I was the primary control operator for one of our radio club repeaters
for about 6 years.
I kept one old crystal controlled radio parked on that repeater.
At one point during that time, I was part of a team of repeater
operators who gathered evidence of bootleg, or unlicensed activity, by
a local individual. Just as the FCC was about to pounce on the guy,
other authorities hauled him in for arson, thus separating him from
his stolen rig for quite a few years.
Fortunately, in my area at least, that type of thing doesn't happen
often.
Now, I am a secondary control op for two repeaters in our area.
That basically means that I monitor those machines, and apply
appropriate control codes when necessary.
Usually, that only means assisting someone if they need help bringing
up a link, making sure the link is dropped after a certain time of
inactivity, notifying the owners of problems or equipment failures,
etc.
Owning a repeater as an individual can be a bit expensive, especially
if you have to pay for antenna maintenance, which now days usually
means by bonded and certified tower crews, etc.
I've never taken the ownership plunge, but I came close to doing so
when I was living in my home town in the mid 1980s.
The installation economics caused me to back off on that project.
I could have put it on from my house, but I was aiming for a location
with enough range to expand normal simplex coverage in my area.
----- Original Message -----
From: "chad morrison" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 9:39 AM
Subject: managing a repeater
Hello, I was wondering to myself the other day if it would be possible
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for a blind person to manage a amateur radio repeater. Then I thought
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to myself why not just ask. So, here it goes. Do any of you know if
it =
would be possible and have any of you done so in the past or are doing
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so now? I don't see why not but as of right now I don't know a whole
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lot about it at this point. However, I have always wanted to go on
this =
adventure and intend on learning more about this in the future. I
just =
wanted to ask and see if anyone has already done so and would be able
to =
advise me on the challenges I might face from the blind prospective.
=20
Thanks guys
Chad
KB9TZR
=20
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