Autopatch

An autopatch, sometimes called a phone patch, is a feature of an amateur radio (or other type of two-way radio) repeater or base station to access an outgoing telephone connection. Users with a transceiver capable of producing touch tones (DTMF signals) can make a telephone call, typically limited by settings in the autopatch module to be only to flat-rate numbers, such as local calls or toll-free numbers. The term phone patch more accurately describes a system that is dialed and connected by a user manually operating a base station, which was more common before computer technology made automation of the process easier.