Over use of call sign announcements on GMRS

[WSJI648]

I've been listening to a repeater channel that is local to me in ECONUS. It is a private repeater that is run by a club here. They hand out callsigns in addition to your FCC ID. I have been listening to it for the better part of a month or so now. There's a mixture of people using both the NATO and just the phonetic pronunciations. It seems that the NATO people are also Ham people, which makes sense.

I will agree with the OP in so much as there seems to be a proliferation of redundant and unnecessary identifications. Like just a few minutes ago, a member keyed up for a radio check. A guy gave his ID and proceeded to tell him that he had a good copy. The original guy thanked him and signed off. Then the guy who answered gave his ID and called clear. The entire transaction was less than 2 minutes but yet we have to suffer through four identifications. Seems a bit much, I think. It's like those guys that have CCW badges and sashes.

[WRTC928]

13 hours ago, WSJI648 said:

Seems a bit much, I think. It's like those guys that have CCW badges and sashes.

Don't get me started... If you think the police are going to assume you're the good guy just because you bought a sash from Ebay, you don't know much about law enforcement.  Save your money and learn how to behave after an unfortunate incident. At least using your callsign too much won't get you deleted.

[LeoG]

Over use is just a factor that most GMRS messages over the airwaves are very short.  Usually there aren't long conversations.  It's "Honey I'm coming home, over" or "Where are you now and how long will this take, over".

And then the call sign.  It's rare when you have 2 people jabber jawing for more than 15 minutes at which time you should announce ID. 

Another reason is to get the other parties attention.  It's not a telephone that alerts you a call is coming in.  It just comes in.  And if you aren't paying attention you might miss it.  So announcing your call sign, then saying their name and maybe doing it twice because of no response from the 1st try you get multiple instances of IDing.  And if the person fails to connect they'll usually sign off with their ID also.  And that might just be the last ditch effort to get whoever you want to contact on the other ends attention.

[WSJI648]

2 minutes ago, LeoG said:

Over use is just a factor that most GMRS messages over the airwaves are very short.  Usually there aren't long conversations.  It's "Honey I'm coming home, over" or "Where are you now and how long will this take, over".

And then the call sign.  It's rare when you have 2 people jabber jawing for more than 15 minutes at which time you should announce ID. 

Another reason is to get the other parties attention.  It's not a telephone that alerts you a call is coming in.  It just comes in.  And if you aren't paying attention you might miss it.  So announcing your call sign, then saying their name and maybe doing it twice because of no response from the 1st try you get multiple instances of IDing.  And if the person fails to connect they'll usually sign off with their ID also.  And that might just be the last ditch effort to get whoever you want to contact on the other ends attention.

Count it a blessing that you find it "rare" to have people "jabber jawing." In my AO on the local repeater, you'll have guys jaw jacking all night long about smoking meat or how many guitars they have. Last night it was about a local get together for BBQ. It reminds me of an old ICQ chatroom. And there are so many repeaters, they talk about leaving one to go to another because the traffic is too heavy on the one they are currently on.

 

[LeoG]

Well we have one guy who likes to drink and talk to himself and gets upset when no one wants to talk.  I don't think he realizes that people have jobs.

[H8SPVMT]

I've got two fellows that spent at least 30 - 45 minutes everyday. Call signs are given after the repeater gives it's babble.  Kills the air and ties up my unit as I can't even use the SCAN function.

 

[hxpx]

2 hours ago, WSJI648 said:

Count it a blessing that you find it "rare" to have people "jabber jawing." In my AO on the local repeater, you'll have guys jaw jacking all night long about smoking meat or how many guitars they have. Last night it was about a local get together for BBQ. It reminds me of an old ICQ chatroom. And there are so many repeaters, they talk about leaving one to go to another because the traffic is too heavy on the one they are currently on.

 

I probably would have participated in the jabber jawing on the local repeater if they talked about smoking meat instead of soup.

[UncleYoda]

9 minutes ago, H8SPVMT said:

 ties up my unit as I can't even use the SCAN function.

Since the radios typically don't allow changing the scan-skip setting from the front panel or mic, I started temporarily changing the receive tone (for example, up one to block) on radios that allow that for memory channels  (UV5Rs don't).  May need to keep a note handy to remember to change it back.  We shouldn't have to improvise a skip function, it should be as easy as starting and stopping a scan.

[LeoG]

1 hour ago, H8SPVMT said:

I've got two fellows that spent at least 30 - 45 minutes everyday. Call signs are given after the repeater gives it's babble.  Kills the air and ties up my unit as I can't even use the SCAN function.

 

Take them out of the scan list.  I do that one one guy decided he's going to blab all day on the repeater.  On my radio it's just an on/off toggle on that channel slot.

[WRUU653]

31 minutes ago, UncleYoda said:

Since the radios typically don't allow changing the scan-skip setting from the front panel or mic, 

Many of my radios do. I use scan skip all the time, though they call it Scan Add. I frequently will forget what I've skipped untill I look in chirp but I definitely use it. 

These all have ability to set skip via front panel. KG-Q10H, KG-935H, KG-935G+, UV9PX, AT-779UV, IC 2730A. I'm not sure about Boofwangs.

[UncleYoda]

13 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

Many of my radios do. I use scan skip all the time, though they call it Scan Add. I frequently will forget what I've skipped untill I look in chirp but I definitely use it. 

These all have ability to set skip via front panel. KG-Q10H, KG-935H, KG-935G+, UV9PX, AT-779UV, IC 2730A. I'm not sure about Boofwangs.

The newest Baofeng I have, K5+ (a 5RM with a different label), still requires using software to add/delete skip. My TYT UV88 ( a ham version of GM30) is the same and it even has starting scan as a menu function (f-1-f) rather than a long button press.  My Yaesu ham mobile has it as an accessible menu function that can be changed as needed.  There is no good reason to make it via software only.  And they need to bring back squelch knob too!

[LeoG]

Yes, all FM radios need to have a fully variable squelch, analog not digital.

Or like the power settings are individually saved for each channel slot the squelch should be too instead of a broad squelch over the band.

[UncleYoda]

A different default squelch for each channel would be good but sometimes that isn't enough because reception varies (weather related), especially when vehicle or pedestrian mobile.

[H8SPVMT]

Skipping channels during a scan isn't allowed on the Midlands I think. I'll look into it.