Welcome to:

"RBTIP"
So, you want to build a repeater?

The Repeater Builder's Technical Information Page™ is an informational help site by Kevin Custer W3KKC
This is the largest repeater information site in the world!

Donations are appreciated for the continued availability and upkeep of this site. We have over six gigabytes of freely downloadable information, and our server transfers (i.e. downloads) over 25 gb per month! The repeater-builder Yahoogroup that is associated with this web site has over 4,000 members worldwide and is a tremendous resource of technical knowledge on repeaters and repeater-building, be they amateur, commercial, GMRS, public safety, CAP, or ... The contents of the information pages at this web site are totally dependent on donations of information. If you have expertise on a particular piece of equipment, or expert-level knowledge on a topic, please consider contributing an article or two to this web site. This web site is privately owned and operated, all financial support comes from donations from individuals. There is little advertising on this web site except for a few small amateur-owned companies that manufacture boards and parts of interest to the repeater community, and a few Google ads like the one above that help pay the hosting fees.

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The Concept of This Site:

• To educate: As an example, "What's a repeater?"
• To supply quality information relating to amateur, and commercial repeater stations.
• To make available technical people who may answer repeater related questions.
• This site deals mainly with various Motorola®, and GE ® Mobile modifications for duplex repeater operation.
• To provide availability to some conversion parts for Motorola®, GE® and Hamtronics® equipment.
• To supply information on construction projects & technical information relating to repeaters.
• To furnish links to modifications for Motorola®, GE®, Hamtronics® and other manufacturers equipment.
• To make available email lists for those seeking information about repeaters. Like this one.
• To provide links to Service and Equipment providers.
• Here is one example of the service provided by this site. Ray's first repeater.

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• ACC Equipment     Advanced Computer Controls is out of business, the remains were bought by Link. We have some information here, but not as much as we'd like.
• AEA   (Advanced Electronic Applications, Inc.)   We have a number of AEA equipment manuals here, but we need donations of what is missing.
• Aerotron and/or Aerotron-Repco     Now out of business, we need volunteers to contribute more information for this page.
• Arcom     Information on Arcom Repeater Controllers and related products.
• Astron     Information on and modifications for Astron linear and switching power supplies.
• Bendix-King     We need volunteers to contribute more information for this web page
• Communications Specialists and Selectone     Information on the popular subaudible tone encoders, decoders, etc.
• Computer Automation Technology     Information on the CAT line of repeater controllers
• Connect Systems Inc.     Information on the amateur products (and a few others) made by CSI
• Creative Control Products     Now out of business, here is almost all the information available on Creative Control Products equipment
• Daniels Electronics     Information on Daniels Electronics equipment
• E. F. Johnson     We need volunteers to contribute more information for this web page
• General Electric  /  Ericsson     The "Mastr" Index of conversion information and sites, plus various links to other GE information (including over 1.8gb of downloadable LBI manuals)
• Hamtronics     Modifications, and information on Hamtronics® equipment
• Icom     (amateur repeaters and commercial equipment)    We need volunteers to contribute more information for this web page
• ICS Controllers     Information and modifications for ICS equipment
• Kendecom / ACS / MCS / Micro Control Specialties     Information and Modifications
• Kenwood     (mostly commercial equipment)     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Link Communications     a.k.a. Link-Comm     Information on Link Communications Products and Equipment (the RLC series of repeater controllers)
• Maggiore "Hi-Pro" Repeaters     Information on Maggiore "Hi-Pro" Repeater Products
• Micro Computer Concepts     Information on the RC-100 and RC-1000 repeater controllers
• Midland     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Motorola     Information on batwing products
• NHRC Repeater Controllers     Information and modifications for NHRC Equipment
• Pacific Research Solutions     Information on Pacific Research Solutions repeater controllers and related products.  
• Radio Shack     Information on Archer, Micronta, Realistic and Radio Shack products.
• RCA     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Regency / RELM / Wilson     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Repeater Builder (the company)     Custom Repeaters and Products for the repeater builder or owner.
• Ritron, Inc.     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• S-COM Controllers     Information on the 5K, 6K, 7K and other Scom repeater controllers and accessories
• Spectrum     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Standard     (commercial equipment)     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Tait     (commercial equipment)     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Uniden     (commercial equipment)     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• VHF Engineering     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Yaesu, Yaesu / Vertex and Vertex / Standard     (commercial equipment)     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Zetron Corporation     We need volunteers to contribute information for this web page
• Other Manufacturers' equipment     Information, Manuals and mods for equipment made by manufacturers not listed above.   If you can't find it anywhere else, check here!

• Antenna System Information   The antenna system is made up of everything from the repeater transmitter or repeater receiver antenna jack out, including duplexers, circulators, isolators, feedlines, the antenna(s) themselves, etc.    
• Backup and Alternative Power   Equipment modification and setup articles plus reference material
• Construction Projects   Repeater related construction projects
• Downloads Various downloads (software, powerpoint files, data files)
• IRLP The Internet Radio Linking Project is a worldwide community of radio/repeater systems. Here's a overview page with a lot of links.
• Repeater Equipment Suppliers   Antennas, Controllers, Duplexers, Feedline, Repeaters, Voters, etc.
• Repeater Jamming and how to solve it / deal with it   Information on catching a repeater jammer.
• Repeater Linking   Information on linking repeaters together.
• Repeater related e-mail lists   Links to several e-mail lists and reflectors relating to repeaters
• Radio Mobile (offsite link)   Radio Mobile, witten by Roger Coudé VE2DBE, is a free and powerful computer-aided tool for plotting RF patterns and predicting the performance of radio systems. RM does, however, lack good, easy to understand documentation. The web site linked here attempts to provide an alternative source of documentation that will walk you through obtaining and installing the software, obtaining elevation data and finally running your first plots (which can be coverage or point-to-point path plots). RM works well with anything from Windows 95 through XP Pro (naturally with any CPU-intensive program, the more RAM and horsepower the better). It uses freely available terrain elevation data to produce grey scale, x-ray and rainbow colored virtual maps. One can also produce 3-D and stereoscopic views as well as flyby animations. Background images can be merged with scanned maps, satellite photos and Mapquest maps to produce accurate prediction plots. You can obtain a copy of RM from http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html.
• A Sample Set of Repeater Radio Site Rules   Here's a sample of what to expect when you rent space at a commercial 2-way radio site. Here's another set from N9ZIA (offsite link).
• A customizable tower site lease agreement DOC file   Here's a tower site lease agreement you can download and fill in with your specific information when you are looking to rent space at a commercial site. Lawyer-approved. Provided by Martin Flynn W2RWJ (he's not a lawyer, but he might have slept in a Holiday Inn once).
• Technical Information   Various technical articles & reference material
• Test Equipment     A menu page with data sheets, manual PDFs, articles and pointers to test equipment, including IFR / Aeroflex, Cushman, and others.
  There are also a few articles on home-brew test equipment.
• The Two-Way Directory Page   (offsite link) This web site, run by Rik Rasmussen WA4BAN, is a directory of the Land Mobile (commercial 2-way radio) industry.   Over 1600 links plus a interesting commentary page (scroll down to the "Two Way Radio Web Log").

Services:

• Custom Built Repeaters   Motorola and GE repeater conversions by Kevin Custer W3KKC & Scott Zimmerman N3XCC
• Where To Purchase Repeater Equipment   Repeaters, Controllers, Duplexers, Antennas, Voters, etc.
• Repeater Elmers   Personal repeater help via email from several Elmers.

The R-B Mailing List / Reflector:

• Don't forget the mailing list that is associated with this site:
  Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com   The largest (over 4,450 members) quality ad free technical repeater email reflector.
  Click here for more information

Miscellaneous stuff that doesn't seem to fit anywhere else:

• FCC Rules
  The five rules sections most of interest to amateur radio operators are provided below as locally downloadable files for the current issue and the previous issue. And for what it's worth, I have the 2004 versions availble in PDF in case anybody wants them.

  The FCC rules and regulations are codified in Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Changes are published in the Federal Register during the year as they happen. After October 1 of each year, the Government Printing Office compiles all the changes, additions, and deletions to the FCC rules and publishes an updated CFR in the following January. That CFR is valid until the following years October issue is published the following January. Yes, that sounds confusing, but, here's an example: The October 2008 edition of the Rules is published in January 2009, and is valid until the October 2009 edition is published in January 2010.
  

  The official Rules are found on the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47 index page at the FCC web site. That's where we grabbed the files below, and where you can find any other section you might find interesting (like Part 13, or Part 68).
  • 2008 FCC Rules Title 47 Part 15 (RF Devices)   680 KB PDF
    Since it was already in PDF form and still on the server, here's the 2007 version for what it's worth.
  • 2008 FCC Rules Title 47 Part 17 (tower lighting)   105KB PDF   The site owners need to be worried about this...     2007 version.
  • 2008 FCC Rules Title 47 Part 90 (private land mobile radio services)   1.3 MB PDF     2007 version.
  • 2008 FCC Rules Title 47 Part 95 (GMRS, FRS, R/C, CB, MICS, LPRS, WMTS, MURS)   268 KB PDF     2007 version
  • 2008 FCC Rules Title 47 Part 97 (amateur radio service)   192 KB PDF     2007 version
    We licensed amateur radio operators are supposed to have a copy of the rules in our posession, so I suggest that you might want to print a copy (double-sided if your printer can do it), 3-hole punch it, put it in a binder and keep it on your bookshelf.
    
  • The official FCC Amateur Radio Service web page   This link goes to the FCC web site.
    
    
• The vehicle manufacturers comments on mobile radio installation: (all but Chrysler are offsite links)
  If anybody has any others - Toyota, Honda, FreightLiner, Mack, Saturn, etc. let WA6ILQ know (at callsign @ repeater-builder.com).
  • Chrysler   This is a scan of a Dayton Hamvention handout that was written expressly for hams, with a number of excellent mobile radio installation points.
  • Ford   (see the 5th item in the left column)   Here's a local copy of the guidelines that Ford offers as a downloadable file.   It covers Ford, Mercury, Aston Martin, Volvo, Mazda, Jaguar, Lincoln and Land Rover. I'll bet that you dodn't know that Ford owns all or a majority of each one of those companies.
  • General Motors Radio Telephone / Mobile Radio Installation Guidelines
    
    
• See what this page started out as   Click to see how this site started out in 1995!
• Calculate your own RF Exposure Limits   Courtesy of the University of Texas Amateur Radio Club N5XU, with source code in C available for download
• Audio files for your DVR (.wav files)   Offsite link to the DVR Voice Wall by Fred Vobbe W8HDU
• Repeaterisms   Click to see what they are!
• The Two Way Radio Keys Page   Need to know what key fits your radio set?   By Mike Morris WA6ILQ
• Other Offsite Links   Other modifications and related information located at other web sites
• The Repeater Builders Check List   A reference list when acquiring parts to build a repeater and some construction notes, by W7FDF and other contributors
• A bit of ham radio / electronic humor!!

You may e-mail Kevin with suggestions, comments, or your repeater problem, or visit the Elmers page above.
If the information here has been interesting or helpful, please sign my guestbook, below, or e-mail me and let me know.
If you have a link that you think should be added to this site, or if you have a repeater equipment modification or repeater related article that you would like to publish, and have it appear here,    Thanks in advance !

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