coverage.  They also didn't have tone.  The were controlled by DTMF.  Talk about a mess.  Two or three would get stuck on the air and nobody could talk over the heterodyne  I begged then to use CTCSS with a different tone for each repeater. A muilt tone encoder could have put on each mobile.
Fred Flowers
KF4QZN
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Wa4dby at aol.com<mailto:Wa4dby at aol.com> 
  To: fred_flowers at msn.com<mailto:fred_flowers at msn.com> 
  Sent: Monday, August 30, 2004 9:58 AM
  Subject: Re: [KYHAM] tone squelch etc (long)


  Sir,

  I have and owned a repeater, so I guess you were pointing your key strokes toward folks like me. I think you are missing the big point. As a disaster communicator I have been working in real world disasters for 25 years.  The tone you take is quite over bearing in regard to emergency communications. Many people have good hearts and want to help in an emergency. They may not have PL's or maybe can't figure out how to operated the new radio's without the book (I've seen this first hand ). Many are older operators, but that doesn't make them any less valuable. If you are not flexible in a disaster you won't be affective, and if you continue to be ridgid you maybe replaced.  If its tone we use then its tone but don't cut on the groups that do most of the work. If it wasn't for the retired radio operators working disasters most of the communications wouldn't be passed. Yes, I would like to see some FREQ left untouched and open. It appears that won't be the case. And yes I do think we could have done a better job with SERA, I live with it and go on. I'm sure I have misunderstood your stand on this issue.

  Eddie