A repeater receives on one frequency and simultaneously retransmits on another from a high site, so a five-watt handheld can cover an entire region.
What you need to program
- Output frequency — where you listen
- Offset — how far the input is from the output; conventionally −600 kHz on 2 m and +5 MHz on
- Tone (CTCSS/PL) or DCS — a sub-audible tone your radio sends to open the repeater
- Sometimes a separate tone squelch so you only hear signals carrying that tone
70 cm
Repeater directories, RepeaterBook and your local club all publish these. Modern radios can be programmed by cable and software far faster than by hand.
Using one
- Listen before transmitting.
- Pause after keying up — many repeaters and linked systems clip the first half second.
- Leave a gap of a second or two between transmissions so others can break in.
- Identify with your call sign every ten minutes and at the end.
- Say "break" or your call sign, not "breaker breaker", if you need to interrupt.
Etiquette that keeps you welcome
- A repeater belongs to a club or an individual who pays for the site. Join and support the ones
- Keep it short on a busy machine; move to simplex for long conversations.
- No profanity, no music, no business traffic, no political arguing — Part 97 covers some of this,
- If a net is scheduled, yield the machine.
you use.
common sense covers the rest.
Linked and networked systems
Many repeaters link to others by RF or over the internet through EchoLink, AllStar, IRLP or digital voice networks. A short local transmission may reach several states, so identify clearly.
Personal nodes
Where there is no repeater within reach, a personal node puts you on the same networks with a handheld and a broadband connection: a small computer running AllStarLink, a USB radio interface and a radio, or a radio-less interface with a microphone and speaker. Cross-band full-duplex nodes are worth the extra effort — you can key up a linked system at any time rather than waiting for a courtesy tone, and you hear the system while transmitting.
AllScan publishes detailed how-to guides on building AllStar nodes and sells the interfaces, radio modules and complete nodes described in them. A node is a station like any other: it must identify, and you are responsible for what it transmits.