Leaderboard

Speaking of vacuum tubes, I had the "honor" of working on an "ENIAC" [ Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator ] in Chicago in 1966. This one was one of the late production units having "only" 1900 tubes. It was in a room 26 feet by 16 feet and had it's own air conditioning system. Even so, the average room temperature was around 85 degrees and no joy to be in there for any length of time. It had the problem solving power of a 1982 Commodore 64. But at least it would do something that a Commodore would not do... the operator could cook lunch on the wire mesh case surrounding the power supply tube type 2X2 rectifier bank. There was a sign near the operator's desk that said, "Bring your own frying pan."

Yes it sucks that most repeaters or private or require access. But its their time and money that went into putting the repeater up, so they ultimately make the rules. The mismatching of PL or DPL tones is done usually to slow down unauthorized users. If you ever visit NYC, you will see why its done that way. Some onwers only request permission, so this way they have an idea who is using it, and can keep track of how many users use the machine.

Although I still don't have it on the air yet Cory, there would be no point to me putting it up at all unless I allow any licensed GMRS user to use it... I may be old (67) but I'm not yet to the point of talking to myself, and even if I were I'd still not need a repeater to do that!