Question: Paid Subscription Repeaters?

[wilbilt62]

14 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

If a means of emergency communications is truly important, other members of the community should be willing to help pay to do it right.  

If I could find someone about 5 miles north of my location willing to host a repeater site, I could likely scrape up the cash to get it done. I don't think it would meet the goal if I did it where I am.

These are small, rural communities in a low-income area. One has about 2,500 residents and the other (where I am) has about 350.

[WSHH887]

I have set up sort of an network in my neighborhood.  Now mind you geographically it's an area of about 4 blocks north to south and 6 blocks east to west.  Not a large area.  In addition it is a long established neighborhood with a lot of older residents who have been here for decades. It's a mix of Los Angeles City and unincorporated Los Angeles County.  Jurisdictional issues are fairly frequent with both agencies at times saying it wasn't their area.  Sadly, typical for SoCal today.

This was motivated by a home invasion not long ago.  The mother and child were home alone in the evening.  It took the LAPD over an hour to respond.  She did get a hold of a neighbor a few doors down after about 10 minutes on 911 hold.  By then the invaders had left.  

The idea is simple.  Folks have GMRS  handhelds.  We have a dedicated frequency.  There are a lot of retired folks who can monitor the frequency.  There currently isn't any established roster of who and when.  But turns out there are more than enough to have it covered 24/7.  

Had our neighbor just called on a radio there could have had several "experienced" guys there in a minute or two at most.  Most folks who are on the network have bought their own HT's.  For others several of us have donated HT's.  

Obviously not everyone is onboard.  You still  have folks who insist that the police can protect them.  This with clear evidence to the contrary.  Now there is nothing on paper.  No one has a list of folks or anything else.  But it has already proven useful in several "property" crimes.  Just neighbors helping neighbors.  A lot like it was when I was growing up.

Back then a kid got banged up (happened frequently when we used to "play" outside) you could go to any house and the adult there in would take care of you.  Today that rarely happens due to fear of litigation.