So, essentially a repeater with remote receivers may have six receivers tied to one transmitter. But, the voter allows only the strongest signal to be placed on the transmitter. Timers are used on repeaters in the event that someone may accidentally keep their radio keyed for an extended period of time. Usually this happens if a microphone gets caught in between the seats in a car or someone sits atop a microphone. This helps the repeater from overheating.
Most repeaters have a timer of three to five minutes.
The repeater timer resets when you hear a courtesy tone. Yet another way of extending communications range is with a link. A link simply ties two repeaters together. So, what is heard on one repeater is heard on another. This is the case of the 145.15 and 146.925 repeaters.