There are quite a few Amateur radio repeaters around me both on digital and on analog. I will go over several days and throw my callsign out on five of the local repeaters at different times of the day…morning, afternoon, and evening. Evening has the best results, but it is still once every ten days I actually get someone. During nets the repeaters are active but during non-nets, they’re dead. Why do you think this is?
It is quite embarrassing because I’m trying to get a buddy into Amateur Radio and I want to demonstrate it’s utlity but every time I go to show him, boom, the repeaters activiy is non-existent. It makes me look like a fool.
I know a lot of the guys in the local clubs use HF more, and a percentage of those guys use FT8 exclusively (which I find FT8 boring and pointless for everday, contests are where it shines).
I talk to buddies in other areas and they say that no matter which repeater you key up around them at any given time, someone will always respond.
Why is there no activity on the Ham Radio repeaters around me?
byu/TheRealMarsupio inamateurradio