Abstract: A master repeater controls a trunked communication system having a number of communication resources. The master repeater determines (201) how many communication resources are available to the master repeater. When one control resource and one message resource are among the available communication resources (203), the master repeater suspends (211) trunked communication system operation when the number of available communication resources are less than a minimum number of resources (205), and the available communication resources fail to include all control resources (207) from the trunked communication system.