The "Screwball Net" was created in Autumn 1991 on a pleasant Saturday nite by N8OFS Andy Sargent and was started on a Cleveland, Ohio Amatuer Radio repeater by a few operators who began talking about silly topics like cartoon character costumes, automotive maladies and idiosynchrosies, railroad tracks and trains, various pieces of trivia, old movie stars - the movie settings and ratings and many topics which became mind stimulating for anyone who listened thru the night to 146.880 weather with a radio or just a scanner.
The listening prompted several who weren't licensed into furthering their studies and taking the F.C.C. exams, they would later make this known on the air. Discussions would cover local topics as well as world history points of interest, details were shared about the days before jet powered aircraft, the side effects discovered after building a underground house, what type of dinnerware was best cleaned in a convertible car at a drive-thru autowash, how to sail into the wind safely, what would happen if axle grease were applied to your doorknobs, the early 20th century when homes had only outdoor plumbing, groundbreaking news of electronic technology, why painting spots on your family pet could be harmful and messy, garden and lawn maintenance tips, the latest results from washing glassware and silverware together at the laundro-mat (the spot remover part always fascinated me!), the topics just came forth with no apparent order and disappeared sometimes just as quickly. If someone desired something repeated it often was without question, man made complications were covered as often as natural disasters, if someone new was heard they were quickly offered the opportunity to talk and welcomed to join, they were given preference and brought up to the speed of the events if they desired, there were children, ladies and men who stayed aboard for long durations.
After about a year some topics had become worn and there were people who would talk but never made it clear who they were, unusual noises on the air began to develop, this made it hard to determine who was participating, furthermore was clearly against the F.C.C rules, as it continued a few participants began to search out the source of the signals that were generating harmful interference and on the nites when it was prominent it was traced several times near to one of the repeater club members home, just a few city blocks northeast of the repeater location, when this became known the club had a hard time understanding how to do what first, the focus quickly switched to closing down the net entirely, there were many supporters who came forward but the foremost idea was putting an end to the harmful and illegal interference. One sure way indicated by a club member from the same place as the interference came from would be closing the net altogether, in spite of this decision by the repeater club trustees the net did continue a few times, but the topic of discussion often headed towards the interference and this made everyone angry at the partly unknown sources, because now others tried what someone else had gotten away with. This was nothing new really, but looked down upon by responsible operators everywhere or you would think so anyway. As you can imagine smooth operation was impossible, at the same time interest levels were bouncing up and down, the operators who were above the rules would try to keep things going smoothly and allow others to participate but suddenly power was turned off to the repeater making it clear the net would not continue.
With the truth being more fragile than fiction everyone began to blame the one operator who originally got this thing going and had almost always been following the rules - Andy N8OFS, he had actually started the net, logged operators from various locations and kept track of participation as if this were a simulation of some natural disaster. This was cloning of assistance or Public Service and is one of the most important parts of Amatuer Radio Service, however this was practiced without permission and he wasn't part of the original repeater club first so now they refused to let him join. It was much easier to hold him out thereby prohibiting him from using the repeater altogether, hence no member - no net, he was angered at their idea of stopping the net that brought out a silly note and was enjoyed legally by so many but at the same time pointed blame towards a operator who had stepped on the favoritism ladder without breaking off the rungs.
Because topics seemed to deteriorate quickly on the repeater most of the original operators have gotten together about once or twice a year on the air using a non repeater frequency, lo and behold now people checked in from other geographical areas, other repeaters would be linked into the net from technically inclined operators enabling those on low power who wanted to participate, those who live to scrutinize these things claim it operated smoothly in spite of the bad review claims back in the big city. There was once someone who found out about the net while he was at his summer cottage near Catawba Island of Lake Erie and claimed that the channelized non-repeater frequency the net was on should be kept open for his friends who wanted to use it locally, several distant operators indicated that he shouldn't worry because if needed the local signals will overpower anyone elses and they wouldn't hear the distant stations, confirming the characteristics of operating using F.M. mode at various station profiles.
Meanwhile back in Cleveland after the screwball net has departed from the repeater there is a continuation of harmful interference blamed mainly on the screwball net originator and it's participants, how could this be when the net was operating away from that area? What was being heard was morning and evening drive time discussion operators who would be involved in cartoon character slayings, ignoring weak signal stations trying to report disaster related topics, discussions would carry on with deceased peoples operating license call sign (illegal and truly very disrespectful), countless telephone calls, offering active police radar locations as if to openly warn others not to speed in the area, unidentified comments about anatomy - these operating habits would not be good behavior at the time children would be listening, and at times were offensive to all the listeners, furthermore violated F.C.C rules.