HI folks,

IF you've bought an easy enough to use rig PL isn't that big a
problem.  GO to a known memory, transfer it to vfo, access your pl
tone function and arrow up or down, whatever it is on your model to
change tones.  eXit the function if you get lost kerchunk away, return
to pl tone and keep going up/down in the original direction.

Ctcss is a darned good idea imho.  Too many people want the privelege
of putting up repeaters and this means interference issues.  wHen I'm
listening to a local repeater for a friend of mine I don't want to be
distracted by the weak signal just barely making the machine and
possibly timing it out.  i also don't want to listen to the intermod
and other crud that plagues some machines.

tHen there are the owners with lots of toys, such as my old home town
of Burlington Iowa's cw identifier with the clock that never had the
correct time in code.  As I used to say it told me what time it isn't.
HOwever the thing went off all the time because 146.79 in southeastern
IOwa was quite busy.  A repeater in BLoomington Il. one in rOlla Mo.
and one in Elgin Il.  NEedless to say a little band opening caused us
all sorts of grief.

Then there was the lid with his dog tracking collar which went
kerchunk kerchunk kerchunk.  SOmetimes this idiot would activate that
collar while it was in the box and it would be two or three days of
the repeater's time out time activated because it never got a chance
to reset until the battery in the stupid collar died.

THe New Orleans vHF club announces their tone freq on their repeaters
with the ID.  MOst everybody in this area uses 114.8, including the
Ozone club.  THe only exception is the WEst side club's machine on the
west bank and I couldn't tell you what they use nowadays.  In
southeastern Iowa the standard was 100 hz.

IT can be lived with, open repeaters can combine an announcement with
identification advising visitors of the correct note to hum.

I think all coordinating bodies should follow suit.

Btw my 25 watt rig on the J pole antenna here in my shack doesn't have
a tone board.  I will probably get a comspec board and preset it to
114.8 eventually.  THat's one reason I hang on uhf machines, nothing
that's active within reasonable ht range in my part of the city is on
vhf here in the big easy.  My xyl and I use a simplex freq for comms,
though our mobile can do ctcss.

73 de nf5b



Richard Webb

Electric Spider Productions
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

--- Benjamin Franklin, NOvember 1755 from the
Historical review of Pennsylvania