<~StDPI!

with machetes for the neighbors to
use. We also found two patches of
snow.
- BK -
REPEATER RULE 14: Repeaters and
their antennas always fail when
there is two feet of drifted snow on
the ground and the temperature is
below zero (we have observed icicles
8-12 inches long - hanging at 90
degrees from the tower!).
- BK ­
Our repeaters in the PARC bunker
on Palomar Mt. at 5.600' cover 2.000
sq.mi. of S.D.Co. and 140+ miles out
to sea. Be FRIENDLY to those that
you talk to and INVITE them to
support the club with their
membership. You can check their
membership in PARC by asking them if
they have seen something in the most
recent SCOPE or by looking at page 8
in this SCOPE. ~
AUT 0 PAT C H E S
KA6UAI/R: Erik Thompson •• ll ••KA6UAI
ENCINITAS + surounding towns
KA6UAI/R: Jerry Hauser •••12 •• WB6FMT
VISTA + surounding towns
WA6IPD/R: Art Rideout ••• 14 •• WA6IPD
FALLBROOK + surounding towns
A recent 30 minute phone
conversation with the Director of
Enforcement for the FCC in San
Diego. Jerry Friedman. indicates
that amateurs need to be especially
careful in their use of autopatches.
Amateurs are not to use the patches
to AVOID MAKING A TOLL CALL.
Walking out of your office and
calling on the autopatch to tell
your wife you are coming home now is
a NO NO! You should have called on
the office phone long distance
giving her that information. It
would appear that the above call
would have been ok if it did not
involve a long distance charge from
your place of work. The tes~ is.
"are you using amateur radio to
avoid a phone charge?"
Calling on the autopatch to tell
her that you are hung up in traffic
on 1-15 and will be late coming home
is ok since it is a call that would
not normally have been made but with
the advent of commercial car phones
one wonders what the future holds in
this area. Calling home on your HT
while taking a "health" walk is FB
(fine business).
One wonders what the feeling
would be about our ·sail boaters·
using the autopatch. I guess if you
had no means of making a commercial
call from your boat. autopatch use
could be justified. It would not be
justified if you were just several
minutes from the dock where
commercial phones are available.
EACH call should be checked to
see that it passes the following
tests:
l)ARE YOU TRYING TO AVOID A TOLL?
2)ARE YOU CONDUCTING BUSINESS?
EACH call must meet BOTH
above two tests.
of the
The fi rst one is usually obvious
but the second one is more
difficult. We most often think of
it as conducting business calls
related to OUR own business but it
can be applied to other areas as
well. Calling up and ordering a
pizza is a NO NO. Asking someone to
pick up something for our business
is a NO NO. Calling up the office
and telling them that you are going
to be late for work is probably a NO
NO. Contacting a towing service for
yourself or someone else along the
highway is ok provided that you do
not have a commercial radiotelephone
in the car with you.
Remember that our autopatches
were installed to help us with
EMERGENCY traffic and to provide
communications during DISASTERS when
no other form of communications is
available. Sometimes "blocks" of
telephone exchange(s) become
separated in emergencies and our
system, we hope. will still function
and allow emergency units to
communicate. The last such case was
the fire north of Escondido which
cut off the Valley Center exchange
from the world for over 24 hours.
Previous to that Palomar Mountain
was cut off for almost 10 days
without phone service when the
mountain burned. We do hope that
our members will use the autopatches
from time to time so that we know
that they are working properly and
that YOU kNOW HOW TO USE THEM. You
need to remember that you and the
FCC will be applying the above TWO
rules to each call.
The FCC sometimes moves with
11 ghtn i ng speed. If a TV transmi tting
tower does not have the proper
lights, I understand that EVERYONE
on the tower (including amateurs)
can be fined even though it is not
their tower and they are on the
tower free. It is our understanding
that an amateur radio bulletin board
recently was fined $300 for having a
file listing a NO NO telephone
number and all digipeaters repeating
the bullet1ng board received FCC
citations - WOW! Fortunately the FCC
has TOO many other things to do than
breathing down amateurs necks but if
someone monitoring the amateur
operation complains to the FCC, then
the FCC could strike rapidly!
- BK ­
If you have troubles with any of
the autopatches or need the codes,
please contact W9FQN by phone (not
autopatch) or come to the next
meeting for personal instruction.
So far we have observed proper
autopatch use with only a few minor
problems involving amateurs using
the wrong control codes.
- BK ­
Remember that for All autopatches
you need 107.2Hz and to say ­
- - push mic switch - ­
1) N6YZZ(your call) ACCESS PATCH
2) dial proper 3-digit ·up· access
code->Encinitas/Vista/Fallbrook
Your Someday
SCOPE -MAR '91 EXEC MTG THU 14th 1930Hr. WB6IQS(ll) Pg 4
Is Here!