Whats the story with the flurry of new repeaters in Puerto Rico?

[eubank282]

Been watching the updates for the past many months and there seems to be a lot of new GMRS repeaters going on the air in Puerto Rico.

Can any members here explain this uptick in activity?

 

Is it due to past storm damages and people wanting to maintain some form of commo there?

 

Just curious, Thanks!

[Radioguy7268]

I'd say so. They realized that Cellular networks take weeks and months to repair, and the least populated areas are the last ones to have service restored.

 

I had a guy who was buying up all the old UHF wideband radios I could find & shipping them down to Puerto Rico. He stopped buying stuff about 6 months ago, not sure if he found another source, or just saturated his market. 

[SteveC7010]

I would also bet that many of these new repeaters in PR are based on standard Part 90 mobile radios powered by high capacity deep cycle marine/RV batteries with both 110 vac charging and solar backup. That’s what I’d do if I was building a system to function for long periods when the power grid fails.

[Elkhunter521]

Hi all, The power grid for Puerto Rico (PR) was crap before the last series of storms. After the storms wrecked what was left, PR waited for the US. To rebuild it. Hasn't happened. Before you shed a bunch of tears for PR keep in mind they pay NO income taxes to us as A US territory.

 

Some of the PR population, some are quite wealthy , decided that privately owned and controlled com system was the answer.

 

Private GMRS systems was their answer.

 

This is not meant as a political statement. It is just my observation.

 

Thanks for listen

 

Keith T