I got a retevis ad today. A lora repeater and two handhelds for about $250. I’ve ordered one to play with but looks kind of interesting. Spread spectrum digital and single frequency repeating and mesh operation. I’ve heard of lora and mesh but no clue at all. There are a few YouTube videos but it seems you have up to 30 units and they all mesh together to give extended coverage. The one I ordered is a repeater with internal battery and able to be charged from a solar panel if mains fails. Two hand helds come with it so it will be interesting to play with! I don’t think it’s able to be licenced outside of amateur bands here in the uk but it will be interesting to see how it works? Anybody here tried one?
Initial thoughts are that it is all postive. With the system set to 433MHz, on the analyser, the output seems to have a flat top that tails off to no signal 300KHz either side - but the strangest thing is that I seriously doubt that anyone would know it was active? With a conventional FM handheld right next to any of the transmitting units, backing off the squelch reveals a very quiet puttering. The meter on the radio is full scale, but the squelch does not open, totally unlike DMR. You back off the squelch and it hisses very normally. As the squelch doesn’t open (tested on an Icom handheld) I doubt anybody would notice the device was even in use. Audio quality is digital normal and there is a latency of around half a second. Very similar to ordinary DMR.
The only test I’ve done so far is a ‘hopping’ test. My studio is next to my office. It is a sloping site, so my studio is below the outside road level, but you walk from it to the office which has a door to outside on the car park - so the basement at the front is ground level at the rear. It means that using any radio in there is difficult - the local repeater only a mile or two away cannot be heard in the studio. In the car park, it’s full strength. I recorded what came out of the speaker on the repeater in the studio, and wandered away talking into the radio every 50ft or so. I lost the direct signal as soon as I went behind a container self-storage compound. I put the other hand held in my van on the car park on the dashboard, and tried again. This time, the containers were not a problem and I got about 500m further before I turned around and returned. The handheld in my van providing the link to the repeater unit inside.
I have ordered some additional hand helds as this is rather good. I was afraid it would be very unfriendly to other users but not so at all! More to come when I get a chance.