This should be interesting
There is a pretty much dead repeater in my area. Which is a real shame for it covered the entire county and a bit more. Pretty much the only time it is used is during the weekly club net. Which consists of about 3 minute preamble, followed by the same five people who check in with no traffic, then it promptly shuts down. I am under the impression that most if not all of the 5 or 6 people who are on the net turn their radios off immediately after the net, with it not to be turned on until a few minutes before the next weekly net.
I've tried several times to do my part to get the net and club in general more active, but to save a long story I gave up after many tries. I now don't even bother tuning into the net to listen in at this point.
However, last week I happened to be working in the home office with the radio scanning 2 meters in the background. The weekly net went the same as described above, with one exception. At the end of the net a callsign I was not familiar with asked if there would be any objection to he and "his prepper group" had a separate net on a different night.
Well, that got my interest.
Like many of us, one of the main reasons I got into amatur radio in the first place was for emergency preparedness. I am not ashamed to say I am, indeed, a prepper. On the "prepper spectrum" I am solidly in the realm of the "practical prepper" mindset, not the "doomsday prepper." I'm typing this about an hour before this new net is supposed to start, and I am really wonder how this is going to go.
Hears only on this one
When I heard the conversation during the last club net, I really wanted to reach out to this new to me callsign. He mentioned a few in his group just got their ham license and there were a few more working on getting theirs. I have a similar situation with a circle I associate with. My mind optimistically went to seeing if I could introduce everyone together and see if we can collectively "take over" this old club and repeater and breathe some life back into it. But then I thought... wait a minute.
I need to learn more about this "prepper group" before I make any introductions. I need to find out what exactly this group is all about.
So I'm just going to tune in for a listen. Write down some callsigns to see who is who. See who I can hear on the reverse. Find out what they are all about. They may be people I will want to reach out to, but they may be people I'd want to avoid. It's going to be interesting to find out.... in about a half hour as I type.
More to follow for sure.