Las Vegas Repeater Association

Closed Repeater Discussion

Amateur Radio Repeater owners have the discretion to limit the use of a repeater to a private group of individuals. Anyone interested in reading about this from a legal perspective can refer to the FCC rulebook. From a practical standpoint there are two major reasons why most of the larger, more sophisticated linked UHF systems are private:

• These systems are expensive to install and maintain. Most individuals cannot afford to support one without financial help. It is common to establish clubs (like the Las Vegas Repeater Association) and collect dues to finance operations. Limiting repeater access to members provides an incentive for interested individuals to join the organization and help support it.
• Most linked UHF systems require the use of control codes to activate links, use the autopatch, and operate remote bases. Improper use of the codes can put equipment into configurations that may cause harmful interference or result in illegal operation. Closed repeater groups require their members to learn proper operating procedures and responsible equipment operation. Permitting unsupervised use of such systems would require constant monitoring by the owners, which of course is not practical.

In the past, access to these systems was "controlled" by requiring PL tones to activate a repeater. The tones were closely guarded secrets. In addition, most handheld radios could only generate a handful of tones and were difficult to change. The result was a fairly effective control mechanism. Today, you cannot buy a radio that will not easily generate all PL tones. It takes only a few minutes to determine the PL tone for any repeater. We have published all of the access PL tones for our repeaters in the interest of supporting emergency communications. Publishing this information, though, is not an open invitation to use the radios. Those interested in the club should read the facts about membership.