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Regular Simplex Nets Are Needed
Many Amateur Radio clubs hold regular nets on their local repeaters. Some of these nets are conducted for the purpose of maintaining skills used in emergency communications. Some clubs, however, are not conducting practice "simplex" nets that hone the skills needed to communicate locally should repeaters not be available.
The moment of repeater failure is not the time to find out that too many stations do not have even the simplest outside antenna at even a modest height to allow cross-town communications. I've seen, or rather heard, two-meter operators who were confused during a net on a local repeater when asked by the net control operator to check the "reverse" to try and help identify another station with a marginal signal. I'm sure these are the operators who would have been among the lost if the repeater suddenly disappeared.
Not conducting a simplex net on a regular basis is like teaching a skydiving class and leaving out any instruction on the use of the reserve parachute. Sooner or later you'll need one!
Using a repeater is relatively easy. It's a mode new hams jump right into. For local communications, repeaters normally assume the responsibility for "antenna height" when it comes to "line of sight" limitations. A ¼ -wave magnetic mount antenna atop your refrigerator may be all you need to work hams in your area through a local repeater. Maybe even a Handie Talkie (HT) with a "rubber duck" antenna will get the job done.
On the other hand, simplex operation is not as easy. The individual simplex operator assumes the responsibility for antenna height. This translates into the added expense and labor of getting the antenna higher above the ground.
If you're a 2-meter FM simplex DX'er, then you'll be looking for the tallest tower you can erect, the most antenna elements you can point in a particular direction, and maybe pre-amps and amplifiers.
If you're interested in being able to effectively communicate with hams in your city or county, then you don't need a 100-foot tower and stacked 11-element beams. A push-up pole, a chimney mounted mast, and a decent vertical antenna is all you need. It doesn't take a collection of 2-meter "super stations" for a community's hams to talk to each other.
When times are bad, don't depend on "Joe", the local ham with the 2-Meter super-station. What's to say Joe's 150-foot tower will be standing when you need him? And what's to say Joe will even want to pass traffic for you or anyone else?
What's the solution? Local, day-to-day communications through repeaters should be the exception rather than the rule. Repeaters should be used when needed and simplex should be used when they aren't needed. This is especially true of fixed-stations working other fixed-stations. I know of hams who are closer to each other than they are to the repeater who will continually tie up the repeater rather than use simplex.
73, WF5TX