From: grahj@gagme.chi.il.us (jim graham)
Subject: Re: Feedback to Operating Practices
Originator: grahj@gagme
Organization: Gagme Public Access UNIX, Chicago, Illinois.
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 04:00:31 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.200615.16645@convex.com> tonyp@convex.COM writes:
[and someone else wrote:]

>        1) Everybody on 2m seems to know each other already.  How do I get
>           involved?
>
>Well - I *KNOW* exactly how you feel on this one: I've found 2 meters to
>be about the most unfriendly place in ham radio - short of the gestapo
>nets on SSB. The only thing that seems to work is to meet people in 
>person - we used to go out for breakfast on saturday once a month - and
>once people meet you in person the barriers seem to drop down. I don't
>know (and I'm sorry to say) of anyone that made friends on a repeater.

YOU DO NOW.....  seriously, I've very definitely made friends on a
2m repeater.  I also happen to agree with you that this isn't nearly
as common as it should be.

what I normally do when visiting an area is to just id on the repeater
(when there's not a QSO in progress, of course, unless I mean to join in).
folks hear a call they don't recognize and often welcome me to the area.
in fact, I get this a lot even while here in chicago (where I currently
exist) --- folks hear a 5 call in 9-land, assume I'm from out of town,
and want to welcome me to the area (this is usually when I'm on at hours
where I'm normally not on the air).  another thing to do is, if you hear
someone ask a question (especially if it doesn't get answered) that you
can help with, hey, you probably make a friend right then and there if
you can help out.  :-)

but, there are certainly both types out there.  at one point, I was
back home in San Antonio (Texas) during the summer break from school,
and had made several friends on the repeater.  one night, I heard a
couple of (so-called) hams talking about this guy from TAMU who it
seemed was going to use the repeater for the whole summer, and how he
(I) should go somewhere where he *WAS* welcome.....  well, after that,
I moved off to another repeater, and the folks I'd met caught up with
me and asked about where I'd been --- when I told them, I got a flood
of responses from people telling me that I was their *PERSONAL* guest,
and to ignore the above jerks.  in fact, I later found out that those
2 had become rather unpopular over that, and *THEY* were the ones who
ended up not being welcome on the repeater (I wasn't the only person
who'd heard their comments.....).

so the real jerks are out there, but (from what I've seen) they usually
don't do anything except make enemies.  besides, anyone with an attitude
like that probably doesn't hold a valid license anyways...ignore them.

> What's this thing?
> It's called a MODEM.
> And what's this button for? 
> Whatever you do, don't touc{{{7bh6xx!{@%%hxbd&$#)$% NO CARRIER

cute.....  :-)

73s....I'm about to fall asleep at the keyboard after playing musical
time-zones.....
   --jim

--
#include <std_disclaimer.h>                                 73 DE N5IAL (/9)
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