The SWCRS has implemented a change to its linking arrangement between Arizona and New Mexico. Effective as of about a week ago, the link is no longer connected full-time between the two states. This decision was made in response to complaints about excessive rag chewing and general traffic, as well as incidents of malicious interference.
A trial was conducted last week, during which our cumulative daily transmit time across the link decreased from a total of 5 hours to approximately 1.5-2 hours per side. This reduction represents a healthier amount of traffic, though it is still substantial.
Additional DTMF codes have been made available to our members, allowing members to connect to either side at will. Please review the Telemetry & DTMF section for more information.
A scheduled full-time link will also occur every Friday from midnight to midnight, a period we’ve dubbed ‘Funk it up Friday.’ Additionally, outside of Friday, the system will self-connect for our scheduled nets.
Despite these changes resulting in reduced traffic, we urge you to be mindful of engaging in excessively long conversations. Remember that the SWCRS network and the GMRS repeater channels it utilizes are a shared resource for primarily practical purposes, so we kindly ask that you refrain from monopolizing the system so others can get their fair share.
I think disconnecting the link from time to time is good idea to minimize traffic, I also think the PTT I.D. was a good idea.
I know it can be difficult for some to work out the settings, I was playing with the digits per second and PTT delay but came up with good settings that worked consistently. Posting these settings and other help on the web site would help others work out the programming issues.
Mark Goudin WRVF452
Keep up the good work!!
This is a sound decision I fully support. Good move, thank you.
Dan Long
WQPP400
Fair decision. Speaking as a GMRS repeater owner and user in SE AZ, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of fair use of our limited GMRS frequencies. SWCRS has become a huge network in the Southwest that was starting to get a reputation of “monopolizing” and tying up all the available repeater frequencies. We have to manage the channels better, monitor the repeater output frequency before transmitting, and understand that the use must be shared.
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