[App_rpt-users] did anyone notice

[Brett Friermood]

There is always the "make a better one" way to go. Not only would it
then list AllStar nodes, it could actually have more useful info,
better organization and more. Then again it will probably go this way:
http://xkcd.com/927/

I don't really travel a lot, so I'm really only concerned with my
surrounding 100-200 mile area. For the most part I basically use the 3
state coordinating bodies' listings, then try to cross reference with
the web pages of any clubs or other individuals that I find. Every
once in a while I get some first hand information from the people that
actually work on them, the owners, or other in the know users. The fun
part is always seeing if a club has the most accurate and up to date
information about their own repeater or not.

/rant on, sorry

One thing that drives me crazy with all the listings I find is that
they nearly never provide any indication of coverage, or even very
accurate location for that matter. In a roughly 30 mile long city just
listing the city name is not good enough. I know I'm a lot different
than most of the general population of amateur radio but I prefer to
know a lot more than just frequency, offset, and input tone.

I usually like to know:
approximate location (I understand the security thing to some extent
but within a mile or two would help)
rough antenna height (ideally for both receive and transmit, feet in
hundreds minimum)
repeater output tone, yes or no, what is it?
does it make use of remote receive sites?, is it a voted system or
tone selectable?, approximate locations of those sites
simulcast?, locations
part of a larger linked system?, what system, how is it linked (RF,
IP, landline, AllStar, IRLP, Echolink), node numbers
backup power, specs
when was the info last updated, by who (owner, tech, user)

I'm sure I missed some but that's a lot of what I'm looking for. I
know some clubs provide coverage maps on the sites, but I always take
those with a grain of salt. How are they modeled, what software,
accurate terrain data, mobile/portable, etc? I have a background in
public safety and see the same attitude of "turn to this channel and
it will work to talk to so and so" all the time. Then when something
goes south there is never a good workaround.

/rant off

Brett KQ9N


On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 5:36 AM, Lu Vencl <vencl at att.net> wrote:
> I have been trying to get repeater books to list Allstar node numbers but I just can't seem to get them to include it.
> Nice job!
>
> Sent from my iPhone, Lu Vencl
>
>> On Jan 29, 2014, at 5:02 AM, "Ken" <ke2n at cs.com> wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps the first step is getting your local coordination body to list the
>> asterisk number.
>> After some gentle encouragement, we got that to happen in the DC area
>>
>> http://www.tmarc.org/freqs/Frequency.html
>>
>> Regards
>> Ken