Good to hear. It has been a mess in my opinion ever since we started outsourcing it. Mark, HDX On Wed, Oct 9, 2019 at 5:47 PM Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) <wb2itx@arrl.org> wrote:
Dear Officers, Directors and Vice Directors,
At the April A&F meeting, an issue was raised about the quality of listings in the Repeater Directory. At that meeting, we committed to study the issues in detail and report back to the A&F in July with a recommendation.
At the July A&F meeting, we committed to work with RFinder to find additional ways to improve the repeater listings which ultimately get published annually in the Repeater Directory. Since that meeting we’ve taken the following steps.
(1) Publication Manager Steve Ford, WB8IMY has taken-on additional editing of the Repeater Directory to correct obvious and glaring errors. For example, frequency coordinators contributing data to RFinder will sometimes include city-name spelling errors, inconsistent naming, and incorrect state abbreviations. To the extent possible, Steve has already corrected over one thousand errors. The corrections are carried into RFinder’s online database and will be reflected in the next edition of the Directory. (2) We have assigned Member Services Representative Jon Faasen, AA1EZ to serve as liaison to RFinder, supporting anyone who contacts us for assistance with correcting listings in the Repeater Directory. RFinder will work with Jon to ensure the corrections are made, and Jon will reach out to frequency coordinators and Section Managers for any instances requiring additional verification of repeater information.
As we reported at the A&F meeting, the landscape for repeaters has changed significantly in recent years. A proliferation of digital repeaters and related communities maintaining lists of active repeaters has introduced new challenges to the previous single-source model. Repeater users increasingly turn to online services such as RFinder for more-regularly-updated sources of repeater listings, and where listings are contributed and maintained by frequency coordinators, digital network databases, repeater owners, and users. I’m hopeful the additional effort we are making to review and correct listings will contribute to an even better annual Repeater Directory.
73, Howard, WB2ITX
-- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel@arrl.org
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