Building a Repeater

vaporbiz · Post by **vaporbiz** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:39 am

I am in charge of a local gun club I am in the process of doing a proposal for the board of directors to get 2 way radios. but the coverage is not great with standard 4 watt radios so I need to include a repeater in the quote I would like to build one so I can keep the costs low. I have seen bits and pieces of info for this using something called a RICK and a couple of Maxtrac's but could you please elaborate. What do I need and how many acres will 40 watts cover we have about 700 acres.

Jonathan KC8RYW · Post by **Jonathan KC8RYW** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:47 am

This is the answer you were probably looking for, but it all depends on bunch of factors: the terrain, the sensitivity of the repeater reciever, and the height above average terrain of the repeater antenna, etc etc.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:36 am

Yep, you left out LOTS of detail.

How's the 700 acres arranged? Is it a ~1.1mi^2 square, or is it long and skinny? Any significant terrain features? What do you have to mount an antenna on - any existing towers/etc.? You probably want at least 50' elevation. The elevation and power out will also be variable based on the licensing restrictions (is this an amateur repeater, likely not... or GMRS, etc.)

For a repeater, I'd recommend a TKR-750/850 (VHF/UHF). They're about $1K, 25 watts continuous duty, and they've got everything you need as far as controller/receiver/etc. built in. You'll need a duplexer, antenna, feedline, and an enclosure... but you need to give us lots more detail before we jump off into that.

vaporbiz · Post by **vaporbiz** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:56 pm

The club house is about 25 - 100 feet above all of the other areas including the lake and the property is basically square in shape. I was hoping to build this from stuff on Ebay if at all possible. We have a tight budget. If I can get this approved from the board I will go to the FCC for a license.

Al · Post by Al » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:23 pm

I don't believe the FCC will even look at your application unless you hire a licensed frequency coordinator(there are many). And the coordinator will even file the application if you want, but you'll probably find it's going to be fairly pricey.

Jonathan KC8RYW · Post by **Jonathan KC8RYW** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:07 pm

If I recall, itinerant frequencies do not require a coordinator.

On UHF, it'd be 464.500/469.500 and 464.550/469.550. You might look into that.

Could someone verify this for me, just to be sure?

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:14 pm

Jonathan KC8RYW wrote:If I recall, itinerant frequencies do not require a coordinator.

On UHF, it'd be 464.500/469.500 and 464.550/469.550. You might look into that.

Could someone verify this for me, just to be sure?

These frequency pairs are often used for PORTABLE NOT continious or permenat use. That is why they do not require coordination.

The FCC rules specify itinerant use only.

Just a side line, there is a org. that has had their UHF repeater on one of the itinerant pairs for a long time. The FCC is issuing the org. a NOV for violation of the rules. The FCC said that it does not come under Itinerant use.