Repeater Courtesey

Last week I was at the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club (BARC) regular meeting when one of the officers began talking about something with which I am in complete agreement - the lack of courtesey on the UHF/VHF area repeaters. No, we do not have anyone that is intentionally rude or unfriendly, in fact I would say that we are usually very good to each other and nice to strangers. The problem is that we tend to use the repeaters the same way we use telephones. We forget that the sytem is shared by many users and is not a two-person operation. The main problem is that we (Yes, I'm just as guilty) tend to immdiately key up and talk without waiting for a break and ...just as bad...not letting the squelch tail die, thus not resetting the timer. I have noticed this not only on the two major club repeaters (BARC and SCARC) but also on the DStar repeater, which the situation was exacerbated to the point of total chaos during a net check-in. This used not to be a problem several years ago and in fact anyone caught doing quick key-ups or long talk-downs was verbally chastised. Some of us old folks remember the "Black Box Award."

I wish that I could say that this was a problem with amateur comminty as a whole but that is not the case. It is a local problem and needs to be addressed by the local ham community. In fact, Birmingham area hams are getting a bad reputation on account of it. Fortunately it is one that can be quickly cured with little effort, mainly we all need to observe radio courtesey by not immediately keying after the last transmission but wait long enough for the squelch tail to reset. It would also be good for each of us to remind each other when we are drifting away from proper etiquette.

Another point to keep in mind is that too-quick keying may hamper someone with an emergency from being able to access the repeater.