Operating

Repeaters

The club repeaters are monitored most of the time by one or more stations.  Some stations use a scanner, so they may miss the first part of a call.  It is for that reason a good idea to give the stations callsign twice when you are calling someone.

In case you have some immediate emergency, tune to a local repeater and hold down the "0" button for 5 seconds.  Then announce yourself by callsign - in phonetics.  This will make monitoring stations pay attention.

Some repeaters are linked (i.e. the Island Trunk System) and there is a considerable delay in the system.  Please make sure to pause a second or two before keying up.

Some repeaters have a timer that turns the repeater's transmitter  off if a station is transmitting too long.  This is a protection mechanism to protect the batteries.  Make sure you let the repeater's carrier drop before you reply to another station.

The Quadra UHF repeater goes "to sleep" after 10 minutes of inactivity.  It needs to be woken up gently by keying up briefly a couple of times.  You will then hear some tones after which you can use the repeater.

Our club repeaters are co-located with commercial repeaters and managed by North Island Communications.

Radio Procedures

Ham radio operators pride themselves of good operating skills, which also contribute to clarity of communication.  New hams are sometimes heard using the wrong terms and procedures, so here is a quick guide to the basics.

- First of all, when you call somebody, you say the other person's callsign first:

    Example: "VE7CRC this is VA7RCR"

    "VA7RCR calling VE7RCR" is incorrect and contributes to misunderstandings

- Actually, you should be using the phonetic alphabet, so the correct wording is:

    "victor echo seven charlie romeo charlie THIS IS victor alpha seven romeo charlie romeo"

- When you announce yourself on a repeater or simplex frequency always start with THIS IS:

    Example:  "THIS IS victor echo seven charlie romeo charlie monitoring"

- OVER means that you expect a response; OUT means that you do not.   "OVER and OUT" does not make sense and should not be used.

- As a part of signing off a station will often send a 73.  73 means greetings, so 73s would mean greetingss, which does not make sense.  Although you can pronounce it "seventy-three" or "seven three" in voice, in writing 73 is correct, not 7 3.

- We do not use "repeat" when something is not received.  The correct wording is "say again" or "say again last" or "say again all after ..."

- BREAK is used in two ways:

        1. To break up a larger transmission to allow higher priority traffic.

        2. To break into a QSO that is in progress

- You have a NAME on the radio.  Handles are reserved for doors.

- A day in BC has 24 hours.  Use the right time on the radio.  AM and PM have a different meaning in radio.

- Although Q-codes have their origin in Morse Code communication (CW), some are used on phone, see the subsection on the common codes in the sub page "Q-Codes".