Building a Complete Ham Radio Repeater

[@brandongodsell5959]

Just got my Tech License and now after watching this i have a whole new respect for the guys who maintain these repeaters for us all to enjoy.

[@s_android]

The next time I turn on my ham radio, I'm going to have a lot more respect for the guys who build these repeaters and maintain them. Thumbs up to Skyler and the team.

[@sharedknowledge6640]

Awesome job showing what can be done with modest hardware and the right knowledge. The production values of the video were also quite good. Nice job on both counts.

[@frankb6333]

A+...You have grasped the concept of Amateur Radio. Anyone can buy an off-the-shelf repeater and plug it in, you demonstrated how Amateur Radio has done things for decades. Scrounge, modify, & figure things out. As you have seen, some in the "hobby" firmly believe if it's not their way then it's wrong--hardly. While there are some absolute rights and wrongs, Amateur Radio is by far mostly Gray. Sure LMR-400 is not for repeater use, but it is perfectly fine for proof of concept or temp use when you don't have anything else in the shack. Keep learning and experimenting guys.

[@MarkyShaw]

Phenomenal job! I was doing some searching for Raspberry Pi repeaters and came across your video! Really great project and you guys crushed it. Inspirational for sure. This is what the art of radio is all about.

[@BillBuckwalter]

This is fantastic Skyler! I remember hearing about this project. I'm so glad I finally saw the video. Well done! - Bill WØSUN

[@SkylerF]

Thanks Bill! Yeah that was a fun project a couple years ago, now it’s on the mountaintop near socorro! I need to make more videos

[@earllizardi6989]

I've been building repeaters for 40 years, what a great job Skyler.

[@PhilBailey]

Bruh, great presentation. More kids need friends like you guys. When things go very wrong I am confident that you will be able to use that radio and save lives. It is really heart warming and I'm soon to go for my Tech an General license in the next month or so. I want to get more into this because I want to do long distance data transmission, email, packet pager messages etc, and really expand our adventures in a safe way while providing communications in a bad situation if need be. Blessings from Portland OR,

[@W9CR]

Awesome video, I'd do things different but the theory here is solid! It's great to see some people younger than I involved in ham radio. 73's

[@notsure7874]

Old thread, but I'd like to know what you'd do differently!

[@wecontrolthevideo]

Nice video and project. I built my first repeater in 1976. It used seperate antennas for transmit and receive, and had about a 10 mile mobile coverage. It ran in my friend's garage and used TTL discrete logic IC's for control, that I built on proto boards.The system moved a couple times, been rebuilt and replaced, and is still on the air today as a mult-receive site system on a 350 foot building. Dave - K7DR

[@stephenjones9153]

Subscribed Very well done to all involved👍👍👍Great to see the younger generation getting stuck in with Technical stuff... 73 M0BFM Liverpool UK

[@alvarogaitan2529]

terrific job Skyler and you team Awesome video 73 good luck by safe

[@MrMeasureTwice]

Hey Skyler - great video, nice explanations - looks like you all had a lot of fun putting it all together too!!

[@keithhauser8311]

Great explanation! A real hands-on experience

[@N0SSC]

Oh man, I didn't know I helped out! :D Awesome video Skyler!

[@SkylerF]

Haha you donated to our servicer monitor gofundme which we used to get the repeater on air. Had to give all you credit :P

[@WilliamHiggins0]

Well done, Skylar! I'm quite a bit older and want to do something very similar. You're an inspiration!

[@meganbennett7354]

to be honest, i came to ham radio because i thought it would be nice to talk to people and have a solid way to get/give help during emergencies... i had no idea that ham included all of this stuff and now i'm like a kid in a candy store, lol

[@seanjuth]

I really need to get my license. This looks like a hell of an experience.

[@lancelotxavier9084]

Wonderful! In my area every year we have less and less repeaters and less and less ham radio operators. Great to see someone actually installing repeaters and a young ham operator. I fear in another 20 years all the repeaters will be stored in attacks or rotting away on rooftops. The few ham operators left by then will be in their 80s.

[@jo31b]

There will be more as boomers keep retiring.

[@seanjuth]

We definitely need more videos like this!

[@matthennagersguitarlessons]

That was awesome! Mesmerized!

[@williamspicer3844]

Thanks for making this video! Very detailed and I'm sure I'll be using it to help build my 70cm IRLP Echolink Allstar Repeater here in SW Michigan. - KC8JUD

[@Breeder333]

Well put together video and great project. Nice work

[@MichaelLloyd]

Pretty cool. I was recently pass through Socorro on my way to Farmington from TX. Generally speaking I stay on the Megalink when I'm in NM but next time I'm in the area I'll try the new repeater out. 73 NE5U Mike

[@AcuraJ32]

Very well done, you are very good at this! I love how you go into great detail to explain all this...My hat is off too you!

[@w8fg]

Very good video, I enjoyed it, and want to see more

[@kodiakandgrizzlybears3787]

Excellent setup.

[@TheGreatBunghole16]

I was blown away by the way you used the music, and how detailed your video was. KI7PAZ Subscribed!

[@junito1957]

REALLY REALLY GREAT VIDEO , THANKS FOR POSTING , LOVE THE BACK GROUND MUSIC TOO WAS PERFECT!

[@HoustonR6ryda]

awesome work gentlemen

[@izacnewton5761]

great vid, keep up the good work very impressive

[@reallybadaim118]

Fantastic work man! Very impressive!

[@westondc]

Great video! Nice job

[@KCChan-jc5sx]

Is the background music by Jean Michel Jarre ? 73s de VR2UNA

[@docaliquot4189]

Great video, Skyler! I couldn't tell...are you using the RasPi "Open Repeater" hat? I'm building a low-power personal 70cm box here in Pueblo, and that's what I'm planning on using. The receiver and xmtr are homebrew, feeding 25 watts into a Comet 7.3 dBi antenna at 50' HAAT, and a MagicJack dirt-cheap autopatch. Impressive team you have there! 73 de Ted, K4TML

[@davenewmyer3735]

Great Video! Envious of the test equipment you have for setting up the equipment! :) Maybe we can link up some time on AllStar. I need to move off of a desktop to a Raspberry Pi 3. 73 n0km

[@notsure7874]

UHF can use small duplexers, I've seen a lot of commercial repeaters with it all built into a box. If you can get the programming software and cables, an older unit can be had complete for about 600 bucks. These days you can get a cheap nanoVNA to tune the duplexer - I got one to build antennas with. I've been considering doing it this way, but its kind of hard to find programming software on these older unsupported units. About 1500 gets a newer repeater with more accessible software /cables - but at that point the Pi way starts to make a lot more sense. Then again - building it is most of the fun anyway!

[@yuudai1400]

Great work, fellas! -73 de K7SAK

[@german69692007]

Very nice Video. Thanks!

[@musicman1eanda]

Are all repeaters this difficult and complex to set up?

[@africantwin173]

You should do more vids on how to Allstar configurations.

[@seanjuth]

Question: is it possible to hook it up to 220 volts? I'm not even licensed yet, but more power = more power

[@tilenc]

Great job and very well documented. GL de S56CT

[@raymondanderson285]

Can you switch the Rasberry Pi with Arduino?

[@AKELLZ08]

Great video

[@SkyCharter]

Skyler thanks for the helpful series on Allstar. Is there any reason the Allstar server component cannot be run on a traditional high rel computer running Ubuntu? I ask because we already have that in our repeater rack and it has plenty of processing power available plus an internet connection with modest speed.

[@SkylerF]

Here are some minor mistakes in the video courtesy NO6B. I don't have time to edit, so I'm just pasting his comments here: @ 4:23 you recommend LMR-400 coax cable for the antenna feed :( I STRONGLY advise that you put in the notes & add a caption to the video at that point that LMR-400 is NOT recommended. Other minor issues: This one's a nit-pick: @ 9:36 you refer to what looks like a Sinclair Q202G BpBr duplexer (or maybe it's the infamous "rat race" duplexer - can't be sure from the harness) as a "bandpass" duplexer. Technically, either way it's a band-pass/band-reject duplexer. Though rare, there are pure bandpass duplexers out there, but yours isn't one of them. @ 9:30 I see your 2 meter duplexer's harness is made with RG-213. This is copper braided, single shielded coax. At some point you'll need to have this replaced as it may very well cause desense by itself. But you're apparently not building a 2 meter repeater, just something to keep in mind if you actually put that duplexer in service. @ 13:20 you're measuring your repeater's output power with a Daiwa (amateur grade) power meter. Your E8285A has an excellent built-in power meter, but unfortunately it's upper limit is 2.5 watts. If you happen to have any power attenuators in your lab, you can put them to good use by connecting them to the RF IN/OUT connector, then entering the value of those attenuators in the E8285A's setup menu. The monitor will then take the value of those attenuators into account for all TX & RX measurements on the RF IN/OUT port. This one addition has greatly enhanced the utility of my own E8285A. That is one nice piece of test gear, & if you have access to a GPIB interface you can even write PC programs to communicate with it for automated measurements & data acquisition.

[@spaghettibender7607]

LMR400 is for low loss.

[@BlackHorseMilitia]

Outstanding

[@seanjuth]

24:04 that's the most interesting Roger beep I've ever heard

[@heathen0001]

Why did you speed up the video?

[@SteveHartmanVideos]

This is awesome and a great review on the steps required to set up a Repeater… I'm working on building one myself with allstar and once I'm ready I would love to Connect through all star and say hello.

[@ShulerBurton]

great video . thanks for the info

[@izacnewton5761]

Soon to be a major motion picture "Building a Complete Ham Radio Repeater" In theaters soon.

[@izacnewton5761]

gun fire?? 6:23

[@warspirit9488]

Great Job Guys, I've been looking for my next Ham Project and think this will be just the ticket. 73's and God Bless DE KF5INE

[@Bakhtiyarkoke]

Good job!

[@stephenjones5741]

very Well done

[@James200319]

Amazing video and great information. Thanks for the post! 73 de KC3DFR

[@NelsonReyesJr]

Great video! I was in Socorro, NM for a bomb course (law enforcement related). I visited the VLA while I was out there as well. Thanks for the great video!

[@mrwmc22]

Breaking Bad business

[@JimNicholsMotorManiaGarage]

Great job!! Thanks for sharing!! ke0eyh

[@garretthatfield6246]

Well done! KØRGH

[@soundjunky007]

Awesome video. 73 YN4LJS

[@ddull2000]

Great video. 73 de KK6JKC

[@KuldeepChoudhary]

Very informative video dear. It will surely going to help me in my upcoming repeater project, thanks 73 DE VU2ZKC

[@coreycruce]

Good job Skyler and crew. de KCØREY down in Hobbs.

[@Mbit100]

great project i gotta get a FOB and a Rpi for mine im using 2 motorola mobiles and a Celwave Flatpack

[@comedygold2288]

_forever alone_

[@w8fg]

Id think twice on LMR400 , this article is something every repeater builder should know. www.repeater-builder.com/antenna/double-shielded-coax.html

[@SkylerF]

We are using RG-217 for our antenna feed. We will upgrade to Heliax when we can afford it, but we got nice lengths of these for free, so we are trying it out. So back in the radio room 1/4 mile away, I put a rubber ducky on the service monitor, and inject the weakest signal to the repeater that will key it up. I then remotely listen to the receive audio and key/unkey the repeater transmitter. There is no difference on receive signal, so the coax does not seem to be causing us any problems *yet*.

[@olechuga2]

Great information presented, lousy (in volume) music!!

[@alanhill2399]

Good job, Skyler. It is rather ironic putting a tall antenna on top of a "lightening research" building. 73, de Alan N5BGC

[@SkylerF]

Yeah... At least we will get good lightning protection advice. This is just the school "hub", mainly just microwave links up to the Magdalena Mountain range where they fire rockets with thin copper wire trailing behind into lightning storms

[@Mulazim.]

Great work no doubt, but I prefer the simplicity to build a repeater

[@pa3crl]

Very nice!! 73 Cor pa3crl

[@minakata-rs2918]

良く分かる説明でした ありがとうございました。FB!! DE JF3PGL

[@ianlombardo9758]

reminder, "broadcasting" is a one way transmission intended for the general public. when you transmit, you are not broadcasting, you are transmitting.

[@randomnessx3597]

Planning on going to this collage my brother got accepted this year hes a tech going for his general next month his call is KI5GUF im already a general my call is KI5SNP hopefully KE5MOW soon

[@SkylerF]

Thats cool. Hope you enjoy it, I am no longer there, but there were a lot of good things tech offered in socorro. Maybe you can keep the radio club running there, it needs hams like you!

[@WoodyPhillips]

Good job BUT ... what is with the ridiculously loud background music??? Did you need background music? No! But otherwise, WELL DONE!

[@SkylerF]

Yeah it was a little much, made that vid a while back, it’s funny some people really liked the music so hard to please everyone

[@junkman2758]

Loose the background music it is too loud