Repeater Bi Directional VHF

[JD]

Any one set up a VHF Bi Directional repeater. I have a rural Fire Department needing to increase portable coverage to dispatch. Do not have the funds to set up a receiver voting system. Thanks

[Jim202]

Any one set up a VHF Bi Directional repeater. I have a rural Fire Department needing to increase portable coverage to dispatch. Do not have the funds to set up a receiver voting system. Thanks

Sounds like they might want to consider looking at a vehicle repeater. You just need to come up with a frequency way removed from the normal frequency they use in their portables and trucks. Like if they are on 154 MHz, the go find something up around 160 MHz or higher. That way you won't need to also add much filtering for in band repeater to function.

[JD]

They looked at that , but with the number of trucks , too cost prohibitive.

[Bill_G]

Is there a repeater in the system now that doesn't give adequate coverage for the service area?

Or are you talking about a simplex repeater / store and forward repeater (which work, but can be maddening)?

[tsunami_australia]

How about a duplex repeater lead off fleabay hooked to 2x Radius/Warris series radios? I have said lead between a UHF GM300 and VHF M120 and it works a treat both directions. Best yet it only cost around $10 (already had the radios).

[JD]

Store and forward, we have seen that, not what they want. What they need to do is transmit and receive on 154.xxxx and transmit and receive on 158.xxxx , they repeater does this in each direction. Called Telewave and they said it could be done. Thanks.

[Bill_G]

Okay. So you want a plain vanilla repeater. Have you approached your radio vendor? This is a pretty straight forward request.

[JD]

Yes, only bi directional, not uni directional.

[RFguy]

Okay. So you want a plain vanilla repeater.

No, not RX one freq, TX another.

He wants simplex (RX/TX) on 154 and simplex (RX/TX) on 158.

We used to do this with the old RICK. Customer's VHF simplex in the vehicle back-to-back with another radio (VHF with freq separation or UHF).

The project sounds easy. Just depends on the quality and reliability required. Could be as easy as a couple of 45 watt CDMs (I would set to 25 watts and put a fan on them), a RICK and a standard duplexer to a common antenna, or step up to back-to-back MTR3000's, Quantars, or Daniels (Codan) MT4 shelf.

I would use different PL tones on the 2 freqs in case you get some intermod or mix that gets your TX into your RX. Different PL's will reduce the possibility of a repeater lock-up.

[Bill_G]

Okay. So you want a plain vanilla repeater.

No, not RX one freq, TX another.

He wants simplex (RX/TX) on 154 and simplex (RX/TX) on 158.

We used to do this with the old RICK. Customer's VHF simplex in the vehicle back-to-back with another radio (VHF with freq separation or UHF).

The project sounds easy. Just depends on the quality and reliability required. Could be as easy as a couple of 45 watt CDMs (I would set to 25 watts and put a fan on them), a RICK and a standard duplexer to a common antenna, or step up to back-to-back MTR3000's, Quantars, or Daniels (Codan) MT4 shelf.

I would use different PL tones on the 2 freqs in case you get some intermod or mix that gets your TX into your RX. Different PL's will reduce the possibility of a repeater lock-up.

Ah! Thanks for the translation. (knock knock - thick head sometimes) That's exactly what Jim202 was suggesting, but on a smaller scale.

That is still something he could bring up with his radio vendor to provide. And depending on terrain, still might not provide the coverage they are seeking.

[JD]

Thanks for all the help guys. This is a volunteer department and are a great group to work with .. They will be very glad they can get the communications coverage they need.

Again, thanks for all of your help , it is greatly appreciated.

[SteveC0625]

On Ebay, seller mre1032 offers a bi-directional RICK that will do exactly what you need with radios like the CDM's. If you want to link a couple of MOTOTRBO radios, he also has two different RICKs for that.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RA-2-Repeater-A ... 1c0ccbd94e

As has been mentioned many times before here, mre1032 sells great stuff at a very fair price along with great customer service and support. He also provides quality documentation for his repeater cables.

[tsunami_australia]

The lead I suggested is the equivalent of that bi-directional RICK but dirt cheap. I run it on two Radius series mobiles and it's solid. Allows me to talk UHF in the car to a mate using VHF and use the house power, base antennas and heightened location to do the legwork.

[sabersco]

Start Look at This ham page it might Worth to build it up yourself !

http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/repeater101.html

cheers !