ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (tech class) and im still trying to figure out the repeater thing. theres a 147.xxx machine about 12 miles from me that i can hit pretty reliably but half the time nobody comes back when i call. i programmed in the offset and everything but i wonder if the CTCSS tone is the issue. the repeater directory lists it as 100.0 Hz but sometimes i key up and the repeater doesnt even open. like i can hear it squelch tail when others use it but when i transmit nothing happens.

also someone told me i should wait a few seconds after the squelch tail before keying up again — is that actually a thing or were they just messing with me? and whats the deal with linked repeaters because someone mentioned this machine ties into some kind of network on weekends and i have no idea what that means for how i should operate on it.

sorry if these are dumb questions im just trying to not be that guy who annoys everyone on the local repeater lol

not dumb questions at all, everyone goes through this. the CTCSS thing is probably your issue — double check that your radio is set to transmit the tone, not just receive it. a lot of handhelds have separate settings for encode and decode and its easy to only set one of them. if the repeater doesnt open when you key up, youre almost certainly not sending the tone or its set wrong.

and yeah the pause thing is real. most repeaters have a courtesy beep after the squelch tail drops, and you want to wait for that before keying back up. its partly so the system resets and partly just good manners so other stations can break in if they need to. on a linked system its even more important because your audio is going out to potentially dozens of other repeaters at the same time and if you step on the tail constantly it gets annoying fast. linked systems like EchoLink nodes or IRLP or some of the Allstar networks can cover huge areas so just treat it like you would any busy repeater and give a beat or two before transmitting.

yeah i had the exact same problem when i first got my HT. turned out i had the tone set to 100.0 on receive but forgot to enable the encode side. felt pretty dumb when i figured it out but whatever, its an easy fix. just dig into the menu and make sure TX CTCSS or whatever your radio calls it is actually on and set correctly.

the linked repeater thing is kinda cool once you get used to it — theres one near me that ties into a statewide system on sunday mornings and you can talk to people from like 200 miles away through it which is wild for a 5 watt HT sitting on my kitchen table