I realized that the pause in trying's loop paused for 3 seconds. I changed the loop structure a little though I haven't had a chance to check it yet. Here it is:

repeat
repeat
t=t+1 'added this
pauseus 500 'added this
until dtmf_ready=1 or t > 60000 'added this
if t > 60000 then start 'added this
gosub getdtmf
password[c]=dtmf
c = c + 1ause 500
until c > 7

this should give me a 30 timeout feature if I calc'ed it correctly. I am running 20 mhz. The dtmf_ready is a pin on the pic that waits for the dtmf decoder chip to go high which indicates that a tone has been decoded and is ready for the pic to "read". This pin stays high for as long as the individual holds the button down. hopefully this doesn't slow down the program any. Thanks

Travin