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EchoLink Etiquette

I'm one of those hams who leaves the 2 meter radio on all the time. Even when I'm asleep. Most QSOs don't wake me up, but for some reason the automated announcement of an EchoLink connection does. I leave the radio on, because the K5IIY repeater is the hub of Emergency Response here in Erath County.

Most of the hams in our county leave their transceivers on through the night. And most of us have learned, over the years, to sleep through everything except our own callsign. I'll sleep through multiple QSOs, but the sound of "K5WLF" will wake me up instantly. That's a good thing. There's one other thing that wakes me up -- and it's a bad thing.

For reasons totally unknown to me, our local repeater has become a target for EchoLink trollers. They'll log on to our repeater in the middle of the night, causing the EchoLink system to electronically announce their presence. At about 8 dB higher than the usual audio level on the repeater. So, at 0348 local, we're treated to "K9XXX, KD5HNM repeater". And immediately come wide awake.

And, since most of them don't say anything, we're simply awakened -- only to fall back asleep until 10 minutes later when we hear "K9XXX timeout". And another 10 minutes after that the EchoLink repeater does what it's programmed to do and says, "KD5HNM repeater".

Here's a plea to those of you who play on EchoLink. Well, actually two pleas. One, please note what the time is in the zone you're logging into. It may be only 2000 where you live, but if it's 2300 here, we really don't want to hear you on the repeater unless you have a real reason for callling.

Two, if you going to log onto a remote EchoLink repeater -- say something!! To be announced by the computer and then say nothing is the rudest and most inconsiderate thing in the world. Have the common decency to at least give your callsign and talk to somebody if they come back to you.

Try to imagine how you'd feel if it happened to you.

73,
ldb
K5WLF