Why The Linked Network?

[mbrun]

Loads of serious questions below.

 

Why do we have a linked GMRS network? What is the need it intends to create and/or satisfy?

 

How and when is it intended to be used?

 

What is the appeal to some new GMRS users that seemly causes them to immediately think they need to get their new repeater on the network?

 

If I owned a repeater that did a good for me, my family and my local community, why would/should I want to connect it to a national network? It would seem it would make it seem it would make it less accessible to me and the locals.

 

How would a linked network, from a practical standpoint, help the collective “us”, in the event of an national emergency?

 

How does retransmitting my voice over all linked repeaters in the US benefit me and others throughout the country?

 

Is there anything more too it than “because we can.”

 

I have now listened to many official net sessions on GMRS repeaters (and over the internet) as well as amateur radio and have yet to be able to conclude anything more practical or meaningful than “because we can”.

 

I am truly looking to be enlightened. Please help.

 

73s

 

Michael

WRHS965

KE8PLM

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[WRAK968]

Why do we have a linked GMRS network? What is the need it intends to create and/or satisfy?
The linking network serves a few purposes. First it allows repeaters to link nation wide for nets. Users can also use the network to communicate during travel back to their "home" repeater. Second, there are users like myself who have family far enough away that they use their own repeater. By permanently linking the two we are able to always call one another by radio. This would be difficult to do without the network.

How and when is it intended to be used?
See the above answer for examples

 

What is the appeal to some new GMRS users that seemly causes them to immediately think they need to get their new repeater on the network?
I can't speak about other users, only myself. I knew I was going to set up 2 repeaters in 2 locations for my family to use so that was my reasoning. If I were to speculate about others, I would imagine members who have multiple repeaters would integrate the network so that all repeaters would communicate with one another. Many people also want to join the regional/national net on Sunday so there's another reason to be on the network.

 

If I owned a repeater that did a good for me, my family and my local community, why would/should I want to connect it to a national network? It would seem it would make it seem it would make it less accessible to me and the locals.
Just being on the network does not mean you are connected to other "nodes." My system, 23407 and 23409 are connected to each other always. Sometimes we link to other nodes, usually on Sunday when we connect to node 172. We have little to no interference from the Mygmrs network. As an owner, you will also have access to commands that will let you disconnect any nodes who are causing issues with your system.

How would a linked network, from a practical standpoint, help the collective “us”, in the event of an national emergency?

There is a yes and a no here. As a ham operator who has done EDS comms, I would NOT rely on ANY VoIP/RoIP communications modes for emergency's. This is because there are too many modes of failure including power outages, cable lines going down, control stations going down, and most ISP's do not have back up contingency's as the internet was not designed for life saving communications use.

However, the linked GMRS network CAN be used for relay messaging from areas that were not affected by the emergency. By doing this, you cut out any middle men and thus reduce the telephone effect that happens when groups relay from point A to point B. In that respect, it can be an asset for long distance comms.

How does retransmitting my voice over all linked repeaters in the US benefit me and others throughout the country?

Well, Imagine your traveling from NJ to FL. When you get to FL you find your in an area that has little cell coverage, however a linked repeater is in the area. you can dial into your node and contact your family and tell them that you arrived at your destination safely. Other users can do this as well.

Is there anything more too it than “because we can.”
All of the above LOL, seems to be a lot of repeat questions.

I have now listened to many official net sessions on GMRS repeaters (and over the internet) as well as amateur radio and have yet to be able to conclude anything more practical or meaningful than “because we can”.
That may be because you do not own a system of repeaters which you want linked together and don't realize the capability of the network. Is it because we can, I'm sure to many that yes that is the case. For me, I don't believe I would have been able to link the two repeaters without the network.

[JLeikhim]

I think the best application is expanding coverage in a local area where the availability of high towers is limited or expanded coverage is required. If you have a commuter corridor and one repeater is insufficient, two or more can be linked. Interstate linking is more of a novelty.

[JeepCrawler98]

Ditto on the expanding coverage - it's an easy and flexible way to get wide coverage areas by linking repeaters. In town we have three repeaters on the link that each covers their own blind spots; the Lemmon 650 is a wide area workhorse with the Tucson 550 and Continental 575 filling in its local blind spots (as the mountain its on casts its own shadow). The result is a network that people can rely on to stay in touch regardless of where they are in or around town. You can get on the network from much of the travel corridor between Tucson and Albuquerque.

 

We're adding in Sierra Vista, which adds another metro area to the network that's nearby, and are working on another adjacent mountain top to expand coverage to the AZ/NM border. We're linked full time with the NM group, which has huge coverage for much of New Mexico. This means that someone going outdoors and enjoying themselves within a few hours of where they live has access to the radio and friends/family listening in - which is beneficial for public safety. There's plenty of places around here with no cell phone coverage if you're into the outdoors, where the repeaters work just fine.

 

The other thing it does is drum up interest - it takes traffic to make traffic; pooling user-groups together results in more activity and diversity in the traffic, which in turn draws in more people, so the community grows as a result.

 

This can all be done with conventional link radios of course; the nice thing about using TCP/IP networking is the ability to reconfigure it and fully control the repeaters on the fly in case there's an issue with one of the repeaters where it needs to be dropped, or routed a different way. You can use the internet, or you can always use your own wireless TCP/IP links if you want to stay away from commercial infrastructure which is then gateway-ed to the internet for access to nodes outside of your system.

 

Does this mean that every repeater should be on the link? Absolutely not - there's a lot of merit in standalone repeaters when wide area range is not needed. In addition to the Tucson 550 and Lemmon 650 I also keep a portable repeater at my house for use by my family in the local area; it's a standalone for private use most of the time, but I am able to connect it to the other Tucson repeaters in case I need to.

[mbrun]

I am appreciating the seriousness of the answers. I will keep monitoring.

 

Thanks.

 

Michael

WRHS965

KE8PLM

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk