Need possible repeater information

I am the IT guy for an orphanage in Belize central America. We have been using Motorola CP200d radios exclusively for several years. Our compound is expanding and we find our new housing out of range barely. Is there a repeater setup we can purchase to work with our existing radios to expand our current coverage area? Thank you for any help!! Dave Bunk

Yes but remember that all the radios need reprogramming too. No idea on the Belize authorities but it’s probably just a case of getting a new licence and ordering a system. Not as easy if you wish to do it yourself but mainly software and cables. The repeater antenna goes up high and the unit and the filters go inside. Once the radios are reprogrammed it’s done. Filters need tuning and that takes equipment and skill.

Thank you I had no idea of process or costs involved. I worked for a bus company for many years and knew that the system existed to allow our bus radios increased range.

The basic concept is a simple one. Stick your antennas on a point that has the best performance for the area you want covered - usually central and as high as possible. Then the path from each radio to and from that antenna just lets everyone benefit. The repeater is really just a radio that listens on one frequency and transmits on another - at the same time. To do this the receiver needs to not be affected by the transmitter, and that is the clever bit. Technically, the further apart in frequency you go the less filtering has to be done, and the closer in frequency the two channels are together, the more filtering. Filters can be cheapish - maybe less than a radio costs, to many times the cost of a radio. Tuning them can be considered a black art. Always a compromise. Some people have the knack of doing them, others never get it right. Getting it wrong reduces the range, sometimes to unworkable levels.