... Many of the ham repeaters in my area use the roger beep or some form of coutesy tone, they work great.
"Roger beep" is a tone that sounds when a radio operator un-keys their microphone. Serious hams thought this phenomenon/rage ended with the death of CB radios ... unfortunately, roger beeps are being heard more and more with the proliferation of several inexpensive import HTs.
A repeater "courtesy tone" is a short tone or series of tones that sound over the transmitter of a repeater at the end of the squelch tail. A person involved in a conversation on a ham repeater un-keys their mic, and many repeaters are set up to wait a short time, then emit a "courtesy tone." We are supposed to wait for the courtesy tone before keying up to talk/reply. This short "gap" allows a little time for someone to break into the conversation with a comment, or priority or emergency traffic.
Roger beeps for repeater use are most seen as immature or just plain unnecessary. Courteous and proper operations on amateur radio repeaters - with or without a courtesy tone - always waits a second or two after one ends a transmission to reply.
Clint Bradford, K6LCS 909-241-7666 - cell