repeater power question

[bayfire300]

hi everyone,
my dept has a back up 35w repeater we use when the main goes down.........well it went down last night and we use dtmf tones to eneble the back up.......how does that work?
what can i use to do that to my gmrs repeater?.......turn it on and off.

thanks

otto

[txshooter]

A repeater controller is hooked up to the repeater that will allow the repeater to accept DTMF commands. Various functyions can be controlled via DTMF.

Here is just one website to get you started in your quest

http://www.catauto.com/

[bayfire300]

i have a r.i.c.k unit .......is that capable of this?

otto

[xmo]

The R.I.C.K. supports repeater knockdown / setup when used in conjuction with suitable signaling capable Motorola radios.

This option is explained in your R.I.C.K. instruction manual.

[RKG]

A not uncommon set up using two Quantars involves the use of the optional Station Access Module ("SAM"), which installs where the second receiver would install.

The SAMs can be programmed so that, on receipt of one DTMF sequence (which both stations hear), one station sets a flag that the wildcard programming recognizes as putting the station in "Standby" mode (no Tx), while the other station on receipt of the same DTMF sequence goes into "Main" mode. A second DTMF sequence is programmed to do the reverse.

A variant of this approach uses DTMF sequences to put one (or both) stations into "in cabinet" repeater mode (versus receiver comparator mode, where all Tx keying is done by the comparator, both for subscriber traffic and dispatcher traffic). In these installations, the Main/Standby switching function is doing by relays controlled by buttons or icons on the console.

Personally, I'm not a fan of over-the-air DTMF functions, as they are very non-secure.