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Speak Out: What's On Your Repeater?

A contributor writes, "I was in my car re-programming my dual band for my annual trip to Dayton and I got to thinking about all of the unusual and creative ways some hams have set up their repeaters. In one case a local ham has replaced the courtesy beep with a kid's voice that says, "BEEP". Another in Ohio has a cuckoo chime in the top of the hour. Still another comes from The Michigan State University ARC in which the computer voice says, "This is the W8MSU repeater, GO STATE!" So the question is, what creative, unusual or fun ways to identify a repeater have you heard?"

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N0CRS on 2008-07-07
I don't listen to ANY repeaters anymore. The
people using them are so brain-dead and
boring . Same old crap I've heard 30 some
years ago .

Gotta go - I'm destinated .

K4TCW on 2008-06-30
If your repeater has a PL tone and you use voice ID, please advise what the tone is, as well as the frequency. Also, some repeaters seem to take an awful long time to "drop out".

W4MEC on 2008-06-25
Sometimes I wish the repeater I use did give it's location. Then, those fixed stations 100 miles away wouldn't bring it up and ask where it is. You would think if after buying a rig, amp, tower and yagi they might consider a Repeater Directory.

Charlie in NC

KG4ZVA on 2008-06-21
In my humble opinion, I believe it would be most helpful if repeaters gave a voice id as well as their location at least once an hour.
Why? Well not everyone is proficient at morse and when traveling or searching for new repeaters it would be nice to know where the repeater IS as much as who's repeater it is. not everyone wants to stop and check the internet or a book (especially while driving).

N3KBS on 2008-06-11
There was a neat one, if I am correct it was in lower Delaware that on fourth of July made an announcement and had a little pop and crackle like fireworks. I thought it was pretty cool.

N8EKT on 2008-06-11
My two repeaters have the minimum fcc requirement.
20wpm cw every 10 minutes.
One of the local 2 meter machines used to have a controller that gave the time every minute of every day as well as the voice ID that talked more than the users!
These things were cute years ago when they were a novelty but the novelty is gone.
It is also QUITE embarrassing to be standing along side law enforcement and county officials when these repeaters key up and sound like some Fisher-Price bath toy gone crazy!
Save the money you were gonna waste on the bells a whistles and put it into a repeater that actually repeats what it hears but NOTHING else!

KB8UDE on 2008-06-10
I read an article about a machine I think is in California somewhere that is on the same tower as an NBC TV affiliate and also had some professional voice talent as the ID. It would play the old NBC 'bells' and announce that it was transmitting "...from the top of the xxxx NBC tower in xxxx, this is the xxxx repeater..."

I'd like to read that article again and listen to the sound bytes if I could find it again. Been searching with no luck.

KG9MG on 2008-06-09
Back in the mid-1980's, I was living in the Metro NYC area.
One of the more active repeaters in the area I monitored was
the LIMARC machine, on Long Island. Late at night (from
about 12 to 4am or so) the machine would identify, and then
give the time- while asking the question "What are you still
doing awake at... <blank>AM?"

I still remember that, and smile.

KA5ROW on 2008-06-09
Dead silence is what you will hear on the 146.640 machine in Poteau, Ok. Rather disappointing this repeater is on a 2385 ft hill with a range of close to 100 mi. in most any direction for a mobile communication. I say disappointing as with such a good repeater it seems no one is taking advantage of it's potential. As I made a comment in a earlier post, repeater usage had dropped a lot over the last 25 years and there has been several who have said the same thing. So your guess is good as mine as what has happened to repeater usage nation wide.

N9AVY on 2008-06-07
Our local repeater recently upgraded and removed the DVR along with the "courtesy tone" (a.ka.a - annoying BEEP). Have to admit it's much more pleasant to operate repeater now. All those unique IDs become very old and annoying after some time. Also, they encourage "kerchunkers".

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