Repeater information

[K7JEM]

What Steve said.

You need to know the band you want to operate on, and how to obtain frequencies for coordination. Since you don't seem to know much right now, you need a local person experienced in repeaters to help out. Also, the repeater-builder website is full of info.

A new repeater without duplexer or antenna will set you back at least $1000. The duplexer may be another $200-$2000. And the antenna will be $100+. You might find a used repeater for a couple hundred bucks, but the duplexer will still be pricey. UHF is the least expensive band to get on, because you may be able to get by with a small mobile type duplexer that may only cost $50-100. But there is tuning to your frequency, and a lot of other technical stuff to do.

[W1RDS]

Thank you all.

Bob W1RDS

[WB2WIK]

I built my first repeater by modifying a Pye repeater (made in the U.K.) to the 2m ham band. Had to change a lot of stuff, and the transmitter used tubes (5894 final amp). But it worked.

Probably put 500 hours into that, to get it working properly, de-bugged, and de-noised. Might have been cheaper to buy a brand new commercial Motorola repeater, when I think about it...

When I had a split-site machine (2m) for a while, the RX location was better than the TX location so I built a 4X150A amp for the TX, so it could run about 200W output power. That was a great experience and it did help "level" the coverage since it was split-site. I'd never recommend anyone do that.

[KJ4VTH]

I always had a soft spot for this SNL repeater