| Repeater Ettiquette, Listen prior to transmitting. Don’t use the word “break” to interrupt a conversation unless there is an emergency. Instead, give your call sign in between transmissions. I f there is no acknowledgment after two tries, don’t keep interrupting. If there are people having a conversation (a QSO), it is impolite to interrupt them unless you know them or have something insightful to add to the conversation. It’s the equivalent of walking up to someone on the street and breaking into a conversation. Always wait for the courtesy tone before making a transmission. The courtesy tone is a single tone the repeater sends after someone transmits which resets the timer and lets other operators know its okay to transmit. Operators should leave a gap of approx 4 seconds to allow stations to break in to a conversation and to allow the system to reset all connections, it also allows Dongle users the opportunity to access the system. There is a timer which will shut the repeater off if you talk too long, 3 minutes, so keep your transmissions short. It is not necessary to say “over” or “back to you”–the courtesy tone will let everyone know you’re done talking. However, it is good practice to hand it off to someone when there’s more than one other person or you’re working a group QSOUnless you’re asking for the quality of your audio, you cannot obtain a signal report from a repeater–the other station isn’t receiving your signal; they’re receiving the repeater’s signal. Never curse or use other obscenities, never talk of indecent things apart from contravening your licence conditions, You never know who is listening–like a parent introducing their child to amateur radio. It is not necessary to use phonetics (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie…) unless someone specifically says they’re having trouble copying, or the station is receiving a weak choppy signalSpeak in plain English. The use of Q-codes has somewhat crept into phone transmission, but it’s alright to ask someone their location rather than their “QTH” or say you’re going to sleep rather than announce you’re going “QRT”.When finished using the repeater, give your call sign and say “clear”. If you want to invite the other station to make one last transmission but not to expect a response from you, say “clear on your final”. Don’t forget to give your call sign in accordance with your licence requirements. It is not necessary to say “for identification” when giving your call sign, and remember your radio should be set to display your call sign through to other GB7CD or GB7RB Users. It is not necessary to do formal exchanges of call signs after every transmission in a conversation. When you do, remember your call sign comes LAST Don’t forget about simplex! If you find that you can hear someone on the repeater’s input and wish to have a lengthy conversation, consider picking a simplex frequency and moving. There may be other hams who are too far apart or someone on an HT who wants to utilize the repeater if you are both on GB7CD or GB7RB also consider dropping the repeaters link to the wider gateway connection, so you don’t tie up the network. Don’t discriminate against other Licence holders, no matter what level of licence they are at, if a new user is having problems accessing GB7CD or GB7RB offer help and support to the individual, remember we all started somewhere ! Under no circumstances should racist or offensive comments be passed, behaviour of this nature will not be tolerated on the repeater, diversity is good and encouraged within the community, there is internet traffic from users around the world with many diverse cultures. |