Amateur Cooperation

["Jeffrey D. Angus" <jangus@skyld.grendel.com>]

On Thu,  1 Dec 94 04:30:03 PST, "Ken Koster" <koster@mdd.comm.mot.com> wrote:
>
> I get long-winded and reply to the following where:
> > .brian@nothing.ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) says:
>
> > I know that schemes like this don't sit well with many hams.  I think
> > there are two main reasons for this: 1) To build it requires a degree
> > of cooperation that hams have never before demonstrated, and 2) this
> > creates two classes of stations: the users and the providers.  We hams
> > are equalitarians - we tend to believe that every station is a good as
> > every other station, and these necessary two 'classes' of stations
> > sticks in the craw.
>
> I must say that for the most part our local TCP/IP community cooperates to
> a degree I never before thought possible in ham radio. No were not perfect
> by a long shot, but I know for a fact that the majority of our users under-
> stand both of Brians points.

It's really funny in a way about this too. Most hams will "use" a repeater
without even thinking twice about wanting to "be" one. Yet on Packet Radio,
a large majority of them all want to be "the" big station, hub, router etc..

Why is this? In my opinion, it it specifically because of the cooperation
required to work together. Something that is not required of the users for
a voice repeater to work. Also, because of the ability for any fool (and I
chose that term on purpose) to get a TNC, get on the air and start up a
major resource. Something that (thankfully) is not that easier to do with
regard to putting a voice repeater up on the air.

In the Greater Los Angeles area, we have probably the largest collection of
self propelled egos all fighting for channel space and the right to be *the*
provider. Additionally, we have to deal with administrative types that despite
being told no, they still insist on attempting to run the county as if it were
a wire lan and that user "errors" can/will be corrected with the threat of
"employee termination". Having been involved in digital coordination in Los
Angeles for the past 6 years or so, it is an absolute nightmare of personality
conflicts, egos, "not invented here" and so forth.

To top it all off, bad information seems to spread like gospel. (Look at the
Craig Shergold thing for example.) User ignorance is at an all time high and
no one seems to care. It certainly doesn't diminish the usual turf wars.

Brian is right. Until we learn to work together, none of this is going to work
on any large scale.

73 es GM from Jeff
(Look, no profanity)

-- 

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