Baofeng Simple Repeater

[Coolant113]

I work on a farm that is about 300 acres. We use about 40 Baofeng radios throughout the property. The topography of the land varies mainly flat but does slope down pretty significantly, with a few metal barns on the property. I am looking to set up a simple repeater, due to the fact that when one radio is on one edge of the property trying to talk to the other edge of the property across the 300 acres, the transmissions are garbled. All radios operate on 1 channel and looking for some solution to bridge the gap with the radio issues. I've never set up a repeater before, however, I looked on Amazon and they sell baofeng repeaters that use 2 radios. Still not sure how that works. Just looking to see if anybody is familiar with using these repeaters, and how to set up and placement would work best. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

What frequency band are you licensed for?

 

[Coolant113]

What frequency band are you licensed for?

UHF

 

[prcguy]

A repeater is not a casual thing you cobble together or simply buy and plug in. People bring me cobbled together repeaters all the time that don't work and frankly can never work with the parts that were provided. Maybe it actually did when it left the vendor but after being banged around in shipping parts of it are now detuned and cannot work. I had two through here just last week assembled by people who don't know what they are doing. Here is what they brought me. MOTOROLA REPEATER CWID UHF GMRS DUPLEXER FREE PROGRAM 30 WATT CONTROLLER 4 CH | eBay

A repeater needs to be assembled, installed and maintained by someone that knows what they are doing and with the required test equipment that most people don't have or could not afford or could not operate. Its one thing to experiment as a hobby on amateur radio where its legal and you can sometimes pull it off cheap if you have a lot of smarts and access to equipment. As a commercial user not so much.

A repeater made from Baofeng radios would be the absolute bottom of the barrel and probably not legal in any way on commercial frequencies. A repeater should also be tested at least yearly to ensure its operating within FCC rules and its not cheap to have a company come to your place with test equipment to verify all this every year. The alternative is to lease air time on a commercial repeater owned by a company that operates and maintains it.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

You can always lash one of your dirt cheep BaoFengShui radios to an Argent Data AD-SR1 (Nice unit) and hoist it up a tree. This is a "Parrot" Simplex repeater and is less complicated than a duplex repeater to construct. The downfall? Every one of your messages from 40 radios will be heard twice within the greater coverage area.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

UHF

For a duplex repeater, you will have to modify the license and pay more coordination and licensing fees. Did your radio dealer or coordinator suggest you may have to do this?

 

[dazey77]

You could probably just step up to some decent DMR radios (such as motorola or Hytera) and just keep simplex. DMR does not offer longer range then analogue as such, but offers clean audio up to the edge and the receiver quality is a lot better than Baofengs so the effective range is much further. I had UV5Rs and when I moved to hyteras the range was significantly improved. The fact that you get garbled audio at the extremes now (as opposed to nothing), suggests to me that you will have no issues running direct on DMR. With DMR you would also get extra features such as ability to talk direct to individual radios.
On DMR, should you still need a repeater, you could run a SFR one and still use a single frequency without hitting the licencing issues.
I think it would be worth you getting a pair of decent DMR radios and trying them out to test the range on your site before going down the repeater route.
If you stick with an analogue repeater, you really should buy a real repeater, not something cobbled together with bad handhelds. These DIY repeaters will suffer from severe de-sense issues and generally give poor and inconsistent performance (as they generally need to be cross band UHF+VHF)
DMR radios will also work on analogue, so if it doesnt work out you can still run them on an analogue repeater.

 

[jeepsandradios]

Not a huge CCR guy but the RT97 will probably solve your issue especially if you can get it or the antenna up in the air. The advantage of the RT is its low power and can be outside. Ideally if you have a silo on the farm with 110v AC to the top you could mount it to the mast on an antenna with a short cable and plug into 110.

I use one in GMRS on my Motorhome just for the simple fact it was very simple and draws little DC power. just put my antenna on my ladder when i get on site and flip the switch.

This suggestion was based on your portable usage around the farm. If you need more distance you would need a better repeater. Remember licensing updates may be needed.

 

[ladn]

Here is what they brought me

"Seller does not accept returns" should have been a big red flag.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Not a huge CCR guy but the RT97 will probably solve your issue especially if you can get it or the antenna up in the air. The advantage of the RT is its low power and can be outside. Ideally if you have a silo on the farm with 110v AC to the top you could mount it to the mast on an antenna with a short cable and plug into 110.

I use one in GMRS on my Motorhome just for the simple fact it was very simple and draws little DC power. just put my antenna on my ladder when i get on site and flip the switch.

This suggestion was based on your portable usage around the farm. If you need more distance you would need a better repeater. Remember licensing updates may be needed.

I think the RT97 is for GMRS only. The OP has 40 radios on a farm. This sounds like part 90 licensee. Correct me if I am wrong..

 

[iMONITOR]

Not a huge CCR guy but the RT97 will probably solve your issue especially if you can get it or the antenna up in the air. The advantage of the RT is its low power and can be outside. Ideally if you have a silo on the farm with 110v AC to the top you could mount it to the mast on an antenna with a short cable and plug into 110.

I use one in GMRS on my Motorhome just for the simple fact it was very simple and draws little DC power. just put my antenna on my ladder when i get on site and flip the switch.

This suggestion was based on your portable usage around the farm. If you need more distance you would need a better repeater. Remember licensing updates may be needed.

Great suggestion jeepsandradios! Here is some additional info on the RT97 for the OP:

Retevis RT97 GMRS Mobile Base Station,Full Duplex Portable Radio Relay Station with LCD Screen,High Power Mini Compact Base Station for Camping(1 Pack)

https://www.amazon.com/Retevis-Mobile-Radio-Range-Capable/dp/B087X1DD95/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=gmrs+repeater&qid=1648222285&sr=8-3

 

[nd5y]

If you used real radios instead of Baofengs with their notoriously bad receivers you would not need a repeater to cover a 300 acre farm.

 

[prcguy]

Not necessarily, if the farm is in the boonies without any strong signals the Baofengs can work just fine. I use some here and there and in the CA desert or other remote area they work as good as any Motorola or Yaesu or Icom or whatever. In the big city they can fail miserably.

If you used real radios instead of Baofengs with their notoriously bad receivers you would not need a repeater to cover a 300 acre farm.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

UHF

GMRS? or Part 90?

 

[jeepsandradios]

The RT97 can be used in GMRS and Part 90. 2 Models to choose from. I have used both. The Part 90 will suffer as the GMRS does with 5mhz split as the duplexer is not great, but if you have the antenna close its a cool little box for simplicity. I kept my GMRS but changed out the Part 90 when I found a GR1225 rack mount box for our command post.

 

[K4ZXX]

Surecom Sr-328 Duplex Repeater Controller With Radio Cable for sale online | eBay

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take 2 of your bfengs and this, put them up high - boom, your done

 

[dazey77]

take 2 of your bfengs and this, put them up high - boom, your done

Which doesn't work for all the reasons other people have already given above. Licensing, VHF-UHF cross-band repeating, de-sensing, powering etc.

 

[DeeEx]

take 2 of your bfengs and this, put them up high - boom, your done

“By equipment and so on our assemble the build, the new generation trunk-line board, the internal structure design are finer, the outward appearance is more attractive.”

Definitely a reputable manufacturer who knows exactly what the radio community needs.

Gotta love that new generation trunk-line board, because I hate the older generations of it!

 

[smason]

“the new generation trunk-line board, the internal structure design are finer, the outward appearance is more attractive.”

Gotta love that new generation trunk-line board, because I hate the older generations of it!

New generation much finer! And attractive is a plus.

 

[K4ZXX]

Yeah Im out of this as it looks as though this forum is not quite legit as you are holding comments from a general class operator for moderator approval. The deep state fact checkers, lol.