Demetre SV1UY wrote: > > First off PACTOR 3 supports DCD control so it can listen before it > transmits. Now maybe the Winlink people have a good reason to have > their automatic MBOS not support the DCD control, but the human > operator that calls an automatic MBO can listen to the frequency and > make sure noone else is using it before he transmits. Also this will > make sure that if someone's life is in danger they can reach the > autoanswering MBO no matter what. It is not the end of the world if > in a rare occassion someone's QSO is ruined if it is for a good > cause.
I doubt whether this has ever happened. What if the robot interferes with a live QSO in which lifesaving traffic is being passed? There is no excuse for any station on either end ever transmitting without listening first. Pactor mailboxes routinely, often, and flagrantly violate this basic principle of amateur radio. Now I can hear you saying that people can abuse this. Well in > this case you canreport them to FCC. Often the Pactor stations don't even ID. >I think that this is called > semi-automatic operation. In the past when we had PACKET FORWARDING > taking place, non stop, day and night, noone was complaining. Why was > it OK then and it is not OK now? Because the Packet stations were confined to a portion of the bands in which live QSOs usually were absent. The Pactor stations, inexplicably, insist on operating in the small portions of the bands in which live QSOs are present. Further, the packet stations were few, and operating at least in the USA under a limited STA. de Roger W6VZV
