ON THE REPEATERS

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Always Say Your Call Sign and First Name

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Remember GMRS repeaters are privately owned

Respect the rules the repeater owner sets

No religion, politics or foul language on the repeaters

Do not use our repeaters for illegal activities

Do not share repeater PL tones

No music (including in the background)... turn off the tunes

No Roger Beeps

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• Repeaters primarily serve to extend the operating range of portable and mobile stations on VHF/UHF.
   

• If you want to talk via the repeater while it is already in use, wait for a pause between transmissions to announce your call.
   

• Only use the term ‘break’ or even better ‘break break break’ in an emergency or life-threatening situation. Better is to say ‘break break break with emergency traffic’.
   

• Stations using the repeater should pause until its carrier drops out, to avoid inadvertent doubling (simultaneous transmission) and to allow time for new stations to identify. Pausing 2-3 seconds usually also allows the timer to reset, avoiding a time-out. Please turn on BCL (Busy Channel Lockout). Make sure you turn off the (Roger Beeps) and any type of alarm.
   

• Do not monopolize the repeater. Repeaters are there not only for you and your friends. Be conscious that others may want to use the repeater as well; be obliging.
   

• Don’t break into a contact unless you have something significant to add. Interrupting is no more polite on the air than it is in person.
   

• Interrupting a conversation without identification is not correct and in principle it constitutes illegal interference.
   

How to do a radio check

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• Ever wondered how to do a radio check right on a GMRS repeater? Here’s the straightforward way: Only give a check if you’re close enough to the repeater that you’re hearing others loud and clear, with zero static and no dropping out. If you’re way out on the edge where your own signal starts to fizzle or break up, skip it—you’re not in a reliable position to judge anyone else’s signal.

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• Now, tune your ear when someone talks: Pay attention to any static or “shh” sound mixed in with their words. If it’s totally clear with no extra noise at all, say “full quieting” or “100% audio”—that’s perfect. If there’s just a light buzz underneath, call it “90% clear” (mostly voice, with a tiny bit of rustle). If the buzz is about equal to the talk, say “50%.” It’s simple: Just estimate how much garbage (noise) you hear compared to the clean voice, especially in the gaps between sentences.

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• And forget those old “five-nine” or “five-five-nine” codes—they’re from different radio setups and mean nothing here. You’re not hearing the transmitting person’s actual signal strength at all. The repeater receives whatever they send (weak, strong, clear, or broken up), then retransmits it at full power from its location. So the signal you receive is always coming from the repeater itself—strong and steady to everyone in range. Your radio’s meter (if it even has one) will swing the same way for every transmission because it’s measuring the repeater’s output, not the original person’s radio. The repeater doesn’t fix or improve a weak or noisy input; it just repeats exactly what it hears, including any static or breakup. That’s why all you can really judge is how clean the repeater is feeding the audio to you—not how strong the other person was transmitting. If you want a true read on their signal into the repeater, you’d need to be right there at the repeater site checking its own meter.

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• If you frequently use a particular repeater, consider supporting those that keep that repeater on the air.