Richard,

It would be nice if more areas used a single PL frequency for all their
repeaters, but there are a lot of places where that doesn't happen,
especially here on the east coast.  In this area, PL tones were first used
primarily to keep non-club members from using repeaters, but now they seem
to be mostly for reducing interference.  I'm just glad so many of the new
radios can scan for PL tones.  It sure makes life a lot easier.

Steve

On Sunday 8/29/04 20:58 [log in to unmask] wrote:

>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