Why are repeaters more quiet than they used to be?

 

I'm seeing a LOT of folks asking where the traffic for Repeaters has gone. 

First let me say that, yes, the traffic is down some from the 70s to the early 90's but there's still traffic out there.

I had a 2/70 rig in my truck but took it out for a few months, but took it out for a while for a couple reasons not having anything to do with Ham Radio. More recently, I re-installed my little 779 UV into the truck again because of the fact that I was headed for Dayton Ohio for. Hamvention. Being the lazy slug that I am I just never bothered taking it out. Rather I started programming repeaters for the areas that I go into across five different states.

I'm glad I didn't take it back out because I have begun to discover the joys of hitting some of the local repeaters in the places that I normally go to. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.

Some of these repeaters are what I will call single Spike machines. In other words, they only have one signal, or perhaps they're a UHF and VHF combination from the same Hill.  Those are usually fun, although sometimes you're going to find that there really isn't that much traffic on them. Other days you will find the there's a network going on and you get a taste for some of the local people and that's usually worthwhile. You can usually jump in after the net is over and get some nice ragchew.

I have begun to develop a serious appreciation for the linked repeaters, configured in wide area networks, however. These are kind of like the well-known East Coast Reflector. I happened to cross one going through Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania yesterday that I initially thought was a single spike. Turns out it was anything but, having (I was told)  something like 80 different repeaters spread across the country, all tied together. I was fascinated to learn that,and I enjoyed a conversation between one individual in San Francisco and the other in Washington DC, and myself. All with my little 20 watt radio in the middle of Pennsylvania.

My recent exposure to FM repeaters from around the northeast leads to a few conclusions on the question of why we are seeing less traffic these days. I've seen the blame being put on PL tones (of all things!) claims of "distracted driving", the fact that cars are getting harder to find a place to mount antennas...(I've had problems with that, myself the last couple cars) I've seen folks blaming Chinese radios...(though getting them to describe just why is a bit of a challenge). I've seen folks mention that it's the users who often simply aren't very welcoming.... but that's also true on HF in places. I've seen folks blame cell phones... but let's face it, most people on cell phones aren't hams anyway. Frankly, I don't put much stock in these explanations.

As a result of my being an SWL who spent a fair amount of time monitoring local machines in my youth... and the more recent experience as well, I have a few observations to offer to explain the complaints.

 1: The butter is being spread over too much bread:

Back in the real heyday of the repeaters, early '60s and through the 70s up to say, 1990 or so, the number of repeaters active was relatively small and as a result a lot of the traffic was concentrated on to a relatively small number of active "channels". I would compare that to about 10 or 15 years ago on CB where a lot of the traffic on that bad graduated to channel 19. Ostensibly, 19 was supposed to be a trucker's channel but in eventually developed into some place where there was always some kind of traffic. Repeaters of the 70s through the 90s saw the same phenom, where traffic generates traffic. If you know that there is going to be people someplace speak with, you're going there.  Its the place to be. While it's true that there are less people overall that are active on repeaters it's also true that the numbers that remain are spread out amongst a much larger number of machines thus increasing the chances that when you land on one of them you're not going to hear anything going on and eventually you're going to turn the knob.

Part of the problem too, is the number of different modes that one can work on repeaters these days. When everybody was on analog it was a lot easier to find traffic. Add a half dozen incompatible digital voice modes and the number of people in active conversation dwindles.

2: Sunspots:

No, I'm serious. We're in the middle of a very good sunspot cycle and the HF bands have for the most part been cooking. I can tell you that I personally have been spending a good deal of time on HF, chasing root squares and DXCC. This takes away from the repeater traffic, too.... and it's natural that this happens. In fact it's been going on for Decades... Sunspots come in, and all the cool kids move to HF. And who can blame them?

 

3: Rudeness:

KC8VWM rightly says that people complain when there's too much activity occurring on a repeater.... and of course now we see people complain when there's no activity occurring on a repeater. He recounts his own experience:  "I remember when stations would come on asking (complaining?) the users to clear the frequency and leave the repeater open for others to use. And after they got chased off as requested, not a single person used the repeater for hours after that."  

And yeah, I've heard the same thing, myself.

4:Jammers: 

They're pretty much a universal issue, anymore. Just about every city has them. It's ssad to see, but not much can really be done about it.Let's say you manage through some coordinated effort to localte the source. I have my doubts that much will be done by the commission. Consider: People have been complaining to the commission about 7.ZOO for years now. Get the picture?

 Not a one of these factors is individually conclusive. Rather, I suggest that they are cumulative. That is to say none of these factors of themselves have left us in our current situation, but add 'em up, and what you see is what you get.

OK enough of the complaints.
I speculate the these things  are going to happen that will bring traffic back to FM repeaters:

Rebound 1:
In about 5 years, the current sunspot cycle will settle back down and the currently hopping HF bands will mostly be ghost towns again, particularly the shorter bands like 10 m. That will cause of itself a fairly significant uptick in repeater traffic.

Rebound 2:  

Next we will see a push forward some kind of standardization of digital voice modes. I suggest that  thus far digital voice modes have been proprietary black boxes. The company is involved with creating those black boxes are not going to be cheerful about giving them up for a different standard so this one may take a while and will most likely come from the ham radio community itself not one of the manufacturers such as Icom or Yaesu. Instead it will come from an independent developer or a developer that is adapted at open standard and modified it for the purpose such as was done with FT-X.

Rebound 3:

 The wide area networks that I mentioned earlier will also aid in getting traffic going. I'm afraid that the RF only purists aren't going to like it much, but WANs like EchoLink,  AllStar, and so on are going to be more than any other Factor responsible for making repeaters active again, particularly amongst younger hams who are just getting into the hobby.

"You mean I can get on my little 5 watt walkie-talkie that I paid $30 for and talk to somebody across the country?"

Yeah it's going to be like that.

And finally there is this.

Rebound 4:
You're not going to see what's at the bottom of the pot until you stir the soup. Toss your call out there and see what happens. All these other factors I've spoken of are long-term factors and won't see fruition for months or years. The best short-term Factor is just hitting the key and letting your voice be heard

It is surprising I think when you understand how much of our amateur radio activity is driven by habit. Well, get into the habit of stirring the pot. Toss your call out there.

Bonus Rebound:

Club activity. Many of the repeaters I've been active on here in the northeast, are club machines which are used by the club and it's members to keep informational and social lines open. Make no mistake here, folks... the weekly nets for each club is great but making a concerted effort to keep the lines of communication open even when ite weekly net is not in session is beneficial. Make the repeater the place where your members, ...as well as outsiders... WANT to be.