Ham Repeater to support a stationary OB event

[CTO1Mike]

Just got an idea and wanted to throw it out on the table for discussion.

The idea: An OB Member who is a Ham, brings equipment to an OB event like Rally Sierra's, and sets up a temporary repeater system for use by OB event Hams.

The repeater info would be given out either on the rally point or at event check in.

An open repeater freq would be used as not to cause interfearance.

This would be totally voluntary.

Feasable? Desireable? Other?

So what are our thoughts?

 

[Prerunner1982]

A crossband repeater may be easier/cheaper as some dual band mobile radios already do this, with a 20' mast and 1/4 wave ground plane or j-pole antenna it should work fairly well. However it may take a little bit more setup on everyone's radio to program in such an odd offset and everyone would need a dual band radio. Around camp it would work well, if you are wanting something to cover trails too you would have to find a mountain top to deploy it on.

If you went with an actual repeater setup the frequencies would have to be agile in order to work around the frequencies that may already be in use any particular area and that may be difficult to do since duplexers are tuned. But I am no repeater expert.
Cost of a true portable repeater? (radio, controller, duplexer)
Easier way to do it?....

 

[TheBronze]

What about a low power GMRS repeater? It seems like a good number of people are getting the Midland MXT’s that do repeaters. A couple of military mast poles and a small base antenna up on a ridge could be very useful. But I guess all this would really depend on the crowd you run with. Mostly hams? Mostly not? The only problem with uncoordinated repeaters is they have a tendency to cause problems and you won’t even be aware that your doing it due to the time it takes for people to track you down. Here in the SoCal area every frequency is used and there literally are no open pairs. GMRS has more relaxed rules and might be easier.

 

[CTO1Mike]

@TheBronze Not having a GMRS license I would not be authorized to operate the GMRS repeater.

The HAM repeater frequencies are widely published, so with a little research a suitable open frequency could be found.
The local Ham club ( if any ) could also be contacted ahead of time to iron out any needed details and to advise them of the operation.
The FCC also mandates that the repeater identify its self every so often, so the Rally info could be broadcast so as to help if there was any interference.

@TheBronze Thank you for the great post!

 

[Prerunner1982]

It would also be good to put out info as to the next class or trail run or prize drawing, etc.