"Larry W4CSC" repeats himself in message
...
Gary Schafer wrote in
:

1) Boaters checking in to MMSN with no traffic, every one of them, with
this simple contact have:

2) Checked equipment to make sure it's working properly...

3) Checked propagation at the time they are monitoring to see if the
ionosphere is still operational...

4) Helped the hams monitoring the net to check propagation between THEIR
station and a maritime area they had not heard from today, just in case
their services are needed during this net time...

5) Inadvertently said, "Thank you, guys" from the boaters the doggedly
loyal ham retirees on shore are trying to serve. All they ask is for a
little check-in "thanks".

Any boater-ham should always check-in for these purposes if no other. You
have no way of knowing until it's too late if the damned CG can hear you
or
not and if anyone is REALLY listening out there. "Waste of Bandwidth" my
ass.....

Well I'm sure they enjoy that little camaraderie, but the vast majority of
pleasure boaters, fishermen and professional mariners are not amateur radio
operators. If they were, ham radio would be permanently assigned the status
of CB-world. Some of you actually work to prevent that from happening, so be
careful what you wish for, it could happen.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia