On Tue, 05 May 2009 12:32:57 -0000, "Louis" <k1...@yahoo.com> said: > Interesting, this looks like one of those Hams/bash-hams discussions > that is not suppose to take place on this forum!
Sometimes you just have to rant when you see something this bad. I didn't name names, and I didn't attack any individual. > Yes, I will agree their are those that cause havoc with a tower site > owner, or other lessors, but the number is minor compared to those > Amateur Radio installs that are done properly and well maintained. I hope so. From the "proud papa photos" around the Internet, I'd say it's closer to 50/50, but luckily that ratio gets better at commercial sites, where my club's gear often lives. > Let's hope you never need the services of a Amateur Radio Operator during > a disaster, when the so-called Professional Installs have failed for one > reason or another. Yeah yeah, whatever. I'm a ham, which you'd know if you had been paying attention for the last oh what... seven or eight years I've actively posted here on RB. Are you new here? We could discuss how utterly useless ham radio is these days, or my favorite point recently that anyone with a satellite dish, ability to aim it, and an IP-based service, can do more communications "good" in a disaster area with that IP, an Asterisk box, and some cordless phones to hand to the real emergency services folks... instead of sitting around playing with FM 2-way... but I won't go there here on RB, since the point here *is* building repeaters. But you hand any emergency services guy a working phone and a working laptop with medium-speed Internet service and dial-tone, and you've made their day... they don't want to "pass traffic" on our systems, they want to make a phone call or send an e-mail. > The next step would be, to consult the tower owner and found out what > criteria he/she/they required when allowing the Amateur repeater be > installed. You may find, that the hardline that was run up the middle of > the tower, was already there, and unused, and the tower owner said, sure, > you can use it. Some tower owners require a professional bonded tower > climber to do the work, and the culprit may lie there. Already done. And the tower was COMPLETELY CLEAN -- it's a "new" tower, specifically set aside for hams (a VERY nice gesture by the commercial operators of the site), an old Motorola tower and fiberglass building -- just for us. The standards were agreed to over a YEAR ago, and I walk in on Saturday to do a clean install, and find the new tenant has already broken every site rule at the site. Not to mention that we THINK the repeater also went from 220MHz to 440MHz with NO contact to the main site guy, and now he'll be within a MHz of my link frequencies I've been using there for over a decade. We are all pretty rightly PO'ed about it, okay? If you don't have the whole story, trying to make me feel better about the mess, isn't going to help. I'm sorry I posted, but I know there's a LOT of potential new repeater owner/operators that hang around here, and I want to make it VERY clear that when one ham does things like this on a site, they ruin things for ALL hams on the site. Frankly, too many new repeater owner/operators think this is about slapping junk like this on the air, and that'll be the next "great" repeater in the area. It just doesn't work that way, and that was my only real purpose for the rant. "Perhaps your life is only to serve as a warning to others," as the jokingly sarcastic "Demotivator" poster showing a sinking vessel, states. > Bashing all Hams because of something that you feel is inadequate really > is uncalled for! I never bashed ALL hams. I bashed hams who install CRAP repeaters made out of RG-58 jumpers, smashed hardline, on frequencies not authorized by the head site manager, with cheap ham-grade antennas at 120', a mobile duplexer, an open cabinet, no grounding other than a polyphaser, and a power supply that looks like it came out of someone's junk box to run their Heathkit. Please - get a grip on reality. That type of installation makes us ALL look bad, and you know it. And if you're touchy about it because you personally have such an installation, get it down off the commercial site and put it in your backyard where it won't be a mess for others to deal with. > Have a great day! Already having it! You too. :-) Nate WY0X -- Nate Duehr n...@natetech.com