A correction to tonight's net. The 24 packs of Crystal Geyser water at 3 for $10 is not at Rite Aid, the deal is at Sprouts on 216 South 700 East. RiteAid has ArrowHead water at $3.88 per pack of 24.
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The VHF RACES net last Thursday was most interesting. LOTS of people did not get acknowledged which means they did not get logged.
Various repeaters were linked together and repeater trustees and repeater engineers were online to handle problems. Even with all that talent on standby, the checkin success rate was, in my opinion, not very good. Lots of people DID get checked in but lots of people were never acknowledged.
All of us heard numerous people checking in with good clear signals and no "doubles" and they still were not acknowledged which means that the Net Control Station simply did not hear them.
This leads me to question just how useful and effective the Utah VHF RACES net is going to be in an actual emergency when repeater engineers and trustees may not be available. There are still NCS stations that know the linking codes for the repeaters, but if the system is "hit or miss" with all that high powered help online, how well can it possibly work in a real disaster when not all of the high powered help will be available?
I hope they get the problems worked out and I want to be sure to note that the HF net on odd numbered months works MUCH better because there is no VHF/UHF repeater linking involved. Maybe it is time to include EchoLink in the RACES net. (Of course that assumes that the internet will be functioning during a disaster).
If you have had other (more positive) experiences with VHF/UHF RACES nets in Utah, feel free to post a comment here. Comments are moderated, but all "on topic" comments are usually approved.
-N7OZH-
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