Got Baofeng?

[Get Off My Lawn]

That's 108m, 355' AGL. That's what they're approved for, not necessarily what they stacked to. But I'm sure they went to 350 or they wouldn't have put the triple beacon system on it.

I see said the blind man

@Pink_Vapor @noway2 Ya'll need to schmooze up to the county and see if they will let y'all throw a repeater up there.

Anyone here know someone with the Sheriff's ear?
And what itll take to get that accomplished?

 

[noway2]

Anyone here know someone with the Sheriff's ear?
And what itll take to get that accomplished?

It's probably already in the works. I know they're planning on putting up a couple more ham repeaters on the county towers they're building. They already put a 70cm one up on a county tower outside of Siler City and a 2m one on Fire Tower Rd. I think the plan is for two more repeaters and they will all be linked via internet service too.

 

[Average Joe]

Anyone here know someone with the Sheriff's ear?
And what itll take to get that accomplished?

The towers are being installed by emergency management department. EM supervises communications in Chatham. I know the EM director is into HAM radio and that there are some plans for more amateur radio repeaters to be installed on county towers. I don’t know which towers and time frame for completion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hp468]

Where do the repeaters actually exist? I realize there is an antenna, but what does the repeater look like, where is it, and how is it powered?
Do amateur repeaters sit in a rack at the towers?

Depends. Most repeaters themselves just look like a base station radio, some are rack mounted, some arn’t. The duplexers can be rack mounted as well, depending on the specific type.

Yes, most are housed in the buildings at the base of the towers. In some instances the repeater can be in a rack mounted cabinet mounted on the tower itself.

For instance, google search for the following

kenwood tkr750 or tkr850
Vertex vxr7000
Motorola mtr2000
GE MASTR II repeater

These are all repeaters, just packaged a bit differently.

Duplexers come in different flavors as well. Searching for “notch duplexer” and “bp/br duplexer” will show you what some look like.

Duplexers are magic, through filtering they allow the repeater to transmit and receive at the same time, using 1 antenna.

Power is normally supplied by a 12v power supply plugged into grid power if the repeater doesn’t have its own internal power supply.

 

[hp468]

Does that mean I don’t need to understand offsets and CTSS (if talking through a duplexer)?

No sir, a duplexer is just a piece of hardware in the system. It simply separates the Rx and Tx from hearing each other while using one antenna. Here's a brief summery of how this works to help you out.

You will have an input and an output freq. The offset is the space between the two. I'll use a local repeater to demonstrate.

The local 2m machine:
Input 146.310 MHz
Output 146.910 MHz

What this means is your radio will key up on 146.310, you will talk into the repeater on that freq. The repeater, at the same time, will relay your transmission back out on 146.910. The difference between the input and output is 600Hz. Being that the output freq is higher than the input, you have a - offset. If the input and output were reversed you would have a + offset.

Now, with CTCSS (continuous tone coded squelch system)

Think of CTCSS as a key. Your radio will transmit a sub-audible tone (in the case above 100Hz). This tone will be transmitted the entire time you have your mic keyed. This tone tells the repeater, "HEY, OPEN UP, IM TALKING!!!!" The repeater hears the tone on its Rx freq and will begin to transmit what it hears. Without the tone being transmitted the repeater will sit idle and your transmission will not be relayed.

 

[noway2]

Does that mean I don’t need to understand offsets and CTSS (if talking through a duplexer)?

One nice thing is that the offsets are pretty well standard in that if you’re frequency is X your offset will be Y. This means most radios can calculate it automatically. In this area, the tone frequency is assigned by SERA South East Repeater Association. For whatever reason there is priority for low frequency tones. This is what it means to be a “coordinated” versus an “uncoordinated” repeater (hint, test question).

 

[The War Wagon]

I understand why preppers might want to have one around in case communications completely break down when "they" shut off the interwebz. By that point, all the rules/laws of HAM will be out the window and the air waves will be the wild wild west.

That's EXACTLY why I picked up a LOTTA Baofengs - before the overpowered ones got banned from import.

I'm so old a CB'er, I can remember when my Uncle Jerry had to HAVE a CB license in the '70's. Was still YUGE by the early '90's, but nowadays? MOST guys in my 4WD Club don't even run 'em - THEY use the handheld Baofengs when we go off-roading. NOT legal, since none of us have a license, but that's where you'll find a LOTTA of them BEING used these days (we work with other area clubs in western PA, eastern OH, & northern WV & MD, and find that's true most everywhere).