Quote:
Originally Posted by N3LYT
.one person in the state park could tie up the repeater for hours making contacts.
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That could be a problem for that particular repeater, but if the repeater owners object to it they could, for example, place an announcement on the repeater asking that it not be used that way.
It can be argued both ways: repeaters exist specifically so that people can make contacts; repeaters have no other purpose really.
One might even argue that, with someone on a repeater running a contact stream for a QSO party, anyone with an emergency can be completely certain he'll find someone there. This would be less true, or less useful, if the emergency station had too weak a signal into the repeater to break into the ongoing stream; say, for example, if he's stuck in a snowbank.
In sum, I lean toward
no. If I owned a repeater, I'd probably think it rude to tie it up for such a purpose, unless the event organizers sought my prior approval. Can ARRL do that for every repeater?
Of course, it's possible to use a repeater for a few contacts
without tying it up.
And on and on, back and forth, ad infinitum.