From: jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Subject: Re: Closed repeaters
Date: 5 Jan 1993 15:18:15 GMT
Organization: UT Health Science Center Houston

In article <1ialnnINNt37@transfer.stratus.com> leadfoot@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Mark Curtis) writes:
>In article <8319@lib.tmc.edu>, jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard) writes:
>|> OK...but let's add some more things to make your analogy even closer: First of
>|> all, the highway has hundreds of lanes.
>And there are thousands of users/drivers.  If you live in any metro area
>you know that demand for more lanes rises faster than they can be built.

...but, since there are hundreds of lanes, changing lanes to one that doesn't
have someone's Porsche in it is not only possible but easy.

>Blocking off PUBLIC property for one group/user's PRIVATE use without
>compensation to the public is wrong.

Fortunately, the FCC disagrees with you.

>Kind of like FM/AM/TV broadcasters,
>cell phone, and other private interests pay.  They too are using a public
>resource for private usage, so they pay a usage fee to offset the public's
>loss.

Actually, no, they don't. Their license fee goes strictly towards the expenses
of processing their license. Nothing more.

>|> Second, the lane Jim's Porsche is in
>|> is one of the most heavily traveled lanes on the highway.
>All the more reason not to park your car in the lane blocking it.  I don't
>care how many lanes there are, when they're all needed people have to
>share.  When there are unused lanes available then it isn't a problem,
>but when demand is high the rules have to change.  No more private use
>of public property.

Sorry, but this doesn't wash either. You're demanding that Jim change his
Porsche into a public bus, just liek all the public busses in all the other
lanes. Are you going to pay for it? If not, then what gives you the right to
take his property?

>|> Third, there are
>|> spots on the highway where, if you cross them at exactly 88 miles an hour,
>|> you're teleported somewhere you're thinking of, but if your speed is off, you
>|> wind up in weird worlds you can never get out of.
>You added a hazard to public hiway?  As long as we're at it lets add a
>set of lights and traps for drag racing. :-)

Some repeaters have traps for the unwary. Linked repeater systems, for
example, are extremely confusing to the uninitiated, as well as being
expensive to set up and maintain. Others have sophisticated control systems
driving alll manner of accessories; a careless touch tone at the wrong time
can being the whole thing crashing down on your head. You would have all such
repeaters open to every ham. The net effect of _that_ would be lowering all
repeaters to the lowest kerchunk-box common demoninator. What ever happened to
experimentation?

>|> Fourth, as the highway winds
>|> through Texas, there are others on it who Jim shares the lane with peacefully
>|> and cooperatively.
>And others who have just as much right to be there who aren't welcome.

You're demanding that Jim hand the keys to his Porsche to anyone who comes
along and asks. Are you prepared to buy the machine from him? If not, then ho
dare you tell him how to run it?

>Just turn your repeater off, that is the only thing you
>do own and control.

Letting someone who doesn't like me prevent me from using my repeater -
something that has happened regularly in the Houston area - is silly and
wrong, but it's exactly what you're advocating: by your standards, someone ho
doesn't like Jim merely needs to appear on his repeater, thus forcing him to
either let the guy use it or deprive himself of it.
-- 
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can
jmaynard@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu      | adequately be explained by stupidity.
      "Science is all in the public domain, and allows few secrets."
              -- Tom Clancy, _The Sum of all Fears_
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc