Beginning in November 2024, after numerous requests for flexibility, the Time Slot change occurred.
This was discussed in an email to all Trustees and agreed upon. In an oversight, it was not posted to the website.This note will now be posted in the Talk Group menu.
The flexibility requested was primarily for those in state border areas to be capable of monitoring two states simultaneously.
In simple terms, your LOCAL STATE on TS2, OUTSIDE STATES on TS1 by PTT activation.
Here is an excerpt of that correspondence:
On Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at 03:31:25 PM EDT, Bill Barber NE1B.C6AWB <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Trustees,
It has now been 12 years since NEDECN was created. As shifting travel patterns have occurred due to “Work at Home” and Smartphone usage, the activity level on the network has decreased. Travelers have “no one to chat with.” Although nets seem to be continuing activity in the evenings.
There are roughly 200 users each week using just shy of 70 of our 95 repeaters. Some just kerchunk to test whether they have been programmed correctly. There are approximately 30 active talk groups.
There are some talk groups that are never used and create confusion, such as:
- Region North
- World Wide English
- UA113
- UA123
I suggest deleting those from the c-Bridge (and code plugs) and concentrating on New England Wide for a Calling channel and then moving off to State channels, or TAC channels as logical.
Regarding “State Channels”. I know that the CT bridge has now successfully adopted all out of state talk groups on TS1 via PTT. It seems to have made multi-state travelers happy and secure knowing they can reach multiple audiences while on the road. It does not seem to have negative effects. I know this will mean more coding on the c-Bridges, but it should be a positive result.