Subj : Re: Fall To : JIMMY ANDERSON From : Daryl Stout Date : Tue Nov 30 2021 22:01:00 Jimmy, JA> Interfered with? Yep. Whenever I went to pass traffic on a test session or something else, I'd get walked on, and they had far more power than I did. With analog, you have no clue as to who is doing it. At least with the digital modes, your callsign shows up. From what I understand, locally...none of the repeaters are on the gateway...per the wishes of the trustees. One Thursday night, we had several supercell thunderstorms moving into Arkansas ahead of a cold front, and the Storm Prediction Center had just issued a Tornado Watch for the region. Well, the head of Arkansas Skywarn had been notified by the National Weather Service that they wanted to activate it, but he wanted me to do "The Weather Watch Net" (a precursor to Arkansas Skywarn) while they got some hams to head out to the National Weather Service. The weather net was to start at the same time this clubs regular traffic net was to run, but with Skywarn as "priority and emergency traffic", that net took priority, and pre-empted the traffic net. I keyed up, and announced that The Weather Watch Net was now on the air, and this old older ham (who went bad senile after his wife died) went ballistic. He demanded "Who the hell made the decision for such??". I tried to explain to him what was going on, but he would have none of it. Thankfully, the club president was on the repeater, and I told him to "Tell him"...and even though he did, this guy felt that a regular traffic net was far more important. After that, every time I keyed up on that repeater, I was interfered with, and likely by this individual...who is a Silent Key now. Another ham, now a Silent Key, nearly drove me out of ham radio nearly 6 years after I got licensed. I was Net Control and a member of two local clubs, and as it turned out, they had their hamfests in April, 3 weeks apart. My philosophy was "I may have to work both Saturdays, but I'd like information on both...in case I can sweet talk the boss into letting me have Saturday off, and I'd work on Sunday instead. I saw nothing wrong with that. Besides, without work (a nasty 4 letter word (hi hi)), you do not have money for going to hamfests, and buying new ham radio toys. Well, that infuriated this individual, who called me on the phone, and cussed me to the point of tears. I called a fellow ham who lived about 2 miles away, and bawling like a baby with a soiled diaper...I told him "I'm quitting the hobby, and bringing you my gear to tell". He said "WTH??", and I said "I'll tell you when I get there", and promptly hung up on him. I drove over to his apartment, walked in, still in tears, threw my gear on his couch, pulled my license out of my wallet, and threw it and the big copy I had, on the couch, and headed for the door to leave. He said "Wait A Minute!! You are NOT leaving here without telling me what is going on!!". I admit I thought about saying "Screw It!! I've had enough of ham radio!!". When I told him what happened, he exploded in rage, cussing as bad as I had been cussed out not 15 minutes earlier. The next week, when this individual got on the air, and said to me "You always do good", it was all I could do to keep from cussing him out on the air. I would've lost my license, and they would've lost a member and Net Control (I wonder if it would have been worth it). But, as it was, I went QRT for 6 months. No packet, no meetings, no hamfests, no nets, no public service events, NOTHING. I was still considering turning in my license, with a very nasty letter to the FCC, telling them what they could do with it and the hobby. This individual had turned so many people away from ham radio, that there were many against him, who noted that at his funeral, "they wouldn't be able to close the coffin for all the spit", and there'd be a line of folks waiting to relieve themselves (from both ends) on his grave. Two and a half years ago, another OM had written some software for his XYL to get callsigns when on D-Star. But, every time she did the nets, she was missing callsigns like mad. If I was a station with emergency traffic, I definitely would not be happy. He got angry because I (and from what I understand, several others) described the software as "klunky". To me, if you wrote a program that is NOT doing its job of copying callsigns as it should, then it is "klunky"...and it is up to the author to fix things. It also took him forever and a day to update net listings for D-Star Nets on his website...and that's why I started my own list of D-Star Nets... originally in PDF format, but recently converted to Excel Spreadsheets. The spreadsheets are so much easier to work with than PDF files. So, I quit being involved with the net that this was on, and nearly quit ham radio. I also switched my emphasis from weather, to trains and railroads; as well as changing my callsign. This net was a weather related net, but it NEVER did activate for a real Skywarn Event, like the VoIP Hurricane Prep Net does (I know they're glad hurricane season is now over for the year). But, then several of the net controls moved to other areas, and their internet was so erratic where they could not get into the reflector. With that, and continual declining net participation, it's causing that net to go QRT after the net this Sunday night. Very few folks knew the real reason why I left, and I could have been a real butthole, and aired the dirty laundry on the air or in the Yahoo Group...but I didn't. Just like with the other hams noted, while I forgave them, I never forgot what they did...and it has left a bad taste in my mouth regarding amateur radio. Net Control is not for the faint hearted. I've been doing nets for over 30 years, so I know how they should be run. In fact, when I do the Arklatex D-Star Net on Tuesday evenings, I have multiple monitors, with taking net checkins on Reflector 48 B, plus via Netlogger, D-Rats, Facebook, and email; all simultaneously. The email, Facebook, and D-Rats checkins are noted as a bean for the count, and aren't asked for comments. To me, if a ham as a Net Control station isn't willing to do the work before, during, and after the net (and it is WORK), then they have no business being Net Control. Some nights, I'm in the computer chair for nearly 3 hours...and have the walker next to me, as I start cramping up from sitting so long...and nearly fall when I get up to move around. I start early checkins 45 to 60 minutes before the net, but depending on the net and its format, it be done in as little as 30 minutes, or as long as 90 minutes. Yet, when checkins dry up, I go into "auctioneer mode". Where they go "going once, going twice, sold" (just like the song by John Michael Montgomery...the music video on that is cool...and the female in the video is a cute blonde, who can really clog!!), I do a next to last call, then a final call for rechecks, late net checkins, or anything else to come before the net. If I get some, I keep the net going...but if not, I terminate the net. For logging, I started using Netlogger in August, 2020...and absolutely LOVE it. I even prepared a PDF tutorial file on setting it up, and using it for nets. I didn't get into the part for using it for contesting, as that part of ham radio never appealed to me. Daryl, WX4QZ .... Bad weather reports are more often right than good ones. === MultiMail/Win v0.52 --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (618:250/33) .