Repeater Guidelines and Good Operating Practices
All amateur radio operators are welcome to use the Cross Roads Ham Radio Club. The rules that govern our service require good amateur operating practices. We encourage you to follow these guidelines when using our club’s repeaters. This will make the use of our repeaters more enjoyable for everyone.
Content of communications. We are all familiar with the types of communications which the FCC rules prohibit, such as music, codes and ciphers, criminal activity, false signals, broadcasting, retransmitting radio signals, obscenity and indecency.
While we support freedom of speech, we need to remember that there are many listeners of all ages who monitor our repeaters. Our language should be courteous and sensitive to the considerations of all listeners, free of expletives, and suitable for family conversations. Use language suitable for prime-time television, not R rated movies. For many years, hams have followed a “rule of thumb” that it is not a good idea to discuss sex, religion, and politics over the air.
Identify correctly. FCC rules require a station to identify every ten minutes and at the end of a QSO.
Testing and signal reports. If you are unsure how well you are making it into the repeater, DO NOT “kerchunk” the repeater. Any time you key up the repeater, you should identify, even if you are just testing to see if you are making the repeater.
Participating in on-air Nets. New Hams, old Hams, CRHRC members and non-members are all welcome to participate in our on-air nets. Nets involving a large number of people can go really well and orderly or … they can become a train wreck. This is one of the reasons we hold a weekly net – to practice and encourage the use of proper techniques when communicating with a large group over a linked repeater system.
Please remember, practice and use the following tips:
Leave space after the previous station before transmitting. Keying immediately following a signal is known as “quick keying”. Leaving a bit of space allows others to “participate” who may have priority traffic or who just want to insert a comment into the conversation.
Give a full second or more of time after you begin transmitting and before you begin speaking. This gives all of the linked repeaters an opportunity to switch to transmit mode without missing the very beginning of your message. This is especially important and helpful during Net check-ins.
During Nets, and using the tips above, please remember to:
transmit and announce “this is…”
unkey and listen to see if you are doubling with another station. If nothing is heard, proceed by announcing your call sign TWICE, SLOWLY AND PHONETICALLY.
POWER USERS TIP: Are you aware that monitoring the CRHRC AllStar Hub will show you when linked repeaters are in transmit mode? If you are attempting to transmit and see another repeater go into TX mode, its a pretty clear and accurate indicator that a double is occurring. And, its really fun to watch during the new member welcome! Check it out at https://stats.crhrc.org/allmon3/
Being a wide-coverage system, many mobile stations and travelers use the system to communicate over a wide distance while on the road. The W5LCR repeaters have been built at considerable expense and hard work to provide this wide-area service. One of the purposes of our repeaters is to expand the range of mobile and hand-held transceivers.
The W5LCR system is NOT a closed repeater system. It is an open, user-friendly and visitor-friendly system. Local and visiting amateurs who are not members of the Cross Roads Ham Radio Club are welcome to use our repeaters. Those who use our repeaters frequently are encouraged to consider joining our club and/or making a donation to help support our repeaters.
If you have any questions about the Cross Roads Ham Radio Club repeaters, feel free to use our contact us form or contact any member of the board.