N3ST

All users are asked to be familiar with and follow the guidelines outlined below.

The Central Maryland Repeater Group (CMRG) repeater system consists of 5 UHF repeaters that are all linked together and provide wide area coverage to much of Maryland, Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and the southern part of central Pennsylvania.

Since the repeaters are all linked together, there are delays in when a user first transmits and when all the other repeaters are on the air. These delays are due to CTCSS decoders, CTCSS encoders, carrier activity detection on receivers, transmitter activation times, etc. Please wait approximately a half second once you key your microphone, before you start talking.

All of the repeaters have 10 minute time-out timers. These timers are on the repeater transmitters and NOT on the activity of the repeater receivers. The repeater transmitters will need to drop after the hang time or drop out delay for the timers to reset. Since the hang time or drop-out delay is set for only 1.7 seconds, this should not be a problem. All of the repeaters have the same length of hang-time. There are no “courtesy tones” on the system.

The repeater system is open to all users. Many people monitor the system throughout the day. Users are discouraged from regularly occupying the repeater system for very lengthy QSOs. Users should try limit their QSOs to 20 to 30 minutes. To be clear, the CMRG repeaters are NOT part of a closed system. This guideline is in place to ensure everyone has access to the system.

Please follow FCC regulations and good amateur practice when using this or any other repeater system.

CMRG Repeater Usage Guidelines