Handheld - Mobile Interface?

[baminian]

Hello Everyone!

I'm trying to build a repeater on a limited budget.
I currently have 4 Baofeng Handhelds and a Kenwood TK 8150 in my car.
This is probably a stupid question, but is it in any way possible to make a cable that will convert a 2.5mm audio cable to an RJ-45 cable that I can use to connect one of the baofengs (as the receiving unit) to the Kenwood (as the transmitting unit)?

Thanks!

 

[n0zed]

Let me try to answer without sounding snarkey. with your Baofengs you MIGHT turn on VOX and work out something , or poke around on the web and find something , BUT what you going with with it ??
problem 1 , keeping the xmit out of the rx. if this is not dont right you will lock up the xmit . my ARES group and other repeater systems I have worked on /with use filters and they don't come cheap.google repeater filter.
you can try the separate method , puttin some distance between antennas nice to play with but not so effective.Or try cross band , one radio VHF the other UHF . not too user friendly and still could need filtering inter mod a pain in the A**.
next getting a repeater pair , Repeater Frequency Coordination not required but remember that question on your tech test on Repeater Frequency Coordination or not , you do need to use freqs in the proper freq as to the band plan you use a simplex freq and they (other hams) might hunt you down. been there , done that.
Baofengs are a SDR so filtering in the aint much and they are slow to open the squelch on RX . I'm not knocking the radios , I have a few. I have thought of doing the same for a back country portable repeater , but I am looking for a base remote radio like I had in the late 90's. UHF, mobile duplexer , don't know why I traded it off.
Play with you ideas and remember google is your friend. just watch your freqs and be ready to kill the power if / when it locks up.
n0zed

 

[khaytsus]

Hello Everyone!

I'm trying to build a repeater on a limited budget.
I currently have 4 Baofeng Handhelds and a Kenwood TK 8150 in my car.
This is probably a stupid question, but is it in any way possible to make a cable that will convert a 2.5mm audio cable to an RJ-45 cable that I can use to connect one of the baofengs (as the receiving unit) to the Kenwood (as the transmitting unit)?

Thanks!

You can do a lot of things that'll work in a few situations, but in this case you're going to wind up with a solution that doesn't work like you expect it to unless you get a reasonably large amount of separation between the radios and probably do cross-banding.

If you can make all of the cables you want, you can even just hook two Baofengs up to each other and with VOX they'll do it, but unless you can get them quite far apart, they're going to interfere with each other. If you test it 50 feet away it'll likely work just fine. But when you're at distance, the transmitting radio will blow away the receiving antenna and it'll just stop working.

You'll really need to tell us what the intent here is.. A _real_ full time repeater? Something to fill in Line of Sight to use when needed? What's the duty cycle, who is using it, etc.

An alternative is a recording simplex repeater.... You transmit and it records, when you stop transmitting, it transmits the record. Uses one radio, one frequency, so no duplexing or overloading issues. You can put it and an HT up in a tree with an antenna and a gel cell and it'll probably run for days.

 

[baminian]

Nah it's not meant to be a full time repeater, it's just something I want to play around with and see if it's even possible. Looked at the wiring diagram, and it looks like something that would involve too much time and effort when buying a second mobile would be a lot easier.

 

[khaytsus]

Nah it's not meant to be a full time repeater, it's just something I want to play around with and see if it's even possible. Looked at the wiring diagram, and it looks like something that would involve too much time and effort when buying a second mobile would be a lot easier.

I agree, getting a mobile that'll cross-band repeat V-U or U-V would be better, gives you more power flexibility, etc. A little more expensive but a more flexible package, and you could use it for other things when you're not using it as a repeater.

Power consumption would be higher... Especially if you use higher output, but even receive on mobiles tends to be higher than on an HT so you might want to watch the standby power etc and scale battery size accordingly.

 

[jaspence]

Repeater

2pcs Two Way Relay Cross Band Full Duplex Repeater Control Box for BAOFENG UV5R | eBay

See if this fits your needs.