The Repeater Builder's Technical Information Page™

Welcome to:
Welcome to The Repeater Builders Technical Information Page
"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 five gigabytes of freely downloadable information, and our server transfers (i.e. downloads) over 20 gb per month!
This web site is privately owned and operated, all support comes from donations from individuals. There is very little advertising on this web site except for small amateur-owned companies that manufacture boards and parts of interest to the repeater community, and a few Google ads like the one above.
The Yahoogroup that is associated with this web site has over 3,500 members worldwide.

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We accept most Credit Cards via Pay-Pal.
Thanks!

Remember seeing something you are interested in but can't remember where?
Use the		Search Engine to find it!

Type your search terms in the box above to search this site.
Due to the fact that we are using the free Google search there will be advertisements in the Google search results.

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.

A word on PDF files: Many files on this web site are in the PDF format - this file format is independent of computer, operating system, or application programs. Unusual fonts used in the original document are included in the PDF file, and will display correctly, even if the font or the originating application is not installed on the end-user's system. PDFs can display images from any program - word processors, CAD, drawing and mapping programs. One handy feature is that the image can be automatically re-sized (for display or printing) regardless of the original layout size.

The free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, downloadable from the Adobe website, is required to view or print PDF files. Click on the icon above or on this link to get it. The Acrobat Reader installs itself to operate in two ways:

As an add-on ("helper" or "plug-in") to your already-installed web browser(s) (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, or Opera, and more) that enables PDF files to be opened on-line directly in the browser.
As a normal stand-alone program that starts when you double-click on files with the PDF extension.

Features:

Left-Clicking on a PDF file link will open the PDF file in your web browser in place of the page you are currently viewing. If Acrobat is not installed, you will be prompted for a normal file download instead.
Right-Clicking on a PDF file link and choosing "Save Target As..." will start a file download to your system for local viewing, printing or archiving.

The Main Modification & Information Index
Everything here was donated by somebody in the spirit of sharing.
What information do you have to contribute?

Want to see your name in print on this web site??
Click here for our "wish-list"
and a list of some articles we need !!
Don't see an article on what you came here for??
See the last paragraph on the above link.

Click on the button below to see what's new on Repeater-Builder.

Hardware:

ACC Equipment Information on Advanced Computer Controls equipment.

AEA (Advanced Electronic Applications, Inc.) We need volunteers to contribute more information for this web page
Aerotron-Repco We need volunteers to contribute more information for this web page
Arcom Information on Arcom Repeater Controllers and related products.
Astron Information on 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 Information 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!

Other Pages on Various Repeater Related Topics:

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.
Construction Projects Repeater related construction projects
Technical Information Various technical articles & reference material
Backup and Alternative Power Equipment modification and setup articles plus reference material
Repeater Linking Information on linking repeaters together.
Repeater Jamming and how to solve it / deal with it Information on catching a repeater jammer.
Repeater Equipment Suppliers Repeaters, Controllers, Duplexers, Antennas, Voters, etc.
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).
Downloads Various downloads (software, powerpoint files, data files)
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 3,300 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 official FCC Amateur Radio Service web page This link goes to the FCC web site.
- FCC Rules Title 47 Part 15 (RF Devices) 680 KB PDF
- FCC Rules Title 47 Part 17 (tower lighting) 105KB PDF The site owners need to be worried about this...
- FCC Rules Title 47 Part 90 (private land mobile radio services) 1.25 MB PDF
- FCC Rules Title 47 Part 95 (GMRS, FRS, R/C, CB, MICS, LPRS, WMTS, MURS) 230 KB PDF
- FCC Rules Title 47 Part 97 (amateur radio service) 161 KB PDF
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 !

This site is much larger than it appears. Please take the time to view the whole site.

Visit the Awards page. See the awards this site has received.

Legal and other important stuff......

GENERAL DISCLAIMER - - This site and its entire contents is for informational purposes only!
If you chose to follow any link or procedure outlined herein, you do so at your own risk.

Note that the repeater operational rules vary from country to country. What is legal in one place will in many cases get you in trouble elsewhere. The staff of this web site assume no responsibility for anything YOU do.

Our authors are not looking over your shoulder as you do surgery on a radio - we and they cannot, nor will not, be responsible for any possible damage to radio equipment, to yours or anothers personal property, to yourself or to others caused by modifications that you or someone else may make to any equipment as a result of your reading of the contents of any web page at this web site, or any web site we link to.

The Repeater Builder's site does not evaluate the accuracy of materials created by persons beyond its control or supervision. Therefore, although this site links to many additional web sites, the Repeater Builder's site is not responsible for the availability of, completeness of, or the accuracy of any materials contained within those web sites.

The terms Repeater Builder^TM, Repeater-Builder^TM,Repeater Builders^TM, Repeater Builder Dot Com^TM, and Repeater Builder's Technical Information Page^TM, are ® trademarks of Repeater Builder and are registered in the United States under the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO).

All trademarks, trademark names, service mark names, trademark images and logos used on this web site are done so with an educational or informative intent. All trademarked names belong to the owner and no violation or infringement is intended.

Click here for information on Trade/Salesmarks

Click here for information on the "fair use" doctrine & U.S. copyright law

This site and its contents are protected under US copyright laws. You may reproduce the contents of this site (partial or full) for your own use, but you may not reproduce it in quantity or sell the contents (partial or full) for any profit without written consent of the originating author(s).

Links to this index page are allowed from other private web sites, but you are not allowed to link to this site (or any pages contained within) from public auction sites like eBay, or any other public web site without prior arrangements from the site owner and the article author. Besides - links to specific pages will break sooner or later as we move things around (and on top of that we are exploring changing this web site into a wiki-like system). So it's best to link to the index page and provide directions to get to a specific page.

This site and its contents are the intellectual property of Kevin Custer and the contributing authors. The information contained within it cannot be used for any form of personal gain by anyone outside of the originating authors or those given permission to do so (in writing) by Kevin Custer.

Note: The appearance of any email addresses, phone numbers or fax numbers on any web page that is a part of this web site is intended solely for the convenience of persons wishing to contact us regarding this Internet web site or the information contained here. Permission to use such information for the purpose of email, fax or telephone solicitation by others is absolutely and specifically denied.

This web site, and the information presented in and on it's pages is © Copyrighted 1995 - current by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors.

Read this disclaimer!!

Read a brief biography about your webmaster, Kevin K. Cüster W3KKC.

This web site moved to it's current server on December 11th, 2006. Click here for some web totals.
If you're an experienced webmaster and would like to help improve this site please contact Mike WA6ILQ at (callsign) at repeater-builder.com...