Frequently Asked Questions

Can I donate money or equipment to help the cause?

Sure, if you have equipment you would like to donate, shoot us an email and we will work out a pickup/drop-off. If you want to donate money, just let us know and we’d be glad to meet with you somewhere for coffee. We can promise that any and all donations will be applied directly to the system and not the lining of our own pockets. There is one caveat to both though. Donations can not be given with strings attached. You can’t give equipment or money and say it is specifically to be used for something. When you donate anything we reserve the right to use it however we see fit. We appreciate any and all donations, but we must kindly say no thank you if you add conditions. This would allow outside control of our group and we are strongly against that. Either way though, we thank you for your consideration.

We love your WIRES-X room, but we are in [fill in the blank] would you rename it so that we are included?

No, we appreciate both the interest in being part of our room as well as interest in us as a group. We always welcome new people into our system and love the regulars who park repeaters and nodes in the room. However, for many reasons we have chosen to keep the name the same. We have been asked to change it to the Oregon room, or the Pacific Northwest Room, but we started out as North East Oregon. For tradition and to avoid a lot of paper work, we prefer to keep the name the same. We happily cover most of Oregon and a lot of Washington and branch out all over with repeater and nodes we don’t even own, but our name is who we are and we will maintain it.

Can we hold a net on your system?

In the past it was our policy not allow any nets, period. Our system is relatively relaxed, and friendly, and we’d really like to keep it that way. That said, we don’t want it commandeered for purposes that would otherwise tie the system up unnecessarily. But like everything else, we’re steadily evolving, and part of that is opening up more to the idea of allowing nets on our system, provided it doesn’t get carried away that is. So, the sort of nets we are considering on both the analog and digital systems are ones which contain value to the general Amateur Radio community, as appose to nothing but check-ins, or social nets. Or as we like to say; “Facebook meets Ham Radio.” Nowadays we take every request on a case-by-case basis while also running it by the other groups that are currently linked into our system on a full-time basis for their take. Afterwards, our small group of members vote on whether or not to approve the request. But bear in mind that approval isn’t automatic, so don’t get your hopes up.

I tried to move one of your WIRES-X repeaters into America Link and it just kept giving me errors. What’s the deal?

We do not permit the repeaters owned by WMDRA to be moved into America Link due to all the issues with it’s over crowding and connection issues. Furthermore the digital repeaters which are owned by WMDRA are locked in our NE-OREGON room. We do not permit bridging of our room to any other system or room in any way, and doing so is cause for an immediate ban and lock out of nodes as well as radio IDs which are associated with doing so.

Can I park my node or repeater in your room full time/part time?

Absolutely. We welcome new people. We believe in inclusion and welcome folks from all places of the world and walks of life. We prefer if you shoot us an email just to let us know who you are and if you are going to be an occasional guest or full time. We like to let other system users know who’s with us and do introductions when possible.

I see you have members and users on your website. Can I be listed there?

Not only can you, but we encourage all users of our system to create a profile and share who they are. We are a close knit group of HAMs, and not to beat a dead horse, but we love to have new people join us and introduce them to the rest of the group. It is not a requirement. Don’t worry, if the NSA is bugging your phone and you prefer to not be listed on a public website, we get it.

How can I become a member of WMDRA?

We love new users as this document has mentioned many times, we welcome you to create a profile on our website and get to know everyone. Unfortunately we don’t add new members very often. We keep our actual membership as low as possible (single digit low). Our members are the governing body of the WMDRA and it would get very convoluted if we added to many. Please don’t take this personal, it’s not you, it’s us.