[TowerTalk] TowerTalk FAQ

[Bill Fisher - W4AN]

TowerTalk Reflector FAQ

Towertalk is reflector devoted to the discussion of towers, antennas and
transmission lines. This reflector was created to accomodate ham radio
operators and professionals interested in this subject. 

This reflector's archives are available on the WWW at
http://www.contesting.com/_towertalk/.

Guidelines:
This reflector is devoted the discussion of towers, antennas, grounding,
and feedlines.   A discussion of antennas that might take advantage of a
particular propagation mode would be appropriate.   However, discussing
propagation would not.  For sale items are OK as long as they are antennas
or towers, but rec.radio.swap is a more appropriate forum.

Operating Practices 

Electronic mail is different from packet radio, in that many subscribers
receive their E-mail through commercial services such as CompuServe and
MCImail. In essence, many people are paying for each byte of every message
sent to CQ-Contest. In order to minimize spurious messages, please follow
the operating hints detailed below: 

-Put your name, callsign and E-mail address on every message you send. We
don't all know everyone by just a callsign, nickname or Internet address.
Furthermore, not everyone's E-mail software lets you see all the headers
of the message, so it's sometimes difficult to reply to an individual
posting without knowing the sender's address. 

-Use a subject line that indicates the true subject of your message. 
Wait a while before answering someone's question. Six other people have
probably answered it already. Most answers should go directly to the
person who posed the question, rather than to the list. 

-Unlike PacketCluster, many people pay $$$ when they receive messages.
Some people pay per message, some per byte. Therefore, please take this
into consideration when writing a response. Would you pay $0.50 to read
the message that you just wrote? 

-Eschew flamage. If someone sends a flame to the list and you can't bite
your tongue, send your flaming reply directly back to the flaming
individual, not back to the list. No one wants to pay $1.00 to read these
messages (the original flame + your reply). Treat flamers the way you
would 2-meter repeater jammers - ignore them. 

-Make sure there is something of value in each message you send to the
list. Avoid messages that are a complete reprint of someone else's
message, with nothing but "I agree" or "Me too" added to the bottom -- not
much value there. 

-Some people pay by the byte, so when following up to someone else's
message, be sure to include only the essential pieces or thread of the
note. Don't include those 20 extra header lines that your mail gateway
tacked onto the original message. 

-If you are going to make a personal reply, make sure to remove TowerTalk
from the header of your outgoing mail message. Otherwise, everyone else on
the list is going to see your personal message. 

What is taboo?

-Personal attacks. 

-Off subject posts.  You might think that 90% of the people on this list
are interested in hearing that 160 meters is open for the first time ever
from the east coast to VU2, but it is not the topic of this list.  

-Personal mail - Thanking someone or the group for help should be done in
personal mail and not sent to the entire list.  When responding to a
question posted to the list, your reply should be of benefit to the list
as a whole.  If the response is of benefit to only the person asking the
question, then respond to only that person. 

-Meta-discussion about the TowerTalk mailing list. These should be
conducted in private with Bill Fisher (w4an@contesting.com). 

Closely Related Lists & Information Sources:

-George, K5TR, maintains a summaries of discussions conducted on this
forum at http://www.qth.com/ka9fox/ant-towers-feed.shtml.   

-Antennas@qth.net:  Antennas is a mailing list (reflector) devoted to
discussing, comparing, evaluating, designing, and constructing antennas
(aerials) of all types, especially for amateur radio, SWL, scanning, and
monitoring.

-Tower-Speak@qth.net: Tower-Speak is a mailing list (reflector) devoted to
thediscussion of Tower-Speak. * Tower/Antenna Installation * Safety *
Anything Tower-Speak Related.

To Subscribe:
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To Post:
To post a message to the reflector, simply address your message to
towertalk@contesting.com. Your message will be redistributed to all other
members of the list.

73

Bill


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