REPEATER ETTIQUETTE & OPERATING
PROCEDURES
Please DO
NOT cross-link different modes!!
Only
D-STAR connections are allowed
The
Repeaters are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission and the users
of our repeaters MUST comply with ALL FCC mandated rules and regulations. Repeaters
are part of amateur radio, and ham radio is a hobby and should be FUN, however,
common sense requires that some basic guidelines be followed.
Remember, repeaters are not a direct line. They are a “party line” over
which your words are heard from the
IN ADDITION
to the FCC Regulations, there are basic operating procedures that help to
optimize the use of the repeaters and to promote a positive experience for all
users.
While
not all-inclusive, the following procedures establish a baseline for all
repeater users to follow. If you follow these few guidelines, you will be
acting as a responsible member of the amateur community, and you will have a
pleasant D-STAR experience!!
Program your radio correctly:
To
use the repeaters sponsored by the Pioneer Valley Repeater Association or the
CT. DSTAR Users Group (AA1HD, W1HDN, N1GAU, KD1STR, and KB1UHS)
you MUST have your call sign in the MYCALL field. Also be sure that you have
the repeater call sign in both the RPT1 and RPT2 fields.
In
the RPT1 field the call sign MUST be
followed by the repeater module designator (A=1.2GHz, B=440 or C=2m) in the 8th
position of the field.
In
the RPT2 field you MUST follow the
repeater call sign with the letter “G” in the 8th position of the field.
Not
programming your radio as indicated above violates our rules for using the
repeaters and you may be asked not use our repeaters.
Please
turn on the “Busy Lockout” feature in your radio. This will prevent you from
doubling with someone else.
Leave
Pauses:
D-STAR is a different animal than analog. DO NOT
Quick key!! It is a good practice to count to 5 between transmissions. This
give others a chance to join in or announce there presence. There is no such
thing as double-keying and hearing some indication that a double-key has
occurred. If you double-key with someone else chances are good that one of you
won’t be heard and nobody will know you transmitted.
Your transmissions are turned into digital data
streams and then transmitted. Additional data is also transmitted each time you
key your PPT, like your callsign, message and
location (if GPS is turned on). This takes time to clear through the
repeater(s) and gateway especially if several are linked together. So please
leave a pause between your transmissions.
IRCDDB requirement:
Most of our repeaters feed information to the Quadnet system for the purpoase of callsign routing and the use of SMARTGROUPS. More information about Quadnet can be found here: Quadnet page, including a lastheard dashboard.
Some of the repeaters also feed information to the Ircddb system, another system to enhance the routing capabilities of D-STAR. One of the features is a webpage where all transmissions can be seen in real-time, know as the Ircddb.live page. .
This system was created overseas and there were privacy concerns voice by the Europeans. The developers decided that individuals would need to opt-in to be visible. If you look at the page you will see ********** for those who have not opted-in.
In order to have your call sign visible you would need to make ONE transmission, on one of our systems, with the words VIS***ON (* = spaces) in the URCALL field. The "ON" needs to be in characters 7 & 8.
Please be sure to do this as we use this information to monitor or systems usage. Failure to do this could lead to being uninvited from using our systems. if you have a REAL privacy concern please contact, via email, W1FJM at W1FJM dot com or KB1AEV at COX dot net.
Listen
Before You Talk:
When
preparing to use the repeater, be sure to listen before you press the PTT.
Please remember to key your microphone and pause for a second or two to insure
that ALL the links come up and your transmission is not cut off at the
beginning. When you turn on your rig, check your volume setting to be sure you can
hear any activity on the repeater. It is also good practice to ask if the
repeater is in use, there may be a net in progress or someone may be waiting for
another party to respond or return to the air shortly. Simply ask, “Is the
repeater in use? This is <your callsign>”.
With
the proliferation of dual band/dual display radios, be sure you are set up to
transmit on the desired band and/or frequency.
Admit to
Your Mistakes!
Accidents
are bound to happen – you may inadvertently transmit into an ongoing
conversation because you forgot one of the points above. The best way to handle
this is to apologize for your error! Be a responsible adult- you will gain more
respect through your regret, in spite of your mistake!
Station
Identification:
All
stations should identify themselves using their FCC assigned callsign upon:
Initially transmitting on the repeater (strongly
suggested);
Every ten minutes thereafter (not required as your
radio identifies you but it is still a good habit);
When they end their conversation or “sign off”
(required).
In
addition, when operating in a net or “roundtable” your callsign
should be announced more frequently if needed to facilitate efficient
communication.
Any
transmission on the repeater which is not either indicating you are listening,
or calling another station or stations before communication is established is
considered “Broadcasting” and is not allowed on Amateur Radio and on the
repeater.
When
initially coming on a repeater, (which is not previously in use verified by
LISTENING for a reasonable time or, if you’re not sure ask, “Is the repeater in
use?” PRIOR to transmitting), it is only necessary to announce your call. If
you would like to solicit a conversation, you can announce your presence on the
repeater by stating, “<your callsign>
listening”.
Testing:
To
test repeater access, DON’T just kerchunk the
repeater without identifying! Instead,
use the term “testing”. Example: "<your callsign>
testing".
If
you want a signal report from another amateur, state that in plain English.
Example: “This is <your callsign>, can someone
give me a signal report?”
Do
not use the repeater frequency to check antenna SWR or to do other equipment
checks. Move to simplex if possible and use a dummy load.
Demonstrations:
From time to time, an amateur may want to demonstrate the
capabilities of amateur radio to another non-amateur. The typical way to do
this is to ask for a "demo" such as, "<Your Call sign> for a demonstration." Anyone who is
listening to the repeater can answer them back. If you answer such a call, give
the calling party your name, callsign, and location,
not a lengthy conversation. Someone doing a demo may ask for stations in a
particular area to show the range of amateur radio communications, such as, if
the calling station is in
If you are trying to contact a specific station, you
should announce, … "<Callsign of station
being called> - this is - <your callsign>".
Your callsign is stated AFTER the station you want to
call. If you do not get an answer after
a couple calls, announce “<your callsign> -
clear”. This lets everyone else listening know that you have released the
repeater for others to use.
If
the repeater is already in use, please wait for a pause between transmissions
to announce your call. If you want to contact another station not in the
current conversation, ask if you can make a call in plain English. Simply announce Call Please or state,
“<your callsign> for a call”.
Make
your call when the parties using the repeater turn the repeater over to you. If
you contact the party you are seeking, turn the repeater back to the person who
turned it over to you, thank them for letting you in, and move to another
frequency to hold your conversation no matter how short you think it might
take.
If
you do not get a response from the party you are seeking, turn the repeater
back to the person who turned it over to you, and thank them for letting you
in.
When
a new station enters the roundtable, those stations using the repeater, and the
next station in rotation should acknowledge the new station AND turn it over to
them, or let them know what their place is in the rotation. Also indicate who
they should turn it over to in order to keep the rotation intact. Remember to
give your name as a matter of introduction so everyone becomes familiar with
you!
When
in a roundtable discussion make it a practice to turn the repeater over to the
next party in the conversation. Don’t assume everyone will remember when it is
their turn. Not turning it over can cause confusion and instigates
double-keying which does not play well in the D-STAR world.
When Callsign Routing:
You will not know if there is a conversation taking place on
a remote repeater so you may have to make your call several times before you
are heard.
It is important that you let stations on the repeater you
are routing to know what repeater/gateway and module you are transmitting from.
This gives the users of the other repeater enough information so they can react
to your call. With D-STAR, a call from a remote repeater, that is not linked to
the one you are on, does not let you respond automatically. The users of the
remote system need to take some action in order for their response to get back
to you. Usually they will hit their “one touch” button, but they won’t know to
do that is you don’t tell them you are coming in from a different repeater. It
is a good practice to make your call in the following manner;
Announce yourself with your callsign followed by “via the” “your repeater callsign
and module”, like this: W1ABC via the AA1HD module C in
Repeat this several times without un-keying so the remote
station has time to push their one-touch button while you are transmitting.
Give enough time between attempts to allow the remote
station to reply. Remember, they can’t just put their PTT. They need to find
the one-touch button, push it while you were transmitting.
D-PRS Procedures(thanks to the Northern Ohio Digital Interconect Group for these procedures):
Many D-Star users may want to connect a GPS to
their radio for tracking purposes similar to the APRS (Automated Position
Reporting System) mode in use on 144.39 MHz. In
the digital world, this feature is referred to as DPRS, with the letter
"D" referring to the fact that the data is passed over the air using
D-Star's Digital Modulation rather than AFSK modulation as used in
APRS.
There is another important difference to
consider. APRS is operated on a data-only frequency (144.39 MHz), so
there are no voice users to worry about. Therefore, it is very common for
APRS users to configure their equipment to automatically beacon their GPS
information every few minutes.
With DPRS, your GPS data is transmitted on the main
repeater channel, which is primarily dedicated to voice users. When you
set your D-Star radio to automatically beacon your GPS data, each automatic
beacon keys the repeater momentarily, causing any voice users to hear the
typical D-Star "beep" when the repeater unkeys.
Now, think how annoying it would be for voice users to hear a "beep"
after every automatic beacon.
Now, let's picture five DPRS users, each with their
radio set to automatically beacon every five minutes. That would be
60 "beeps" per hour. There is also the possibility of beacons
colliding with voice users. The DPRS users would become pretty unpopular,
pretty quickly!
The solution to this problem is for DPRS users to
set their radios to transmit GPS data on PTT only. That way,
your GPS data is transmitted each time you manually key up to talk and we
eliminate the aforementioned problems.
Again, the CTDSTAR system is a shared system
with voice users having priority. With that in mind, CTDSTAR requires
that DPRS users set their radios to transmit GPS data during "PTT
Only" while operating on the CTDSTAR system. We consider this
stipulation both common sense and good amateur practice.
Likewise, there may be situations that DPRS
automatic beaconing may be desirable, such as during a public service event
where our served agencies may want accurate and up-to-date position info, fox
hunts, special scheduled activities for DPRS users, etc. These situations
would typically occur during a Directed Net or similar coordinated
activity. DO NOT use DPRS automatic beaconing on a repeater connected to
a reflector.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation!
Being a courteous ‘guest’:
Whenever
you use a repeater that belongs to a group to which you are not a member, or
belongs to an individual and you do not support the repeater (especially when
you are traveling in an area not frequented), it is always common courtesy to
thank the group for allowing you to use the system, similar to what you would
do if you borrowed someone’s cell phone to make a call. Simply state, “This is
<your callsign> clear – Thank you for the use
of the repeater” when signing off. It is likely that no one will say “your
welcome”, but rest assured that someone heard you, and accepted your gratitude.
If
you frequently use a repeater, it is courteous to join the organization that is
responsible for maintaining the system, or in the case of a system under single
party ownership, asking the owner if he accepts donations towards the upkeep of
the system. Repeaters are expensive to maintain, and keeping them on the air
and running efficiently takes a lot of time and capital. Even if a repeater is
considered “open”, that does not make it a public utility- your support is
important.
A
guest is considered to be someone who uses a system on an infrequent basis. The
term guest has its limits however…. If your mother in law asked you if she
could stay at your house for a while, and proceeded to stay for several months,
at what point would the term ‘guest’ no longer apply? The same rationale applies
to the use of a repeater!
Emergency Calls:
ONLY USE THE TERM "BREAK"
OR "BREAK BREAK" in an emergency or
life-threatening situation.
All
stations using the repeater should pause after the previous station drops the carrier
(releases the PTT) to minimize inadvertent "doubling" (simultaneous
transmission) and to allow time for new stations to identify.
If
an incoming station announces an emergency with a single or double
"break", the repeater is to be given to them IMMEDIATELY for their
traffic.
Communication
should be in plain language, as if you were communicating over the telephone.
Although you may hear many others using them, "Q" codes are not
required and their use should be minimized (“Q” codes were established for CW
communications then extended to HF voice to facilitate quick and easy
intelligibility- on VHF or UHF this is not necessary).
"10"
codes should not be used, and avoid using CB "handles" in place of
your name! Many hams can trace their radio roots to CB, but if you are a
current or former CB’er, please leave your CB lingo
behind. Ham radio is a whole different country from CB. Using your CB ways on
the repeater is the fastest way to be labeled a LID (a bad operator).
Similarly,
phonetics should be reserved for those instances when they are required or
where ambiguity should be avoided (minimal signal / emergency traffic for
example).
Interjecting a Comment:
If
listening to a conversation and you want to make a “comment” you should come
into the conversation between transmissions by first identifying with your call
sign and then state your intention. Example: “<your callsign>
with a comment”. If you are not able to join in the conversation due to time or
other constraints, make your comment when the participants turn it over to you,
sign out, and turn the repeater back to the individual who turned it over to
you or to the next person in the rotation, depending upon circumstance.
Remember to thank the participants for letting you in, and remember to clear
with your callsign.
Extraneous
Tones and Identifiers:
Except
when required for control or identification purposes, extraneous audible
content should NOT be transmitted before, during or at the completion of a
transmission. This includes DTMF tones, your background TV or music on the car
stereo.
Proper
and legal operating etiquette is 95% common sense. While the above limits on
content are not all inclusive, they should make clear the type of communication
that is NOT appropriate.
The FCC requires the Control Operators to monitor the repeaters to
insure compliance with the rules. We would not like to hear illegal or sloppy
operating habits on our repeaters, because such problems could cause FCC
actions against us. We should
all be mindful of our operating procedures- Newer users of the repeater will copy our poor
practices, purely out of the ignorance of proper procedures, and likely will
add their own errant ways into the mix. Let’s avoid this downward spiral!
The repeater
Trustee and Control Operators have the right and the duty to shut the repeater
down should a warning of an FCC rule violation go unheeded. Remember that they
have the responsibility of preserving the trustee’s license and any activity on
the repeater results in the de-facto involvement of the trustee.