Flexible base station setup?

[kapoijerj334]

Howdy guys, I'm looking at putting in a gmrs base station at home (probably with a radioditty DB20-G).

Best place for the antenna is at the back of the house above the bedrooms, and I figure I'll just drop the cable straight down into my bedroom where I've already got a work desk.

However it would be nice to be able to listen and talk in other parts of the house as well, not have to always be in the back at the desk to use the station.

Are there any devices or setups you guys have heard of (presumably plugging something in to the mic and/or speaker jack) that would allow me to use the radio in other rooms?

Or would an entirely different radio with additional functionality be necessary?

 

 

[Socalgmrs]

8 minutes ago, adnjacob said:

Howdy guys, I'm looking at putting in a gmrs base station at home (probably with a radioditty DB20-G).

Best place for the antenna is at the back of the house above the bedrooms, and I figure I'll just drop the cable straight down into my bedroom where I've already got a work desk.

However it would be nice to be able to listen and talk in other parts of the house as well, not have to always be in the back at the desk to use the station.

Are there any devices or setups you guys have heard of (presumably plugging something in to the mic and/or speaker jack) that would allow me to use the radio in other rooms?

Or would an entirely different radio with additional functionality be necessary?

 

 

Does that radio have a k1 adaptor available?  That way you could run a blue tooth head set.  Don’t know how far it would reach around the house?  

[WRYS709]

Do you just want to hear (monitor) the main db20-g?  Or change channels?  Or transmit?

Of course an HT would do all of these functions from room to room, but it would not be 20 watts and would not be connected to your external antenna.

As far as the bluetooth suggestion, the DB20-G does not have a K-1 connector; it is RJ-45.  Miklor has a DIY K-1 to RJ-45 adapter, but that is for data purposes for CPS programming software use of an USB to K-1 cable.

[Socalgmrs]

12 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

Do you just want to hear (monitor) the main db20-g?  Or change channels?  Or transmit?

Of course an HT would do all of these functions from room to room, but it would not be 20 watts and would not be connected to your external antenna.

As far as the bluetooth suggestion, the DB20-G does not have a K-1 connector; it is RJ-45.  Miklor has a DIY K-1 to RJ-45 adapter, but that is for data purposes for CPS programming software use of an USB to K-1 cable.

It was worth a shot.  About the blue tooth.  

[WRYS709]

14 minutes ago, WRXP381 said:

It was worth a shot.  About the blue tooth.  

I suppose you could use the RJ-45 pinout to construct an audio K-1 to RJ-45 adapter for bluetooth.

[kapoijerj334]

21 hours ago, WRYS709 said:

Do you just want to hear (monitor) the main db20-g?  Or change channels?  Or transmit?

Of course an HT would do all of these functions from room to room, but it would not be 20 watts and would not be connected to your external antenna.

As far as the bluetooth suggestion, the DB20-G does not have a K-1 connector; it is RJ-45.  Miklor has a DIY K-1 to RJ-45 adapter, but that is for data purposes for CPS programming software use of an USB to K-1 cable.

Yeah, external antenna is the must-have factor (very flat here in Indianapolis, but after some testing, the range is still not great on the ground; got good reason to think that getting an antenna up 25-30 feet would vastly improve range).

Awesome, thanks for the link, looks super simple. Just googling around and found the below Bluetooth speaker/mic, but not seeing many others. Either of you guys have any experience with these bluetooth speaker/mics? 

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Bluetooth-Microphone-Compatible-Accessories/dp/B08NVN9J4J

 

[kapoijerj334]

Ok, after a little more looking, Bluetooth is not the answer: it has very short range, unlikely to get me into the next room at most.

For those with the same need as me, the below link is a wireless audio receiver/transceiver with 300ft range. This will allow me to monitor anywhere in the house:

https://a.co/d/dkcHIRK

[MarkInTampa]

I ran a VGC VR-n7500 for a bit on the base station. It's basically a headless bluetooth app controlled mobile. With the app loaded and connected bluetooth using a cheapy tablet on WiFi you can use the radio anywhere on internet (or in on your home WiFi) using their app (kinda like Zellow) for free on any Android device. It actually worked great, got good reports on audio but hated the interface so it sits in a drawer...

[WRKC935]

One option is Zello or one of the similar applications that link a radio to the internet for remote operation.

You would need to run an app on your phone that would connect to your radio directly and allow you to operate it from the phone. 

The cost for this sort of thing can be reasonable or expensive depending on how you interface it and what service you use. 

I will not go into the specifics of it here but it's worth researching if you are wanting a solution that basically works anywhere you have phone or wifi service.

 

[kapoijerj334]

6 hours ago, WRKC935 said:

One option is Zello or one of the similar applications that link a radio to the internet for remote operation.

You would need to run an app on your phone that would connect to your radio directly and allow you to operate it from the phone. 

The cost for this sort of thing can be reasonable or expensive depending on how you interface it and what service you use. 

I will not go into the specifics of it here but it's worth researching if you are wanting a solution that basically works anywhere you have phone or wifi service.

 

 

Interesting, thank you for this. Just glancing through Zello and it may very well be an option I explore in the future. Obviously more expensive than just a wireless transceiver/receiver, but with additional functionality that, so far as I can tell, can't be achieved with just a wireless transceiver/receiver type device. Thanks!

[WRKC935]

3 hours ago, adnjacob said:

 

Interesting, thank you for this. Just glancing through Zello and it may very well be an option I explore in the future. Obviously more expensive than just a wireless transceiver/receiver, but with additional functionality that, so far as I can tell, can't be achieved with just a wireless transceiver/receiver type device. Thanks!

There are some RoIP boxes out there that allow radios to be connected to IP networks for remote control.  But I don't know of any that have a phone app that are reasonably priced. 

That being said.  And mind you, this will require some Linux and Asterisk knowledge, but there is the apt-rpt add on for Asterisk that will allow a radio to be connected to an Asterisk server as an extension and then you can use Zoiper or another soft phone app on your mobile to connect to the radio.  Cost is no more than the interface to the radio which can be built with a few parts and a CM108 USB sound card dongle.  I think they are about 10 bucks all in if you build it.  But you are going to need to load and install all this (Linux, Asterisk, apt-rpt, and Zopier) and configure it.  If you are computer savvy, and know how to solder, then it's not a huge deal.