This document has been prepared and updated where necessary by the committee of BCRG, as a guide to users, in terms of operating procedures and technical requirements. It is not an attempt to explain the mysteries of repeater logic systems.

ACCESS

To access the repeaters, the requirements are :-

A burst of 175Ø Hz tone +/- 25 Hz, of approximately 25Ø to 5ØØ milli-seconds in length, followed immediately by 4 or 5 seconds of good speech.

Note, if your tone-burst is not set to give at least 1 kc's peak deviation, or is off frequency by more than +/- 25 Hz, or is shorter than 25Ø milliseconds, then it is unlikely to access the repeater.

GB3BC, GB3SG, GB3MG, GB3BB and GB3BU will also accept a CTCSS tone of 94.8Hz at a minimum of 25ØHz deviation instead of the 175ØHz tone-burst. All the groups repeaters also transmit the CTCSS tone when in 'Relay' Mode.

TALK-UP

GB3BB, BC, BU, MG and SG all require, immediately following the tone-burst, 4 or 5 seconds of speech to latch it. If you fail on your first attempt, you will probably notice that, if your 175Ø Hz tone-burst or CTCSS tone is set up correctly, the repeater will give a short burst of transmitted carrier, before closing. It is therefore likely that your talk-up audio was not adequate. On a subsequent attempt you will need to speak longer and louder. The majority of operators find that your callsign given once normally and again phonetically, plus something like "Listening BC" or "Testing access BC" is sufficient.