Announcing the RME on-air ham radio net

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
(EDIT: our next net is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, April 16th 2019, exact time TBD.)

Now that permission has been granted to use a centrally-located repeater, and after an impromptu dry run by myself and @lhracing, I am ready to hold our first official RME on-air ham radio net. All licensed ham radio operators on RME are invited to join in. Any RME members who own ham radio equipment but are not licensed are welcome to listen, but are not allowed to transmit and join the net (except via approved third-party communication). You've probably already read these details in the other thread, but in case you missed them:

  1. we will use the 146.940 repeater (88.5 tone) located on Farnsworth Peak
  2. this will take place Wednesday night at 8:30pm
I intentionally selected a repeater which requires a tone for access. This means all would-be participants have a homework assignment: in order to join us, you'll need to figure out how to program your radio for tone output (on transmission only), and configure it accordingly in advance. Most Japanese radios will make this fairly simple; if you have a more complicated Chinese model such as a Baofeng and are having difficulty figuring this out, let me know and I will offer assistance.

This repeater was also selected due to its location. Sitting atop Farnsworth Peak, this repeater offers good coverage from Ogden to Payson, and should also work for guys out west in the Grantsville/Tooele area as well. From what I saw in the other thread, this means it should be a good location for the vast majority of RME members who want to participate. Having said that, we are all experimenting. If you go to participate only to discover your exact location has poor coverage, we'll talk about it later and see what we can do to improve your experience the next time. Also, if you only have a handheld radio and are a considerable distance from Farnsworth, you may have difficulty participating. We'll just have to try it and see how well it works.

I selected Wednesday night at 9pm for a few reasons. For starters, it is a time when most of us are probably at home for the evening. Also, it seems to be a time when this repeater is not already tied up with another net. (If we are surprised and there happens to be something else on this repeater that night at 9pm, we'll bump ahead to 9:30 or 10:00 to give the other net time to complete.) If this day/time proves problematic for some of you, we can look at moving things around in the future to accommodate more members. I will try to be as flexible as possible.

Lastly, I will be net control (meaning the person leading the net). While I have joined dozens and dozens of nets over the years, I've never been net control for a single one. This means I, too, will be learning and stepping out of my comfort zone... so nobody here should feel frightened or nervous because they are attempting something new. We're all in this together, and RME is a judgement-free zone. :)

Right now, I do not expect this to become a permanent weekly net. I envision us doing this a few times, for sure, to make sure everybody gets some practice and experience to get them on their way to comfortable radio use. Having said that, we do have permission to use the repeater as much as we like, so I guess this is really up to the body of RME and not just me. If you guys decide you're in it for the long haul, I can be as well.


Are there any questions?
 
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nnnnnate

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
WVC, UT
Right on. Thanks for putting this together Dempsey. I've got it on my calendar for next week but have another thing earlier and may not be done by go time. I will see about getting through on the repeater though.
 

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
If I go to the programmed farnsworth peak on my radio that should do the trick right?
 

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
If I go to the programmed farnsworth peak on my radio that should do the trick right?

There are about a dozen repeaters located on Farnsworth Peak. Did you copy the programming of one of my radios? In the past, I labeled this specific repeater FRNW22.
 

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
if it goes over well... maybe we can take turns being net control so that we all get the feels!

That's not a bad idea, assuming there are people interested in being net control.

For the record, I downloaded a net control script (from another net I join) and modified it to suit our purposes. The reason being there are a few things which ought to be said, and having them written out will make sure I don't forget them. This script may evolve slightly over time, of course. When/if anyone else wants to take a turn, I will be happy to send them the script.
 

moab_cj5

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
I will likely be in SLC in my truck, so should make it easier for me. I will also bring an HT with me to see if my Yeasu is setup right. Looking forward to it!
 
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