CB repeaters?

[Xman46]

CB REPEATERS?

I came across this article about “CB Repeaters”. I had never heard of such a thing I thought that repeaters was something that you only found in a ham radio/GMRS radio, world, etc.. Can anybody here shed some light on CB repeaters? According to the article, it’s apparently a technology that’s in the radio so older radios wouldn’t have it and not be able to take advantage of this repeater system. My main question though, is this repeated system viable enough that it is worth buying a new radio that has this capacity? it would seem to me if this CB repeater system were really that viable we wouldn’t have so many people using export radios on CB band in order to get better range. I would love to hear the thoughts of some of the members here. Here is the link to the article.

What is a CB Radio Repeater - Explained

What is a CB Radio Repeater: A CB radio repeater is a type of radio setup that can extend the range of your communication signal while using a mobile or base...

carcbradios.com

 

[kc2asb]

CB REPEATERS?

I came across this article about “CB Repeaters”. I had never heard of such a thing I thought that repeaters was something that you only found in a ham radio/GMRS radio, world, etc.. Can anybody here shed some light on CB repeaters? According to the article, it’s apparently a technology that’s in the radio so older radios wouldn’t have it and not be able to take advantage of this repeater system. My main question though, is this repeated system viable enough that it is worth buying a new radio that has this capacity? it would seem to me if this CB repeater system were really that viable we wouldn’t have so many people using export radios on CB band in order to get better range. I would love to hear the thoughts of some of the members here. Here is the link to the article.

What is a CB Radio Repeater - Explained

What is a CB Radio Repeater: A CB radio repeater is a type of radio setup that can extend the range of your communication signal while using a mobile or base...

carcbradios.com

The existence of repeaters on the CB band came up recently in a discussion on the 2025 VHF Lowband logs thread. Most older CB radios will not be capable of using a repeater since they cannot operate on split TX and RX frequencies. An older 10m radio opened up for CB, such as the HR-2510 or RCI 2950 would be capable, as FM repeaters have been in use on the 10m band for decades.

Yes, repeaters could certainly work on CB in theory, but reality might be different, with AM and SSB still dominating the band. It would require channels to be set aside only for FM repeater use. Right now, there are only "rules of thumb" about which modes are used on which channels and anything goes.

 

[slowmover]

“CB” as a term also applies to radio service in other countries. And may not be on 27-MHz.

Example from article:

“ . . These can operate on a number of different channels - from 144 MHz to 216 MHz, although most are set up on inputs and outputs of 449.000-450.000 MHz (UHF frequencies).“


— The advantage to HF is great range versus other types. The disadvantage in CB is antenna size.

Repeaters on 27-MHz are the last thing we need. I suspect instance with several cases found on Skip when trying to use AM-19 and what I wish for the malefactors interfering isn’t family-friendly to state.

There are daily several million men trying make a living using 19 to sort serious & flat dangerous problems and can’t as these azzclowns blank local comms. I’ve no doubt that serious injuries and deaths have occurred as a result of this intentional interference.

Want to talk long-distance?
SSB

.

 

[AK9R]

Yes, repeaters could certainly work on CB in theory, but reality might be different, with AM and SSB still dominating the band.

It's possible to have a repeater using AM. I believe that the earliest amateur radio repeaters in the VHF band were AM.

 

[KD8DVR]

There are no CB repeaters in the USA. Countries like Australia have them on their UHF CB band.

 

[slowmover]

There are no CB repeaters in the USA. Countries like Australia have them on their UHF CB band.

I’ve come across it.

And I’ve examples known by many where heavy Skip from an area in no way follows the propagation map itself, or by traveling great distances N-S & E-W. Not one station, but many.

11-Meter AM-19 Repeater in Colorado

Southbound thru Colorado Springs tonight and asked some base station locals if they could hear me across the sorry antenna built-in to this Freightliner. The louder one replied he was hearing me from an antenna to the north of town, but I was hearing him via repeater 1,000-ft above valley floor...

forums.radioreference.com

.

 

[kc2asb]

It's possible to have a repeater using AM. I believe that the earliest amateur radio repeaters in the VHF band were AM.

I agree, there is no reason an AM repeater would not work. With FM now allowed on CB, it just seems to make sense for repeaters to be FM also but AM and FM repeaters could both exist on the band. No formal allocation of the band for different modes exists for CB the way it does for amateur radio, so it would just continue the chaos we are accustomed to.

 

[kc2asb]

I’ve come across it.

And I’ve examples known by many where heavy Skip from an area in no way follows the propagation map itself, or by traveling great distances N-S & E-W. Not one station, but many.

11-Meter AM-19 Repeater in Colorado

Southbound thru Colorado Springs tonight and asked some base station locals if they could hear me across the sorry antenna built-in to this Freightliner. The louder one replied he was hearing me from an antenna to the north of town, but I was hearing him via repeater 1,000-ft above valley floor...

forums.radioreference.com

.

Interesting. The possible existence of a CB repeater in the US did come up on the "2025 VHF Lowband Logs" thread in the Propagation forum.

2025 VHF Low Band Logs

Today's captures from Southern California: Frequency Tone Callsign User Confirmed via 35.060 136.5 KCD451 Trudeau Sand/Gravel Saranac Lake, NY Freq/PL/Traffic 45.400 151.4 KCX987 CHP Ventura Purple-2 Base Freq/PL/Traffic 31.200 D432 KBB436 TB&H Concrete Washington Co, MD Freq/PL/Traffic...

forums.radioreference.com

I’ve read that there is at least one simplex repeater (aka a “parrot repeater” - a store and forward repeater, likely a SureCom SR-112 or Radio-Tone RT-SRC1 simplex repeater controller based setup) operating on 27.195 MHz AM somewhere in the U.S.A.

 

[Randyk4661]

Back in the mid 80's in my CB faze, There was some people that started a CB type of repeater. The output of the repeater was on the CB band in FM mode. the input was 49Mhz also FM. The radios I had were not as sophisticated as they are today so I can't give many details exactly how it worked.

Every night the output would change channels.
From what I remember, the guy would sell you a radio, and you paid a subscription fee to use it? Don't quote me on this as it was a long time ago.

It didn't last long.
I heard the FCC shut it down.
I also heard that they couldn't get subscribers.
Whatever the reason, it only lasted a few months.

 

[kc2asb]

Back in the mid 80's in my CB faze, There was some people that started a CB type of repeater. The output of the repeater was on the CB band in FM mode. the input was 49Mhz also FM. The radios I had were not as sophisticated as they are today so I can't give many details exactly how it worked.

Every night the output would change channels.
From what I remember, the guy would sell you a radio, and you paid a subscription fee to use it? Don't quote me on this as it was a long time ago.

It didn't last long.
I heard the FCC shut it down.
I also heard that they couldn't get subscribers.
Whatever the reason, it only lasted a few months.

That is a very interesting story! I wonder if this involved radios that could operate split on 49mhz and 27mhz or......were they using a separate receiver to listen to the output. Just thinking out loud. Must have worked very well for the FCC to bother shutting it down, but that was a different time.

 

[prcguy]

The link looks like AI generated nonsense. A standalone repeater for 27MHz CB is possible but very difficult to pull off due to narrow spaced duplexing problems. There was one famous 27MHz CB repeater in So Cal which I used and was built by a good friend of mine. It had many inputs, at least one at 27MHz, some at 49MHz and at least one in the FRS band. At one point it put out about 300w from a high 1,000ft hilltop in Palos Verdes, CA and was busted by the FCC but the fine was never paid and the repeater was moved a little north of Malibu.

Other than a reported actual CB repeater somewhere in CO I have not heard of any others. Post #41 has a little more info on Larry's repeater although with a few mistakes and it appears the poster was also a friend of Larry's. 11 Meter Repeater

 

[prcguy]

To add a little more to this, if you use a split site its very simple to make a great performing 27MHz CB repeater with a pair of Icom IC-7100 radios with RemoteRig interfaces that allow remote operation over the Internet. Place one RF deck at a high location with antenna and the other RF deck with antenna nearby but far enough away so one receiver is not affected by the other transmitter. At your house or wherever you can host the radios remote control heads program your frequencies in each radio then connect the two control heads together with a repeat cable and off you go.

I have this setup in front of me, actually with three IC-7100s, one complete radio in front of me and two control heads with Internet connections to their two remote RF decks in other parts of the country. I can cross band any frequency from about 1.5MHz to 470Mhz and even the same frequency from one part of the country to another or to my area. When its all dialed up it just works and you cant tell the signal is being repeated.

 

[Randyk4661]

The link looks like AI generated nonsense. A standalone repeater for 27MHz CB is possible but very difficult to pull off due to narrow spaced duplexing problems. There was one famous 27MHz CB repeater in So Cal which I used and was built by a good friend of mine. It had many inputs, at least one at 27MHz, some at 49MHz and at least one in the FRS band. At one point it put out about 300w from a high 1,000ft hilltop in Palos Verdes, CA and was busted by the FCC but the fine was never paid and the repeater was moved a little north of Malibu.

Other than a reported actual CB repeater somewhere in CO I have not heard of any others. Post #41 has a little more info on Larry's repeater although with a few mistakes and it appears the poster was also a friend of Larry's. 11 Meter Repeater

This looks like what I remember back in the day.

 

[d119]

I recall a story out of the Los Angeles, CA area that back in the day (80's), there was a CB repeater that used a split-site configuration with a 49MHz cordless phone channel link using PACE FM land mobile radios. You went in on one channel and came out on another. Obviously it required the user to have two radios to make it work properly, but there was no duplexer or other infrastructure required based on the split site and VHF-low FM link. So it was CB in, CB out, via 49MHz linking the sites. I seem to recall hearing they had PL tones in the radios so that not just anyone could use it.

Based on who I heard this from years ago, I believe this to be a true statement. Very reliable source.

 

[prcguy]

I recall a story out of the Los Angeles, CA area that back in the day (80's), there was a CB repeater that used a split-site configuration with a 49MHz cordless phone channel link using PACE FM land mobile radios. You went in on one channel and came out on another. Obviously it required the user to have two radios to make it work properly, but there was no duplexer or other infrastructure required based on the split site and VHF-low FM link. So it was CB in, CB out, via 49MHz linking the sites. I seem to recall hearing they had PL tones in the radios so that not just anyone could use it.

Based on who I heard this from years ago, I believe this to be a true statement. Very reliable source.

Yes, I supplied the Pace VHF lo band radios and some antenna stuff for that repeater. It was not a split site and it had a home made duplexer for true full duplex at 27MHz. Just a few weeks ago I visited the hilltop repeater site for another reason, but it brought back a lot of memories.

 

[d119]

Yes, I supplied the Pace VHF lo band radios and some antenna stuff for that repeater. It was not a split site and it had a home made duplexer for true full duplex at 27MHz. Just a few weeks ago I visited the hilltop repeater site for another reason, but it brought back a lot of memories.

Hah! Rumas would love this thread... We on the same page?

 

[kc2asb]

Is there a post that disappeared from this thread? Earlier, I thought there was a post that linked to another thread which discussed the CA repeater in more detail

 

[slowmover]

“ . . The link looks like AI generated nonsense.”

Yes, it did.

“Welcome to Circuit City, home of the experts!”

.

 

[prcguy]

Is there a post that disappeared from this thread? Earlier, I thought there was a post that linked to another thread which discussed the CA repeater in more detail

Maybe at the end of post #11?

 

[kc2asb]

Maybe at the end of post #11?

That's it. Not sure how I missed it. Thanks!