Here are some ideas for articles that we'd like to see...
If you think that something belongs on this list that isn't, just look at the bottom of this page.
And if you want to write up something that isn't on the list, well, feel free to! (See the writer's guidelines)

In no particular order...

• How to get a 501(c)(3) designation for your club (i.e. non-profit status).
  
  
• A photo article on rebuilding a stationmaster - disassembly, repair, reassembly, painting
  
  
• Modifying a DB-224 (or 228) folded-dipole base station antenna from (for example) 160 MHz to 146 MHz, by cutting the dipoles and splicing (welding) additional length into them.
  
  
• Modifying (or even making from scratch) a harness for a multi-element folded dipole base station / repeater antenna?
  (we have the harness dimensions on the Antennas page)
  
  
• How to accomplish frequency changes in cavities or even duplexers...
  for example from 39 MHz to 52 MHz? Has anyone been successful at converting any of the VHF cavities or duplexers (mobile or station duplexers) to the 222 MHz band?
  How about 800 MHz cavities or duplexers to 900 MHz or even 1200 MHz?
  
  
• Advantages and disadvantages in transmitter combining, with descriptions of practical applications on 2m, 220 MHz and UHF - or showing why it's impractical
  
  
• An overview of the theoretical side of simulcasting, the advantages and disadvantages, then the hardware implementation of it including the equipment used, the adjustments of the audio delay lines, etc. Then a description of the gotchas and what it can sound like... (maybe some .wav or .mp3 files?)
  
  
• The theory of diversity reception, with descriptions of practical applications (for simplicity's sake, picture utilizing an available second antenna on the existing tower at the current site)
  
  
• Using broadcast-style audio processing on repeaters, and why you'd want to, or not.
  
  
• Something on simplex repeaters and mobile extenders - how they work, and maybe some MP3 files of what they sound like.
  
  
• An introductory article (or two, or three) on the Radio Mobile Deluxe software, including how to install it and the necessary map files (and where to get them), how to place a repeater on a map, how to specify the station parameters (i.e. sensitivity, power, antenna gain, antenna elevation, etc), how to generate a coverage map at 2m, UHF and 900 MHz, how to place a second repeater at a different radio site, how to place a point-to-point link between them, how to figure path loss on the link, and how to show combined coverage of the two sites combined.
  
  
• A getting-started article on repeater jammer hunting, including beam construction, hunting tips, tricks and techniques, plus a section on how to stay on the right side of the FCC rules on donating your tracking services.
  
  
• A step by step photo procedure on how to install connectors on Heliax... on small diameter 1/4" Superflex, 1/2", 7/8", and 1-5/8" standard Heliax.
  
  
• Overview articles on the Motorola XTL, XTS, CDM, CM, PM and Jedi series (i.e. one article per series) - look at the Genesis series article for a few ideas...
  
  
• We've got the GE Mastr II series pretty well covered, but have zilch on the Mastr IIe series.
  How about something on moving a GE Mastr IIe station from commercial to amateur frequencies and interfacing it to a repeater controller
  What LBI (manual) part numbers are the correct ones ? (and, if you want paper copies, who do you order them from?)
  What knowledge would someone familiar with the IIe radios wish they had before they got into them?
  What info is needed so that listings on ebay make sense?
  An interfacing article would be very welcome: how to get muted receiver audio out of the 2E, along with COR and PL decode, and how to insert transmit audio into the exciter, along with PTT and how to control the transmitter CG encoder.
  
  
• We need an article on moving a GE Mastr III station from commercial to amateur frequencies and interfacing it to a repeater controller
  What LBI (manual) part numbers are the correct ones? (And, if you want paper copies, who do you order them from?)
  What knowledge would someone familiar with the III radios wish they had before they got into them?
  What info is needed so that listings on ebay make sense?
  An interfacing article would be very welcome: how to get muted receiver audio out of the M3, along with COR and PL decode, and how to insert transmit audio into the exciter, along with PTT and how to control the internal CG encoder.
  
  
• An overview article on the Motorola Syntor X, and X9000 series. What control heads and cables work with what radios, what it takes to program them, etc.
  
  
• Setting up a Motorola GR1225 repeater on amateur frequencies, including RSS screen shots and interfacing it to an external repeater controller.
  How to push a UHF GR1225 below 444 mHz.
  How does the 1225 mobile compare to the GR1225, R1225, and RKR1225 radios?
  What manual part numbers are the correct ones to order?
  What knowledge would someone familiar with the 1225 radios wish they had before they got into them, and enough information that listings on ebay make sense?
  An interfacing article on the 1225 series would be very welcome: how to get muted receiver audio out of the unit, along with COR and PL decode, and how to insert transmit audio into it, along with PTT and how to control the transmitter PL encoder.
  
  
• Moving an 800 MHz Micor station to 900 MHz - covering the mods needed to the receiver, the exciter, the interstage filter, the PA deck and the output filter.
  
  
• Moving an 800 MHz Mastr II, IIe or III station to 900 MHz - covering the mods needed to the receiver, the exciter, the PA deck and any interstage or output filters. Plus any quirks in programming the IIE and III onto whatever 902/927 MHz channel pair...
  Yes, we know that covering the II, IIE and III will probably take three articles...
  
  
• PURC: With the proliferation of cellphones, many paging / beeper companies are surplusing high band, UHF and 900mhz PURC paging stations all over the country, and 100 watt, 250 watt and 330 watt PURCs are becoming available at decent prices. While we know that PURCs were based on the Micor chassis, and the PURC-5000 on the MSF chassis, we don't have a lot of info on either unit. An overview article would be very helpful, with sufficient notes to understand what to look for, how to add an in-band receiver, how to interface an outboard controller to it, what does it take to program amateur frequencies into it?
  Basically what knowledge would someone familiar with the PURC radios wish they had before they got into them, and enough information that listings on ebay make sense?
  
  
• Anybody want to do an article on the E. F. Johnson Challenger? Supposedly it was designed as competition to the Moto MaxTrac, and does everything it does but better.
  
  
• How about an article on spacing adjacent 2m channels at 15KHz versus 20KHz in the 146 and 147 MHz portions of the band?? Oregon and eleven other states run 20khz, southern California (where I live) and others run 15khz. Supposedly the 20Khz spacing results in more usable repeaters in the band. I've been told that there are those that feel very strongly towards their preference, to the point of loud arguments at coordination meetings. If anyone would like to write a comparison article, please take this as an invite to do so. Just keep it calm and technical and let your facts do the arguing. There is a PDF of a Ham Radio Magazine article from 1985 on the "Technical Information" page that can get you started.
  
  
• Articles on the Kenwood TM-231, TM-241/441/541 series. This series when linked to a Doug Hall interface box seems to be a popular remote base setup at low-RF-level sites. An interfacing article on how to get muted receiver audio (i.e. repeat audio) out of these radios, along with COR and PL decode, and how to insert transmit audio into it, along with PTT and how to control the transmitter PL encoder.
  
  
• More details on the Kenwood TKR-series desktop repeaters - the 720/820, 730/830 and 750/850. We need articles on converting them to amateur frequencies and connecting an external controller. For example, just how hard is it to move an 8xx model to a 440 MHz UHF ham frequency? Or a 7xx to a 145 MHz repeater pair?
  What manual part numbers are the good ones to order? And where do you order them from?
  
  
• Info on Kenwood 900 MHz gear is scarce. Does anybody want to do a step-by-step programming procedure for the TK-431 or TK-481 handhelds??? Or of the TK-931 or TK-981 mobiles (including photos and schematics, if available, of any cables needed)??? Basically all of the steps needed from purchase of the radio to the point you can actually use it on a 900 MHz repeater.
  
  
• Converting a Uniden radio to the amateur frequencies... The commercial 2-way division of Uniden is almost non-existent, and if you don't have the software tools and knowledge to set up a Uniden radio or repeater then you will have a nice bookend or small canoe anchor. The Uniden web page here is almost empty and any article are welcome... anything from from hardware overviews to programming "How-To" articles to connecting an external controller to a Uniden repeater.
  
  
• APRS 1: More and more 2m repeater owners are adding 144.39 MHz receivers to their systems and piping the received information to the nearest iGate for findu access - and this is run in parallel and has zero affect on the voice traffic on the main channel - those voice users have no idea it's even there. If there is an IRLP node on site it's easy to add IGate functionality (it's just one more task for the Linux OS to run) - and just a bit more difficult if the internet access is linked in. The only shared resource is the antenna. An article on the RF side of things - how to add a third port to the duplexer, etc. would be welcomed.
  
  
• APRS 2: How to collocate an IGate with your club repeater, hooked up to the on-site batteries and generator.
  
  
• APRS 3: Some repeater owners that have an active APRS community of users are adding 144.39 MHz transmitters to their systems... The users can use so-called "mic-e" encoders to encode their current location (latitude and longitude) into a data burst that is sent when the microphone PTT is released. A TNC on the main repeater input mutes the receiver (repeater) audio and the other repeater users never hears the data burst. The packet is then sent out on 144.39 MHz, passed to an iGate, or both. The TNC can also montor 144.39 MHz so that the data packet is not dropped on top of someone elses... An article covering the connection of the TNC and 144.39 MHz radio to an existing system would be welcome.
  
  
• Quantar and Quantro (high power Quantar) Motorola stations are starting to show up on eBay and elsewhere. An overview article would be very helpful, with sufficient notes to understand what to look for, how to interface an outboard controller (or does the internal one have enough features?), what does it take to program amateur frequencies into it?
  What knowledge would someone familiar with the Quantar/Quantro radios wish they had before they got into them, and enough information that listings on ebay make sense?
  An interfacing article would be very welcome: how to get muted receiver audio out of the unit, along with COR and PL decode, and how to insert transmit audio into it, along with PTT and how to control the transmitter PL encoder.
  What manual part numbers are the good ones to order?
  
  

If you think of a topic that needs to be added to this page (even if someone else writes the article on it), send an email to us and let us know... the address is "article-ideas at repeater dash builder dot com". Please put "repeater-builder article idea list" in the subject line.

Potential authors please see this web page: The writer's guidelines. Don't worry about your writing/spelling ability - that's what editors are for. If you can tell someone else how you modified a radio, can push the button on a digital camera, can compose and send an email and know how to attach a file to it, consider yourself as qualified.

Naturally, all authors will retain the copyright to their own work. The web site copyright is superceded by any authors copyright. We wouldn't need to copyright the site except that mooching/freeloading idiots were taking all the articles on a given radio (i.e. GE Mastr-IIs) and selling CDs on eBay. It took invoving the legal system to get it stopped. No, we are not kidding.

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This page originally posted on Monday 13-Feb-2005