First, in the section that you cut, the reason for Field Day is to test our Emergency Preparedness. It’s not to make points.
The use of repeaters, by many, is driven by the fact that repeaters are a part of the Emergency Response plans for many organizations. I could maybe see excluding fixed location repeaters, but portable repeaters are a big part of our Emergency Communications plans, there should be no reason to preclude their use. The setup and operation of most Field Day sites is indeed similar to something that you might find as an emergency response in Haiti or rural areas of Chile, but it has very little to with operations that you would find throughout most of the US. Today’s Field Day is more like an Emergency Response that Amateurs would have used in 1950, than one that we would have used in the last 40 years. Ed WA4YIH From: dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com [mailto:dstar_digi...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris Fowler Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 4:27 PM To: dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] New poll for dstar_digital On Mon, 2010-04-12 at 20:13 +0000, Woodrick, Ed wrote: > > > 6.8. No repeater contacts are allowed. > > > > Personal Observation – ARRL added the no repeaters rule in the late > 70’s as an effort to keep from overwhelming 2M. This was back when > many areas only had two or three repeaters and having a three field > day stations hang out on the same repeater could result in a massacre. > 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands were included in the same vein, to keep > a limited use resource from becoming overwhelmed. Since the rules were > implemented, the number of repeaters has blossomed dramatically and > the impact of a field day operation on a repeater has been minimized. How about RF to RF contacts using repeaters with no link. Many clubs are very competitive when it comes to FD. I would believe chasing down contacts using a 2820 linked to WD4STR linked to REF030C would be a way that these clubs could try to get some large numbers. Especially if you notify the global D-Star community. At some point the desire for points will undermine the whole purpose of Field Day.