HOTARC Repeaters

Our most popular repeaters...
145.15

Providing excellent wide-area coverage, the 145.15 MHz repeater is located on the KXXV Channel 25 television tower at a height of about 600 feet. The repeater operates with a PL tone of 123 Hz, and an input frequency offset of -600 kHz.
146.98

The primary local-coverage repeater is the 146.98 MHz repeater located on top of the City of Waco water tower on Panther Way in south Waco. This repeater also operates with a PL tone of 123 Hz, and an input frequency offset of -600 kHz.

Guidelines for Repeater Use

Courteous and legal use of a repeater is the responsibility of every amateur radio operator. The Heart O' Texas Amateur Radio Club has established these guidelines to encourage good operating practices. Since the Club is ultimately responsible for the use of these repeaters, amateur operators who do not abide by these guidelines (whether or not they are Club Members) may be asked to not use the HOTARC repeaters. Thanks for your cooperation! Let's all be good neighbors!

  1. Emergency use of a repeater always takes precedence over all other use.
  2. Organized activities such as nets or training drills have priority over routine conversations.
  3. Before keying your transmitter, listen for any activity on the repeater.
  4. Keep individual transmissions short. The timer on most repeaters is set to three minutes to follow FCC regulations. However, someone who talks for that long in one transmission may be using valuable time if someone else has an emergency and is waiting...waiting...waiting....
  5. Please limit your continuous use of a repeater to a resonable length. We recommend 20 minutes as a guideline.
  6. It is considered bad etiquette to interrupt an ongoing conversation unless you have an emergency or something meaningful to contribute to the conversation.
  7. While we want our repeaters to be active, it is discourteous to use a repeater to talk to someone who is within easy simplex range. If you can hear each other on the repeater input frequency, switch to a simplex frequency for that casual conversation. Similarly, don't use a wide-area repeater if one with more local coverage will do.
  8. Most repeaters have a courtesy tone to indicate that the other party has released the key to end their transmission. Always wait for the courtesy tone so that someone with an emergency or someone wishing to join the conversation has ample opportunity to break in.
  9. You must identify your station with your call sign every ten minutes and at the end of a conversation. While the FCC rules no longer require that you identify at the beginning of a conversation, it is common courtesy to do so.
  10. Whenever you transmit, always identify your station, even if you just key up the repeater for a test purposes. "Kerchunking" (a short, unidentified transmission to "bring up the repeater") is illegal.
  11. "CB"-style talk and off-color remakrs or comments have no place in amateur radio. Keep your activities on our repeaters responsible and courteous.
  12. The FCC rules permit the use of amateur radio for transmissions of a technical or personal nature. Please don't use the repeaters to air "dirty laundry" (yours or anybody else's). That's why telephones were invented. :-)
  13. As in all of amateur radio, transmissions for business purposes are illegal. Please be mindful of this whenever using our repeaters.

Setting Up Your Radio for Repeater Use
  1. Tune your receiver to the repeater output frequency. This is the "receive frequency" on which you will listen.
  2. All HOTARC repeaters operate with a input frequency of 600 kHz below the output frequency. Hence, you must configure your transceiver so that, when you key your transmitter, it will automatically transmit on a frequency 600 kHz lower than the receive frequency. Consult your radio's manual on setting this "negative offset." (Many radios will show a "minus sign" beside the receive frequency to denote a negative offset. When you key the radio, the display should show a transmit frequency 600 kHz or 0.600 MHz lower than the receive frequency. For example, for the 145.15 repeater, your transmit frequency should be 144.55 MHz.)
  3. HOTARC repeaters require a subaudible tone of 123 Hz. The purpose is to hopefully prevent signals on the input frequency that are not intended for our repeater (e.g., signals "skipping" into our area from remote locations) from opening the repeater squelch. Again, consult your radio's manual on selecting and transmitting with this subaudible tone. (Many radios will show a "T" beside the receive frequency to denote that a subaudible tone will be added to your transmissions.)
  4. Our repeater controllers have an activity timer that will automatically shut down the transmitter if a carrier is received continuously for 3 minutes. A brief pause between transmissions will reset the timer. (On the contrary: no pause, no reset!) If the timer expires (for example, if someone's transmitter gets stuck ON or talks longer than 3 minutes), the transmitter remains shut down until the received carrier finally drops. (See Guideline 4 above.)