Hello, I’m interested in setting up a repeater system at hunting basecamp on top of my pop up camper. Each hunting member has a UV-5R or BF-F8HP. I already have a GMRS license, and am taking the Ham test in less than a week. There is one extra UV-5R in the camp.
Do I need two Baofengs to set up a repeater system, one to transmit and one to receive, or can one Baofeng perform both functions?
Is this the right solution, or should I buy a standalone repeater? If so, any recommendations? If I have to buy additional Baofengs to build a repeater I may just buy a more robust and simple solution.
thanks much,
Chuck
There are some nice portable repeaters in small sturdy boxes. I have one here and they’re quite decent. They’re UHF and have an internal filter. This is critical. A couple of radios rarely wotl as a repeater as one must transmit at the same time the other receives, and even on high quality radios, the transmit output close in frequency and close physically makes the receiver lose its sensitivity, and range is drastically reduced. Only local signals are strong enough. Cheaper radios have even worse filtering, so you need at the very least tuned filters. Buying a ready made repeater is the sensible solution but despite many claiming to be multi channel, they’re not due to the filter tuning. Move away from that single channel and performance drops off.
1 Like
You’ll need a duplexer and a controller as well. You’ll require one radio to transmit and one to receive. Still, Baofengs would make a poor choice as repeater radios…they just aren’t that selective.
Honestly, Retevis makes a standalone repeater that isn’t too expensive, relatively speaking.
2 Likes