No, it is not illegal, and here not that un-common. If there is not too much rag-chew on the repeater,it would be fine. Here, the local radio club has 2 repeaters, with a ton of rag-chew, then our EmComm group has one, with not much on it. When we do a fundrasing event, almost everyone in the group is there, and when you get to within 5-10mi from the event, we always have a radio on simplex, you call on the simplex frequency that is the output. When we do Bingo at homecomeing the roads are CLOSED VERY CLOSED, and no one comes in or out without a pass, each group gets so many. So our people call us when they will be at the meeting point and someone goes and gives them the permit and rides in. But for most events with ALOT of communications, we use a simplex freq. usually 147.525.
73s DE KD8CPP
MSG VIA PKBGWV VIA WVDAREN
West Virginia Digital Amateur Radio Emergency Network