--- On Fri, 10/2/09, Kevin King <kc6...@comcast.net> wrote:
> From: Kevin King <kc6...@comcast.net>
> Subject: RE: [Repeater-Builder] ARRL Approves Study Committee to Research &
> Develop Plan for Narrowband Channel Spacing
> To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Friday, October 2, 2009, 9:57 AM
> I agree we do not need to make more
> "pairs" everywhere. But let's face it.
> We build from the left over's from the commercial world. Ok
> some of you buy
> all new latest, etc. At some point most of the gear is
> going to be narrow.
>
> Do any of the older operators remember moving to "narrow"
> band before?
>
>
I have been a ham for over 35 years and the standard around North Carolina was
5 khz then. At that time there were probably less than a dozen repeaters and
only 20 or 30 users per repeater in the whole state. The going thing then was
to try and use enough distance between repeaters so the same pair could be used
for several repeaters. The repeater in our town was moved off the 28/88 pair
to one on 13/73. The move was no big deal for the repeater, but it was thought
the users would not follow as new crystals had to be bought.
Just imagine how much of a problem it would be to move all the repeaters (now
several hundred) and many of thousands of rigs. Most would probably have to
buy new rigs.
As hams recycle comercial gear, it will be another 5 to 10 years before the
'new' narrow banding gear becomes surplus in large quantites or else the
commercial users will throw it all out as not usable .
