Not fancy but when all is said and done I will have about $250 in it. I will have to buy the duplexer and the battery.
#Kenwood tk 880 repeater free#
So far almost all the parts (including the radios) have been free with the exception of the controller that I bought new as a kit. I'm going to use several small 12v solar panels (harbor freight) wired in parallel to keep the battery charged. This will be the heaviest part of the whole set up and the reason I'm using a case with wheels. Power will be provided by a 50 Ah sealed led acid battery for electric wheelchairs. They will be mounted in a large pelican case (with wheels) and I'll be using a mobile NMO antenna on a 30' fiberglass mast. I am using two Kenwood TK-880's that I got for free, an ID-O-Matic III controller that I'm building myself and one of those Chinese duplexers. In Texas there are specific repeater pairs set up for this application and they require encode/decode to keep from interfering with each other.
#Kenwood tk 880 repeater portable#
I'm working on this exact same project right now and I found some interesting information regarding portable repeaters. reasonable 5MHz split duplexers are about the size of an old-fashioned Webster's dictionary. you could also use two different radios separated by some distance (perhaps 500 feet or more), with just the audio carried between the two (via a roll of twisted pair (CAT5 LAN cable or similar)).Īs noted above, 70cm affords some easier methods of duplexing because of the wide 5MHz offset. use the best coax possible for this setup as the TX cable has to pass right by the RX antenna RG58 isn't going to cut it here.
![kenwood tk 880 repeater kenwood tk 880 repeater](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/BggAAOSwuplg-ZCb/s-l300.jpg)
this provides some degree of isolation, will it be enough is the question. you can also separate the TX and RX antennas, for example using a single mast with the (vertically oriented dipole) TX antenna about 40-50 feet directly above the RX antenna. If you can increase the TX/RX offset (which for SHTF could be fine) you can get away with less complex filtering. and they don't want to be moved around much or you'll end up detuning them. there is no easy/good way to "fold up" a mechanical cavity filter, so what you end up with is a duplexer the size of a set of 4 typical gas welding tanks. Yup - the problem in the amateur 2m band is that the "standard" repeater TX/RX frequencies are all but on top of each other, and getting sufficient isolation (specifically, selectivity/stop band attenuation) when they are that close requires a hella steep filtering setup - in this case, mechanical cavity filters. Once again, not the best, but I have all the stuff I need to make this way work so it would be what I would use if I had to.
![kenwood tk 880 repeater kenwood tk 880 repeater](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71qtx8JP9DL._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
Set your HT/mobile to RX 146.970 and TX 146.370 and talk away. Your only limit is the TX range of the 70cm signal. Place antennas far enough apart to avoid interfering with each other on 2m. Radio "B" is set to RX on the 70cm freq radio "A" TX's on (Ex. Radio "A" is set to RX on 2m input freq (Ex.
![kenwood tk 880 repeater kenwood tk 880 repeater](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AwBpbWtAT0E/mqdefault.jpg)
This setup requires 2 radios that can crossband repeat, 2 power sources/batteries, and 2 antenna systems. One method I have tried is to have two radios Xband repeat separated by a good distance so they don't interfere with each other on 2m. On top of that, you still need the repeater so it's not the best setup out there for remote operations. They are about six inches in diameter and around 2 feet long very light, but bulky. To the USA amateur radio UHF (70 cm) allocation.I have a few VHF cavities that came from a local agency when they switched to 800Mhz. Not all of these models can be easily converted (frequency agility) This saves you having to enter in the complete FCC ID number at the website. You have to LOOK at the TK-880 product sticker, to determine which UHF Radio Type you have.Īs well as version (thete is a Version 2.0).Ī quick method to determine what Type radio you have (1, 2, or 3, also referred to as K, K2, and K3) is to look at the FCC ID number on the back, the LAST 3 Digits should be 110 (Type 1), 120 (Type 2), and 130 for a Type 3. Repeater Builders TIP has information on Kenwood LMR.