Equipment Question from a 'Newbie'

[gusto11071]

Newbie here , since this post is a few months old as per the last reply, I want to build my own repeater and need help sourcing out the right equipment. I sent a PM to an active member and I really have no clue on how to start this project. Any pointers on this?

[PastorGary]

Membership Note -

 

In order to dedicate a thread for specific questions and answers for "gusto11071", we have used his post from another thread as a new thread start...

 

Juan...Thank you for your question and welcome to the Forum.

 

Anyone with basic start up info - please post here for the benefit of our new member.  Thank you.

 

 

 

 

P-G

 

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[Billy]

I think the first thing is to find out what area he would like to cover, the purpose and budget.  A small repeater system like mine (WB725NY) which is a small emergency repeater can be put up for less than $400.   Something with the coverage of ERS650NY now that is another story.  

[gusto11071]

Thank you, gentlemen for the warm welcome to the forum. 

 

What is the coverage area of ERS650NY? 

 

I am in upstate NY, but work in NYC and often enough I like to talk to my brother in the City from up here in the burbs. We are looking at a 40-50 miles distance. If it can be done with a small repeater that can be made from $500 bucks I consider that a win-win situation. Now again I am totally new to this and GMRS was a way for me to get back into 2-way radios as a hobby & to keep in touch with family too. I had an OLD ham license (KB2HCE) that expired, but i am going to re-test and see if I can get my OLD call sign back. I can also use the repeater to talk to my other brother in Wingdale, NY 12594. 15-20 miles north of my house as well. So, again thank you for your help and input into this project. 

[Logan5]

Gusto, from your suburb location, Can you hear ERS650NY and or can you hear any of the other GMRS repeaters from NYC? If you can hear it you can often utilize it as well. If you want your own repeater there are many things to consider, first of is location. if you locate in the burbs, it is very unlikely to give you any coverage in NYC almost regardless of how high you get the antenna or how much power you push. However if your brother has a high rise condo and has access to the roof in NYC, you will get good coverage in the city, add a directional yagi and you could theoretically get 50 to 60 mile range. there are many variables, but I am going to guess this is not going to work. You will be better off asking for permission to use an existing GMRS system first. expecting 50 to 60 miles of range from a 500.00 repeater is not going to cut it. another thought is you and your brother study for your Ham tickets together. it's fairly easy and only 15 bucks, Is good to have Ham ticket even with your GMRS license anyway.

 

"73" Best Regards"  Jim...

[JohnE]

your not going to hear or hit it from your location. what it would take to maybe hear it would be a 40' mast and a 6 element yagi pointed at the site according to the mapping software. I think thats being fairly optimistic though.

I have not done the inverse to see what it would take for you to hit it cleanly. I do kn ow there is one member who can hit it from Scarsdale off the side of his yagi and another from Peekskill on very rare occasions and he's running a 45W mobile, unknown type of antenna though.

***edit***

listen to it and see what you get. the call sign and system name go out every 1/2 hr as a morse ID. I also "time stamp"during the day. activity around 12-1 PM and again 4;30-6PM

[JohnE]

I re checked both of my plotting maps you actually might hear it at your location, but I'm betting it will be pretty crappy.