ID interval x Beacon on repeaters

[KD2DES]

Dear All,
I am studying a repeater controller and I am having a hard time understanding the difference between "ID interval" and "Beacon interval". There is also the ID message as well as the Beacon message as options to program. Can someone enlighten me? Thank you!

 

[kf8yk]

What model of controller are you referencing? The exact definition of those terms may vary between different manufacturers.

Generically the ID interval is the spacing between ID's in repeater service. Most controllers have polite vs impolite timers and an activity timer that suppresses ID's during periods of repeater inactivity. FCC rules specify a 10 minute repeater ID interval while the repeater is in use.

A beacon interval is typically how often to send the ID when a controller is used for a propagation beacon. Beacon ID's are typically sent on a short regular interval on a 24/7 schedule.

 

[KD2DES]

What model of controller are you referencing? The exact definition of those terms may vary between different manufacturers.

Generically the ID interval is the spacing between ID's in repeater service. Most controllers have polite vs impolite timers and an activity timer that suppresses ID's during periods of repeater inactivity. FCC rules specify a 10 minute repeater ID interval while the repeater is in use.

A beacon interval is typically how often to send the ID when a controller is used for a propagation beacon. Beacon ID's are typically sent on a short regular interval on a 24/7 schedule.

I'm using the ID-O-MATIV IV. I am just playing around with it on a test bench with a multimeter, no radios plugged in. What I don't understand is that when I set the ID interval (for the sake of testing) at 10 seconds, I don't sense the PTT being keyed by the controller. However, when I set the Beacon interval to 10 seconds, then I can see the PTT being keyed every 10 seconds. So when does the ID comes into play?

 

[AK9R]

Do you have the manual? It's available for download here: ID-O-Matic IV KIT

It's possible that the controller will not initiate an ID unless there has been activity on the repeater. IOW, with no indication of an incoming signal on the input, the controller may not ID unnecessarily.

 

[KD2DES]

Yes I read the manual 4 times, for ID interval it says "that's self explanatory" LOL
I think it is what you are saying, that the ID interval kicks in the first time it senses signal from the COS input. It's just confusing that there is an ID and a Beacon, why not just keep the ID and then apply polite policies to it? Why would someone need a Beacon and why would hte Beacon have a different message than the ID?

 

[KevinC]

Maybe a "beacon" could be used just to say "I'm here", in case someone is scanning the band looking for repeaters?

 

[nd5y]

Why would someone need a Beacon and why would hte Beacon have a different message than the ID?

What the beacon sends is probably not the same as the ID. Some people want their repeaters to only transmit the callsign every 10 minutes or less when it is active and then have aditional stuff like the time and location or useless annoying announcements every hour or half hour when the repeater is idle.

 

[KD2DES]

What the beacon sends is probably not the same as the ID. Some people want their repeaters to only transmit the callsign every 10 minutes or less when it is active and then have aditional stuff like the time and location or useless annoying announcements every hour or half hour when the repeater is idle.

Now that makes sense, thank you!

 

[a417]

I just breezed thru that manual, this popped out at me...



It's pretty well explained here, it even gives you a use case.

 

[KD2DES]

I saw that, but the question was about the ID interval. It says in the manual that it's "pretty straight forward", but it's really not... The key missing info is the explicit explanation that FCC requires ID'ing every 10 minutes of air time. So the ID interval only kicks in when there is traffic on the repeater. If there is no traffic whatsoever, the ID interval is meaningless. Hence why I was wondering during my test that the controller was not keying the PTT after 10 seconds -> because there wasn't any traffic.

 

[ShawnInPaso]

As an aside, there is a downside to setting a repeater controller to ID in the beacon mode every ten minutes (i.e. whether or not there is any traffic, the ID will be transmitted). Many hams, like myself, have their transceivers in the scan mode to monitor for any traffic. If multiple repeaters have their ID in the beacon mode, the transceiver is constantly stopping with annoying CW ID's blasting away.
This is the situation where I live, 7 or 8 high level repeaters with CW ID's beaconing with the ID'er level cranked up about 3db higher then the voice audio. Consequently, those repeaters get removed from the scan list.