The 3 minutes comes from the FCC requirement that should your control device fail the repeater shut duwn within 3 minutes. That's in Part 97.
Joe M. > Marty Schultz wrote: > > Hello all. I help to maintain the repeaters of the ham club I belong > to and had a discussion with one of our rather older crusty member > concerning the three minute timeout we have on our repeaters. On one > occasion after he timeout one of our repeaters for about the third > time (he is long winded) I said something like "I wish I could extend > the timeout but the FCC wants the three minute time out on repeaters". > He answer back that it is not a FCC regulation but a standard that > develop over the years to prevent someone from being too longwinded on > a repeater like himself. I spent some 20 years in a two-way shop and > we always had nothing longer than three minutes timeout on the radios > we program. We do newsline and rain on our nets and have the timeout > temporary disable for them but I think that is permissible if you have > a control operator standing by? Looking at part 97.213(b) for > Telecommand of an amateur station they talk about provisions to limit > transmissions of no more than three minutes in case of equipment > failure. My interpretation is that would apply to "repeaters" also. > Not looking for ammunition to battle the fellow with but more to > satisfy my curiosity and to know what is what. > > Marty, N9PPJ > >
