Ham Radio Basics: Repeaters and Radio Settings

Repeaters form a central part of any ham's on-air life. 

A repeater repeats your radio signals at higher power or more efficiently allowing more people to hear you. You may have a handheld that goes goes a few miles, but once you hit the repeater you can cover even more area.

Within the Ontario Stake we have two repeaters that are a part of our emergency communications frequencies and the third that should be part of your emergency preparations. The main one we use is the Malheur Butte repeater, with the Lime repeater as a backup that can reach over to La Grand via the Beaver repeater (they are connected by landline, so when you communicate with one repeater, you're actually communicating with two, as long as they are working properly), and then there's the Sheep Creek repeater in Weiser which has most of the activity in the region (click the links to see a map of how far those typically reach).

When it comes to setting up a ham radio, even though there's  seemingly hundreds of different settings on the radios, there are only a few key settings that you really need to know. These are, frequency, offset, shift, and tone.

Frequency refers to the frequency that you listen to on a repeater. For example, the Malheur Butte repeater is listed as being 147.100 megahertz. This means if you wish to listen to the Malheur Butte repeater, you're going to have to tune in  to 147.100 megahertz. 

If you wish to use the Malheur Butte repeater you're going to have to know a couple more things. 

First is offset. Offset refers to the difference between the frequency the repeater transmits, and the frequency it listens to your radio on. Most of the time it's 0.6 megahertz, or six kilohertz. On your radio this will appear as 0.6, or 0.6MHz. 

The other thing you have to know is whether it's a positive or negative shift. The Malheur Butte repeater has a positive shift of 0.6 megahertz.  So when you tune your radio to listen to the repeater at 147.100, you also program an offset of 0.6, and then whether it is higher or lower than the repeater's frequency. 

There is one more thing that you need to know, which is called the tone, continuous tone coded squelch or CTCS, or PL for "private line." This consists of a very low tone ranging from 67-254 hertz.  You can't hear it and other radio operators can't, but the repeater can. The Malheur Butte repeater's tone is 100 hertz. When you key your mic, in addition to your voice being sent over the radio, it is also broadcasting that tone at 100 hertz. When the repeater hears that, it acts as a type of key unlocking the repeater telling it to transmit the rest of what it's hearing. And voilà you're on the air!

So, quiz yourself. 

You look up the Sheep Creek Repeater and you see the following information: 

147.120, +0.6, 100.0Hz 

You can highlight below (drag your mouse or your finger across the screen) to see the answers, I've hidden them in white:

What is the frequency of the repeater? 

A: 147.120MHz (megahertz, or 147.120 million cycles per second)

What is the offset? 

A: 0.6MHz

What is the shift, positive or negative?

A: Positive (+)

What is the frequency your radio will talk to the repeater on? 

A: 147.180MHz (147.120+0.6 = 147.180MHz)

What is the tone, CTCS or PL for the repeater? 

A: 100 hertz.

One more: 

You look up the Squaw Butte Repeater in Emmet, you see the following: 

146.740, -0.6MHz, 100.0

What is the frequency of the repeater? 

A: 146.740MHz (megahertz, or 146.740 million cycles per second)

What is the offset? 

A: 0.6MHz

What is the shift, positive or negative?

A: Negative (-)

What is the frequency your radio will talk to the repeater on? 

A: 146.140MHz (146.740-0.6 = 146.140MHz)

What is the tone, CTCS or PL for the repeater? 

A: 100 hertz.

How do you know if you're hitting the repeater? 

You can "kerchunk" it - i.e., key your mic for a second, and when  you let go you'll get a signal from the repeater of noise that sounds like a "kerchunk" that lets you know you hit it. It's repeating your signal that you sent out back to you.  You won't hear the "kerchunk" sound on simplex, or just operating radio-to-radio because nothing's getting repeated. You will very often hear this sound of a repeater making a "kerchunk" sound while you are tuned into it, which is other ham radio operators testing their radios to see if they have everything dialed in or are in range.   

Note, you may be able to "kerchunk" the repeater, but it still may not be hearing you clearly. This is a matter of experience and practice with your radio and an individual repeater. For example, the repeater in Lime, Oregon can hear me clearly from downtown Nampa on my mobile radio.  The Malheur Butte Repeater cannot and this is because the Lime repeater is at a much higher elevation. The repeater in Silver City, called "War Eagle" has an incredible range stretching towards Twin Falls and I can hit it from Ontario in my vehicle if I get a clear line of sight. 

Quick review and test yourself: 

What is offset?  What is shift?  What is tone, PL or CTCS?  What are three major repeaters in the Ontario region you could use?  What does a repeater do? 

If you can answer those, you're on your way to being a ham!  If not, scroll up, and make sure you get it and THEN you're on your way to being a ham!  Also, you can read the announcements in the sacrament bulletin regarding ham radio and know what they are talking about!