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A New Ham's Guide
How to Use Amateur (Ham Radio) Repeaters by N4UJW
Simple enough for even me to understand!
This
article will help the New Ham to be more at home on repeaters
and understand the operation and procedures on Ham Radio Repeaters.
It
contains a basic description of a ham radio repeater, how to use it
properly and is written with the NEW HAM in mind for one of
the most popular ham bands....2 meters.
What is a Repeater and Why is it Needed, and How Does It Work?
What: It's
a two-way radio system that receives on one frequency, then
re-transmits what it receives on another frequency; at exactly
the same time. It's nothing more than a "dumb electronic machine" with
some smart people behind it.
Why it's needed: Your
mobile or hand held transceiver, has a limited range due to it's antenna
height with respect to the radio horizon and rf attenuating
surroundings. Repeater systems are used to "transfer" your
transmitted and received signals to much higher levels
electronically using large, very efficient high gain antennas, low loss
feedlines and a transmitter and receiver that is rated for heavy or
continuous duty. A repeater "gets out" your signal and receives the
station you are talking to with a far greater range and coverage area!
You take advantage of the repeater's higher elevation to increase your
effective transmitting and receiving coverage versus your mobile or
hand held transceiver!
How does a Repeater work?
Here's a simple block diagram of a repeater below:
More about Repeaters. See these very informative videos below from K7AGE, Randy.
A video is worth a thousand words! 3 Parts and a must see! (About 10 to 11 minutes each)
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3 {Direct from YouTube} -
The Basic Repeater Components:
Antenna
Most
repeaters use only one antenna. The antenna is used on transmit and
receive signals that are going into and out of the repeater. It usually
is a high performance, high gain, heavy duty, and very efficient
antenna located as high on a tower or structure as we can get it above
the surrounding terrain.
Lots of repeater system antennas are located on a high hill or mountain.
Antenna systems for repeater use are usually very costly and have an omni-directional pattern.
Feed line
The
feed line used on most repeaters is not just a piece of standard 50 ohm
coax cable. A type of specialized feed line called "hard line" is
usually used. It is very similar to cable tv line that you see
strung between power poles around town. Look just above the telephone
lines and you will see much larger "aluminum" cable. The signal loss
with hard line versus regular coax is much lower than in standard coax,
so more power gets to the antenna and weaker signals can be received
due to the very low loss of the "hard line".
Duplexer
This
device serves a major role in a repeater. The duplexer separates and
isolates the incoming signal from the outgoing and vice versa. It
prevents the receiver and transmitter from hearing one another by the
isolation it provides. A duplexer has the shape of large tall cans and
is designed to pass a very narrow range of frequencies and to reject
others. It helps to reject very strong nearby frequencies from other
repeaters or rf producers from getting into the repeater system.
Receiver
Receives
the incoming signal. This receiver is generally a very sensitive and
selective one which helps weaker stations to be heard better by the
repeater. It is set to receive the input frequency. It's also where
CTCSS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System) or "PL" decoding takes
place.
Transmitter
Most
"machines", as repeaters are sometimes called, have a transmitter
composed of an exciter and a power amplifier. The exciter modulates the
audio coming from the receiver which is tuned to the transmitting
stations's frequency at the proper transmit frequency, and the
power amplifier simply boosts its level so the signal will travel
further. Lots of repeaters use 100 watts or more. It
simply takes the weaker received frequency from say a mobile or
ht and re-transmits it (repeats) at a higher power level on a
different frequency. On
the 2 meter band, this separation between transmit and receive
frequency is usually 600kHz either positive or negative in relation to
the transmit frequency. On the 440 (70cm) band it is usually 5mHz
positive or negative in relation to the transmit frequency.
The "transmit" frequency is the frequency you tune your radio to and is usually listed in various sources. For instance, if you see a repeater listing that says:
146.90mHz, minus
or negative offset, Pl tone, 100....then you would program
your radio to 146.90mHz , minus 600kHz with a PL
tone of 100 into the memory for that specific repeater.
NOTE that most newer radios automatically set the offset (your actual transmit frequency) so you won't have to.
Controller
This
is the brain of the repeater. It handles repeater station ID using
either CW or voice, activates the transmitter at the appropriate
times, and sometimes performs many other functions depending
on the sophistication of the repeater. Some also have a DVR (Digital
Voice Recorder) for announcements and messages. The controller is a
small computer that's programmed to control a repeater.
What is Offset?
You
may have seen the word "offset" mentioned in the Tramsmitter
section above. So exactly what is a repeater offset you may
ask?
In
order to listen and transmit at the same time, repeaters use two
different frequencies. One for it's transmit frequency and another for
it's receive frequency. On the 2 meter ham band these
frequencies are 600 kHz (or 600 kilohertz) apart. On other
bands, the offsets are different. As a general rule, if the output
frequency (transmit) of the repeater is below 147 mHz, then the input
frequency (listening) is 600 kilohertz lower. This is referred to as a
negative offset. If the output is 147 Mhz or above, then the input is
600 kilohertz above. This is referred to as a positive offset.
Virtually
all ham radios sold today set the offset once you have chosen the
operating frequency automatically. Example: If the repeater output is
146.840 Mhz. The input, or the frequency the repeater receiver listens
on is 146.240 Mhz ( 600 kilohertz below 146.840mHz).
If
you have your radio tuned to 146.840 Mhz, (the repeater's output
frequency), when you push the mic button, your radio automatically
transmits on 146.240 Mhz, 600kHz down from 146.840. When you release
the mic button to listen, your radio switches back to 146.840 mHz to
listen on the repeater's output frequency. Note: There are exceptions
to the rule so check your local repeater listings.
Standard Repeater Input/Output Offsets
Band Offset
6 meters 1 MHz
2 meters 600 kHz
1.25 meters 1.6 MHz
70 cm 5 MHz
33 cm 12 MHz
23 cm 20 MHz
(Note that input/output offsets are voluntary among local and regional "Frequency Coordination Groups".
They are not fixed in stone by the FCC! They are "recommended" offsets for a particular area.
Your area may be different. Check with your local repeater operators.
Why do Repeaters use an Offset?
Without
having an offset between the transmit signal and the receive signal
frequency, the repeater would simply hear itself when it was
transmitting on the same frequency it was listening on!
Therefore,
to use a repeater a user must use a different transmit frequency than
receive frequency. Your actual transmit frequency is the exact same one
that the repeater receiver is listening on. This is a form of duplex,
or two frequency operation. It is known as half-duplex as you do not
receive and transmit at the same time but normally use the push-to-talk
button on your microphone to switch between the two. Cell phones use
full duplex so each party can hear the other while the he/she is
talking.
Even with
the offset, the two frequencies are close enough that some isolation is
required. Again, this isolation is done by the Duplexer. So you can see
why some repeater components interact with each other and without the
basic system components....nothing would work.
What's all those tones about?
What is a PL or CTCSS Tone?
PL,
an acronym for Private Line, is Motorola's proprietary name for a
communications industry signaling scheme called the Continuous Tone
Coded Squelch System, or CTCSS. It is used to prevent a repeater from
responding to unwanted signals or interference. Tone Squelch is an electronic means of allowing a repeater to respond only to stations that encode or send the proper tone.
In other words, if a repeater is set up to operate only when a PL tone
of say, 136.5Hz is heard by it's receiver, then it will allow the
transmitting station access. If your station, (your mobile, base or
hand held) does not transmit the tone that the repeater
receiver has been programmed for, when you key up,
then the receiver of the repeater does not hear you and will not be
usable by your station until you set the proper tone in your radio to
be transmitted when you key your mic. Any modern station may be set up
to transmit this unique low frequency
tone that allows the repeater to operate. If a repeater is "In PL mode"
that means it requires a CTCSS tone (PL tone) to activate the repeater.
Due to severe congestion of ham repeaters in some areas, most repeaters
are "PL'ed".
These repeaters were once called closed repeaters.
TABLE OF COMMON PL TONES (in Hz)
67.0 94.8
131.8 171.3 203.5
69.3 97.4
136.5 173.8 206.5
71.9 100.0 141.3 177.3 210.7
74.4 103.5 146.2 179.9 218.1
77.0 107.2 151.4 183.5 225.7
79.7 110.9 156.7 186.2 229.1
82.5 114.8 159.8 189.9 233.6
85.4 118.8 162.2 192.8 241.8
88.5 123.0 165.5 196.6 250.3
91.5 127.3 167.9 199.5 254.1
What Happens When You Key Your mic?
Let's
"key up" a repeater and see what sequence of events are
created within the repeater equipment when someone makes a
transmission:
You set your transceiver controls for the 146.84 "machine" and listen to see if it is in use...nothing heard.
You
key your mic and throw out your callsign...."This is KE5??? (insert
your call sign) listening on the 146.84 machine". Then you
release the mic button.
Assuming
your station is within range of the repeater....The repeater antenna
which is usually very high on a tall building, tower, water tank, or
even a mountain top, picked up your signal with its antenna on
146.24 (your transmit frequency set to the standard offset
for this part of the 2 meter band of -600kHz, and the
repeater's receive frequency) and sent it down the feed line to
the duplexer.
From
there it was sent to the repeater receiver and converted to
an audio signal (just like the sounds coming from your
speaker)....sent to the controller (the brains of the repeater), then
sent to the repeater transmitter and turned back into a much
greater amplified radio signal on 146.84mhz (the output of the
repeater)....sent to the duplexer....then thru the feedline to the
antenna and out over the air. So your little pip squeak ht running only
1 watt may be increased to 20, 30, 50 or 100 watts or sometimes more
using the repeater transmitter and its much higher gain antenna and
high location!
A
mobile, ht or base station that happened to be within range
and monitoring the ".84' machine heard your transmission on 146.84mhz
(the repeater output frequency).
Since
radio waves travel at about the speed of light....at the split second
that you first keyed your mic, the above events took place and the
repeater was receiving your signal on one frequency and
re-transmitting your signal on a different frequency at the same time!
The
mobile station that was listening on the output frequency of
the repeater heard your callsign....keyed his mic and came
back to you starting the process all over again!
A
simple way of demonstrating what is going on with a repeater is to set
a scanner or a second receiver tuned to the input frequency of
a LOCAL active repeater...in the case above...146.24mhz and
you can monitor its input (and the stations using it if they are local).
Then
with your transceiver, monitor the output on 146.84mhz! You should be
able to hear both the input signals and the output of the repeater as
all this takes place on the air. You may notice some differene in the
audio quality between the input and the output frequencies. This is
normal.
How do you make a call on an Amateur Repeater?
First,
LISTEN AND LISTEN SOME MORE...... to make sure that the repeater is not
already in use. When you are satisfied that the repeater is not in use,
set your transmitter power to the minimum and increase only as needed to make contact with the repeater,
begin with the callsign of the station you are trying to contact
followed by your callsign. e.g. " N4??? this is N3???". (The N3??? is
your callsign). If you don't establish contact with the station you are
looking for, wait a minute or two and repeat your call.
If
you are just announcing your presence on the repeater it is helpful to
others that may be listening if you identify the repeater you are using
AND your callsign. e.g. " This is N3??? listening on the 84 machine or
you could also say This is N3??? listening on 146.84 Dallas or the
location of the repeater if known. This allows people that
are listening on radios that scan several repeaters to identify which
repeater you are using.
If
the repeater you are using is a busy repeater you may consider moving
to a simplex frequency (transmit and receive on the same frequency.....
see more below), once you have made contact with the station you were
calling. Repeaters are designed to enhance communications between
stations that normally wouldn't be able to communicate because of
terrain or power limitations.
If
you can maintain your conversation without using the repeater, going
"simplex" (both stations on same frequency in a different part of the
band) will leave the repeater free for other stations to use that can't
establish simplex communications!
Repeater Etiquette and Reporting Emergencies
The
first and most important rule before using a repeater is to LISTEN
FIRST. Nothing is more annoying than someone that "keys up" or DOUBLES
in the middle of another conversation without first checking to make
sure the repeater is free. If the repeater is in use, wait for a pause
in the conversation (watch your S meter and wait for it to drop
indicating the repeater is listening) and simply say "Emergency,
Emergency, Emergency", and wait for one of the other stations to
acknowledge your call. If for some reason you are not heard, then
repeat the 3 "Emergencies" again...then if you are still not heard, try
another nearby repeater.
This is not CB radio!
Don't use CB lingo on any ham band such as 10-4, what's your 20, etc.....don't say BREAKER!
Using
the words BREAK, or BREAK,
BREAK or BREAK, BREAK, BREAK or any combination of
them on Ham radio can be misunderstood by an operator
depending on his experience.
The
word "break" or combinations of it carries many different
meanings in the ham community and in the English language.
According to THE EMERGENCY COORDINATOR'S MANUAL Edited by Steven Ewald, WV1X and Published by The American Radio Relay League, Inc.,
Quote from the "General Procedures section....http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Public%2520Service/ECMANUAL.PDF
"16) The word "break" is never used UNLESS there is an emergency."
Then further down in the manual, it appears to contradict or discourage the use of the word/s BREAK in the above statement:
"Note: The practice of using "BREAK" or "BREAK BREAK" to announce distress traffic should be strongly discouraged; it has no universally understood meaning.
So rather than have confusion...use plain language!
SO HOW DO YOU REPORT or ACT ON AN EMERGENCY ON A HAM BAND?
Many
hams use the wording, "BREAK, BREAK, BREAK", (the word "break" repeated
3 times in a row). This is accepted practice on the hf bands where
noise may be a problem but on repeaters, usually noise is not a
problem, so using "plain" language such as "EMERGENCY", REPEATED 2 OR
MORE TIMES can be used to announce that there is an emergency and the
frequency is needed to relay vital information....if you hear
an "Emergency" call during your conversation with another station....stop transmitting,
listen....and then acknowledge the station calling the
emergency and let them have the frequency immediately! Don't delay them by saying something on the order of "Stand by breaker" and then carry on your conversation with your contact. Seconds wasted doing this may COST a life! Listen
to them carefully and write down the details of their
emergency. They will give you the details of the emergency. Then pause
for a moment and wait before you go back to him.......many other hams
who heard the emergency call may be responding ALL at the same
time.
If
someone "beats" you to getting back to him, let him take over. Do not
break into the conversations UNLESS there is a need for a
relay. Under certain situations due to distances involved with mobiles
and repeaters, you may be able to hear a mobile BETTER than the
repeater on the input frequency of the repeater. It is a good idea to
monitor the input if possible if the station reporting the emergency is
having trouble getting into the repeater. You may be closer to him than
the repeater and can hear him better!
Whether
or not the station reporting the emergency is a base station OR mobile,
try to monitor the input of the repeater if there is difficulty in the
emergency transmission.
IF YOU ARE REPORTING AN EMERGENCY:
When using VOICE, use the international standard "MAYDAY" or universally understood "EMERGENCY" to announce traffic of life-or-death importance.
The procedure should be:
1.Select the repeater frequency.
2. Wait for a space between transmissions if the repeater is busy.
3. Key your mic and state..."Emergency, Emergency, Emergency" unkey.
4. Wait for a response from the repeater users. If you get no response, try another repeater.
When you do make contact, state your call sign and give as many details as to the emergency as possible. Don't panic, speak slowly and clearly so
the details will be understood the first time! Always give
details as exact and specific. Give the details of the exact LOCATION
of the emergency using enough description of the location so it can be
found easily by first responders. Don't say....on highway 60 and leave
it at that. The emergency vehicles need exact locations if at all
possible. Remember, seconds or minutes saved equal lives in many cases!
Give
number of "victims" if possible. Is there is fire involved, downed
power lines, immediate road blockage due to wreckage creating further
dangers? DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS.
The
person on the other end of your transmission is most likely copying the
info to paper so he can relay it to the appropriate authorities. Help
him help you!
If by some chance you have to use Morse code when reporting an emergency, then:
The standard CW signal is "SOS," sent as a single character--not spaced as three letters."
EXAMPLE:
DIT DIT DIT DAH DAH DAH DIT DIT DIT and NOT, dit dit
dit SPACE dah dah dah SPACE dit dit
dit.
NOTE:
Many repeater systems allow touch tone key pad entry of "911" DIRECT TO
the 911 operators and the emergency reporting system. Check with your
repeater system owners or trustees for info BEFORE YOU NEED TO KNOW.
When
making a 911 call direct from your station, make sure the 911 operator
understands that you are calling via ham radio and she/he can not talk
or (be heard by you) until you have unkeyed your radio.
Use of the term "over" is very helpful between you and the
911 operator. It is not like using cell phones. It is a one way (half
duplex) transmission using a repeater and not simplex
as with regular cell phones or land lines. Both parties CAN NOT talk at
the same time!
Use plain language on
a repeater. If you want to know someone's location, say "Where are
you.... or what's your location?" If you want to know whether
someone you're talking with is using a mobile rig or a hand-held radio,
just ask: "What kind of radio are you using?" You get the idea. Most
repeater use is of a "local" nature so signals will be usually of very
high quality. The use of the phonetic alphabet is very helpful at times.
Don't call CQ
to initiate a conversation on a repeater. Just simply listen to make
certain the repeater is not in use and then key your mic and say your
call sign and "listening".
If someone happens to be listening and they want to talk to you they will respond.
When
you are using the repeater leave a couple of seconds between exchanges
to allow other stations to join in or make a quick call. Most repeaters
have a "Courtesy Tone" (a short...beep or series of beeps) that will
help in determining how long to pause. The courtesy tone serves two
purposes. Repeaters have a time out function that will shut down the
transmitter if the repeater is held on for a preset length of time
(normally three or four minutes). This ensures that if someone's
transmitter is stuck on for any reason, it won't hold the repeater's
transmitter on indefinitely. (Don't laugh, many microphones get lodged
in the fold of car seats and keep a repeater busy until it times out.
Of course if it is not noticed soon by the mobile operator.....the
control operator of the repeater may have to shut down the repeater
until the problem is corrected.) When a ham is talking and releases the
push-to-talk switch on their radio, the controller in the repeater
detects the loss of carrier and resets the time-out timer. When the
timer is reset, the repeater sends out the courtesy tone. If you wait
until you hear this beep (normally a couple of seconds), before you
respond, you can be sure that you are pausing a suitable length of
time. After you hear the beep, the repeater's transmitter will stay on
for a few more seconds before turning off. This is referred to as the
"tail". The length of the tail will vary from repeater to repeater but
the average is about 2 or 3 seconds.
You
don't HAVE to wait for the "tail to drop" before keying up again,
but make sure that you hear the courtesy tone (if
used) before going ahead. Note: If you don't wait for the
beep, the time-out timer may not reset. If you time-out the repeater,
YOUR conversation AFTER the time-out will not be heard. The repeater
time-out function does not care if you are still talking or not; and
the station on the other end may rib you about hogging the machine and
you will have wasted all those words! What is Doubling? When two
stations try to talk at the same time on the same repeater, the signals
mix in the repeater's receiver and results in a buzzing sound, squeal,
distorted sound or severely jumbled and broken words.
When
you are involved in a roundtable discussion with several other stations
it is always best to pass off the repeater to a specific person
(station) rather than leave it up it the air. e.g. "W3??? to take it,
this is N3???", then unkey; or.......
"Do you have any comments Fred?, this is N3???"; un key.
You could also say "OK...that's all I have.....back to you Fred" or the next person in rotation... (un key)....
Failing to use this or other techniques is an invitation to total confusion.
As
a point of interest, a repeater will usually lock into the strongest of
two FM signals. This is the nature of FM. The strongest signal usually
wins.
Signal Reports on a Repeater
Lots
of new hams don't understand that the S meter on their radio
is only reporting the relative strength of the repeater system
and NOT
the signal strength of the station they are talking to unless they are
in the simplex mode. When the repeater is transmitting, it may have an
output greatly exceeding that of the station IT is listening to.
Remember the station it hears on the input frequency of it's receiver
may be on a hand held radio and only a few
blocks from the "machine" or it could be a mobile radio in a
vehicle out on the fringes of the repeater coverage area or a base
station running a high gain antenna and 100 watts from the next county
or in some cases, the next state. To a third party, (another ham),
listening to the machine on the repeater output, all of these stations
would have the same S meter reading on his S meter! As long as
the repeater can detect the signals and is working properly as it is
setup, then all stations, (to the third ham), will "appear" to have the
same signal strength on the S meter. Remember, the S meter is only reporting the relative strength of the repeater when it is transmitting and
not the individual stations! So all that being said, how do you give an
accurate signal report to the station you are talking to?
JUST USE PLAIN ENGLISH!
Listen to the background sounds of his AUDIO coming from your speaker in between words and sentences. Don't even look at your S meter. (Assuming the repeater has a good strong signal into your location).
If
there is no noise other than room background, road, passenger or other
sounds that could be picked up by his microphone, then he would be said
to have a FULL QUIETING signal into the repeater.....receiver. NOT 50
OVER S9, S9, OR ANY COMBINATION on your S meter. The term
"Quieting" refers to the carrier level of the transmitter being strong
enough to "quiet" the background hiss on the frequency. If some
background noise such as the hiss that is commonly heard in an FM
receiver is heard on the transmitter signal, then it would not be
considered "FULL QUIETING". There are times when either
station using a repeater may be getting into the repeater receiver with
very little signal and the repeated signal will have lots of
noise on it. Although the repeater signal may be full quieting when the
weak station stops transmitting, the weak station can not be considered
to be full quieting into the repeater so you would give the other
station a report on his signal and not the repeater. Don't get confused
with this. If his audio is perfectly understandable with 100 % copy and
there is NO "noise" in the background other than the above, then an
accurate report for him would be, "You're full quieting and 100 % copy
into the repeater. Anything less than the above is usually given in
various ways using an exact as possible description
of his signal. "Audio" reports are a matter of interpretation by
individual ears. We as hams are in the "business" of communications ,
not HI FI broadcast FM! We can only sound
as good as the FCC will allow our transmitters to sound! If you are
having extreme difficulty copying the other station, he may also be
having the same problem with you, but remember he is hearing the
repeater signal, not yours direct and so are you. Try to get him to go
"simplex" if he is coming closer to you in a few minutes. See
hint below. If the transmissions get so ruff that neither can
copy the other, then just give your call sign and clear off the
repeater for others to use while he gets closer or higher or
changes his transmitting setup. Not all conversations are completed to
the end under adverse conditions or operating situations....be patient.
HINT....If
the station is in and out of range of the repeater
you and he were using and is coming in your direction...try him on a
simplex frequency! He may be loud and clear direct on simplex and only
a few miles away and getting stronger all the time but he is getting
farther from the repeater! Another situation that can happen during a
new contact is that you and he did not exchange
locations at the first of the contact. Both you and he are
using a repeater 50 miles away. Then after several minutes you discover
in your conversation with the other station that he is in the same town
as you and only a couple of miles away! Time for simplex! Don't hog the
repeater.
Simplex operation generally means station to station or direct communication on the same frequency between two stations and not
using a repeater. Use the least amount of output power needed to carry
on the contact. Simplex should be used when the two stations are close
enough to carry on a conversation without the use of a repeater and
will help in congested metro areas with a limited number of repeaters.
Simplex should always be used if possible rather than a repeater.
See chart below for suggested simplex frequencies. (Highlighted in gray)
Repeater input and output frequencies highlighted in yellow.
2 Meter Band Plan as suggested by the ARRL (144-148 MHz):
|
144.00-144.05 |
EME (CW) |
|
144.05-144.10 |
General CW and weak signals |
|
144.10-144.20 |
EME and weak-signal SSB |
|
144.200 |
SSB National calling frequency |
|
144.200-144.275 |
General SSB operation |
|
144.275-144.300 |
Propagation beacons |
|
144.30-144.50 |
New OSCAR subband |
|
144.50-144.60 |
Linear translator inputs |
|
144.60-144.90 |
FM repeater inputs |
|
144.90-145.10 |
Weak signal and FM simplex (145.01,03,05,07,09 are widely used for packet) |
|
145.10-145.20 |
Linear translator outputs |
|
145.20-145.50 |
FM repeater outputs |
|
145.50-145.80 |
Miscellaneous and experimental modes |
|
145.80-146.00 |
OSCAR subband |
|
146.01-146.37 |
Repeater inputs |
|
146.40-146.58 |
Simplex |
|
146.52 |
National FM Simplex Calling Frequency |
|
146.61-146.97 |
Repeater outputs |
|
147.00-147.39 |
Repeater outputs |
|
147.42-147.57 |
Simplex |
|
147.60-147.99 |
Repeater inputs |
YOUR FIRST CONVERSATION AND CONTACT ON A REPEATER!
That
most exciting day just arrived! You now have passed your Technician
Class exam and have been issued your first call sign by the
FCC.
You
have your station all set up and you are ready for your first contact
on a repeater! You chose a local repeater frequency and dial it up on
your rig. You just keyed your mic, gave out your call sign and now you
hear........your call sign and someone coming back to you with his call
sign.....he un keys and the repeater is waiting for YOU!
BRAIN
LOCK SETS IN! "What do I do? What do I talk about? Will I remember all
those rules, regulations, theory and all that other stuff I had to
study?
The simple answer is.......probably not......but don't worry!
First
thing....try to write his call sign down and if he gives his name, that
too. Lots of good operators recognize a new ham instantly on the air
and they will guide you with patience, understanding, maybe some fun
prodding and picking at you to get you to relax and have fun with your
new license.
He will WELCOME you!
A
good operator will never make you feel unwanted on the air. He may ask
you to repeat your call sign just to make certain he understood who he
is talking to and if you forget to give your name, he will ask for it.
Most hams don't like to talk to a "call sign", so getting names and
also locations helps to start the conversation.
If
you make mistakes....he will most likely let you know what you did
wrong and inform you as to the correct way in a friendly manor.
Don't
be surprised if he asks you all the questions instead of the other way
around. He is just trying to get you to feel relaxed on the air. As
your experience grows in ham radio, aways try to remember your first
contact and how excited and nervous you were. Now it's your
turn and you are the one responding to a new ham and his first contact!
Make him feel at home and.......be a good operator.....like your first
contact was! Repeater ID.....you and it!
You
must transmit your call sign at the end of a contact and at least every
10 minutes during the course of any communication. You do not have to
transmit the call sign of the station to whom you are transmitting.
Never transmit without identifying. For example, keying your microphone
to turn on the repeater without saying your station call sign is
illegal. If you do not want to engage in conversation, but simply want
to check if you are able to access a particular repeater, simply say
"(your call sign...... testing)."
CONTROL OPERATORS
All ham radio stations, including repeaters AND YOUR STATION are required by the FCC to have a control operator monitoring the station while it is on the air. You are the control operator of your station.
Control operators are usually the owners, trustees or other designated licensed operators of a repeater system. They sometimes stay quietly in the background just listening to the every day operation of the "machine" for technical problems, proper use, FCC rule breaking, etc on a particular repeater.
They have complete control of whether a repeater is on the air or off and have the ability to stop it's operation at any time! Use the repeater to the best of your ability and within the FCC rules.
Report any un-authorized use of a repeater to the repeater owner or person responsible for the operation of the repeater.
One last thought....SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL REPEATER/S.
It
takes LOTS of money to maintain a repeater and the money has to come
from somewhere. If you can't donate funds, then donate your time,
assistance, equipment, knowledge, labor or anything of value to the
repeater owner to help keep it on the air. It will be
appreciated! Even simple things like mowing the grass around the
repeater area is certainly appreciated. If the repeater is on a
mountain top, enjoy the view while you are there. All repeaters need
some kind of care from time so volunteer your time when others don't.
WARNING TO NON-LICENSED STATIONS!
Only
licensed Amateur Radio Operators are authorized use of ANY Amateur
Radio transceiver including repeaters in the transmit function.
SEVERE PENALTIES ARE ENFORCED BY THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION!
LICENSED HAMS HAVE WAYS TO DETECT BOGUS CALL SIGNS!
DON'T TRY IT!
DON'T FORGET .....ID YOUR STATION
THE REPEATER WILL NOT ID FOR YOU....IT ONLY ID'S ITSELF!
After all......it's only a dumb "machine"!
HAVE FUN....73, N4UJW !
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