At 07:22 AM 6/9/2009, you wrote: >Personally, I don't believe in "closed" repeaters, though permitted >by 97.205e. We have limited spectrum and to tie up a frequency pair >for an exclusive (and often extremely small) group is not in the >best spirit of amateur radio. Excluding a station from using your >repeater based on their behavior is certainly acceptable, but let's >face it, short of having a control operator shut it down, any legal >"over the air" access mechanism (CTCSS, DCS, DTMF, etc.) can be overcome.
Closed repeaters seem to be a uniquely American thing. For us, closed repeaters are illegal, all repeaters are open, although the ACMA have set a precedent that "add ons", such as IRLP, can be closed to members of a certain group. However, this is rarely done in practice. As for funding, most repeaters are funded by clubs. Many used to be funded by the WIA, until their restructure several years ago, when the former state Divisions became clubs. There are also a number of individually funded repeaters here, independent of any club (including mine), which are truly a labour of love. One guy runs a very sophisticated multi band system, spread across several sites. It's mostly funded out of his own pocket, but he has no trouble attracting donations, because it is an excellent system, and very popular with the locals. I've slipped him some funds on a few occasions, to help out. As for things like Internet access, I need it for work and other reasons, so there's no issue with Internet based systems, such as IRLP, hitching a free ride. :) 73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com
