Open Repeater

[RCM]

Where I live there are basically no usable GMRS repeaters, that I have been able to find. I intend to fix that when I find a decent site for my repeater. I'll follow my understanding of the Open Repeater Initiative, since I have not been able to find any published guidelines.

 

Let me preach on it, brothers... *ahem* (cough, cough) I mean, here's what I have in mind:

I'm near the US Hwy 72 corridor, about 20 miles east of Huntsville, AL. The nearest town is Gurley. There are repeaters in the Chattanooga, TN area, but they don't reach here. There don't seem to be any repeaters in Huntsville, nor in fact anywhere west along 72 until you reach the Memphis area. I can't do anything about that. But there are a couple of 1600'+ mountains just on the outskirts of Gurley, and if I can find a site on one of those mountains I think I can cover most of the area from Huntsville to the fringes of Chattanooga coverage.

 

My repeater will be open to all licensed users who don't abuse the privilege. PL will be 141.3 and the frequency pair will tentatively be 675, although that is subject to change if I run into interference.

 

I'm already putting the gear together and will test it at my very subpar home qth, and am looking for a better site. If anyone knows of a good site, I would like to hear about it. I don't necessarily require mains power since I plan to use batteries and solar.

[Hans]

That sounds awesome! 675 is a prime pair because of former REACT usage and because, according to Wikipedia, it's "often used as emergency and road information calling frequency with tone squelch of 141.3 Hz". But, you probably knew that already.

 

Remember that Midland Micromobile users, and possibly some others, currently cannot change to carrier squelch when using an input tone on the repeater channels; input tone = squelch tone. For this reason, we have our repeater outputting a tone of 141.3 regardless of input tone. Unfortunately, the other repeaters here have not gotten around to doing so and their repeaters run multiple tones. This leaves out those users unless they run a second radio to listen to the output with carrier squelch.

 

We just put a Vertex VXR-7000U up for testing. I like it very much so far. It's easy to program and it is 100% duty cycle. We got it used at a decent price. Motorola MTR2000 repeaters are looking good in price lately but I don't know as much about working on them and our repeater is low footprint anyway due to height AGL and raw elevation relative to surroundings at our home QTH.

[RCM]

I figured I would use Motorolas of some sort, probably Max Tracs. I saw some Standard GX1510s for a decent price recently, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there on programming them. I'm still considering them, but only if they're not a huge hassle to program.

[Hans]

We originally had two Motorola M1225 45 watt radios linked by a cable only. We never put it on the air but friends have put the identical setup on the air with a large fan and have ran them hard duty outside in a plastic tub for a couple of years without trouble. I've found M1225 radios pretty cheap and the cable runs $5 or you can make your own. Unfortunately, without a repeater controller, it doesn't ID. That has never been a problem for them in the rural areas.

 

ETA: I found the M1225 radios very easy to program. BlueMax49er on eBay has the good USB cable for them and many other radios.

[RCM]

Thanks for the tips, Hans.

There is little enough activity here that I don't think an IDer would be strictly necessary. But I've seen projects for building Arduino based IDers, so I will probably do something like that. Or maybe just buy one from MFJ. I think they make an inexpensive IDer.

[PastorGary]

Side Note:  Our MyGMRS Moderator (spd641) has a system in Blount County that seems to have coverage from just north of Birmingham to around Hartselle along I-65. Not sure of the east-west coverage.

[Hans]

I'm always glad to see another GMRS repeater go on air.

 

http://www.ics-ctrl.com/Controllers

http://www.hamgadgets.com/ham-radio/IDOMATICIV

http://openrepeater.com/

[RCM]

Side Note:  Our MyGMRS Moderator (spd641) has a system in Blount County that seems to have coverage from just north of Birmingham to around Hartselle along I-65. Not sure of the east-west coverage.

Yeah, I saw that. I'm north of there though, and on the other side of a mountain. I do make it down that way on occasion though, and plan to try it next time I'm in range.

Thanks for the heads-up!

[RCM]

I'm always glad to see another GMRS repeater go on air.

 

http://www.ics-ctrl.com/Controllers

http://www.hamgadgets.com/ham-radio/IDOMATICIV

http://openrepeater.com/

Thanks for the links!

[RCM]

I'm always glad to see another GMRS repeater go on air.

 

http://www.ics-ctrl.com/Controllers

http://www.hamgadgets.com/ham-radio/IDOMATICIV

http://openrepeater.com/

This looks good too: https://www.nhrc.net/nhrc-2.1/index.php