Confirming contact with repeater

[WSBQ468]

I have a retevis rt95 in my truck. Im new to gmrs and radio. I have my offset and my tones. When i key the repeater i hear the tail squelch but im not getting any response. Is there something i missed?

[SteveShannon]

14 minutes ago, WSBQ468 said:

I have a retevis rt95 in my truck. Im new to gmrs and radio. I have my offset and my tones. When i key the repeater i hear the tail squelch but im not getting any response. Is there something i missed?

What kind of response are you expecting?  Are you saying anything or are you just clicking the PTT(kerchunking)?

The normal response to kerchunking is to ignore it.

If you’re asking for someone to verify they can hear you then it depends on whether someone is listening at the time and whether they are inclined to talk.

[WSAM454]

Some thoughts:

 

Even though you hear the squelch tail, while you might be managing to key the repeater, you may not have a strong enough signal to actually be heard and understood.  (you are mostly noise)   What kind of power and antenna are you using, and how far from the repeater are you?

Is the repeater an "open" one, or one only available to members?   Have you gotten permission to use it?

It may not have many users and you don't have much of an 'audience' to hear from.

Try specifically asking for a report, saying you are a new user, and want to confirm the operation of you station.

[WRYZ926]

I agree with what @Sshannon and @WSAM454 said.

Most of us will flat out ignore a kerchunk. And if you are giving your call sign, then you might not be getting into the repeater well enough for people to hear and understand you.

We currently have a guy asking for radio checks on our GMRS repeater but most of the time all the rest of us hear is static. Or if he do hear him (with lots of static) he is hard to understand.

[gortex2]

^^^^^ What he said. Not all repeaters have any voice announce or anything other than a hang time if any. I specifically shut my hang times off to eliminate the "kerchunking" of my repeaters. If you are asking for a radio check and its an open repeater and others utilize it that way then maybe you'll get a response. Unless its one of my family or friends I don't answer any radio checks or calls to chat. I have social media and a cell phone for that.