>Hi, phone patches are making phone calls through repeaters. Message-Id: <20040928214918.RFBF1790.imf18aec.mail.bellsouth.net@[68.212.96.35]> NOt necessarily. My hf station has a phone patch connected to it often. MIssionaries ships at sea etc. will avail themselves of this service where treaties etc. permit. THere is life outside vhf/uhf fm. Although not as popular as they were before sat phones and the internet some still appreciate those of us who offer phone patch service stateside. Be sure to consult lists of countries with which yours has third party traffic agreements as phone patches, whether the garden variety repeater autopatch or an hf phone patch or even saying hi to a ham's mom for him/her it's all third party traffic. SOme political entities such as many british possessions in the Caribbean don't permit third party traffic between amateurs in their teritories and U.s. amateurs. I hope that helps clear things up a bit. Richard Webb Electric Spider Productions almost 50% of those at ground zero on 9/11/01 still have longterm health problems. Almost half of those have no health insurance.