OK, It's a new year. So time for a new project. I went ahead and ordered in 2 of the Baofeng UV-5Rs. (Amazon for $29 each plus shipping) They arrived yesterday as scheduled.
I've been doing lots of research in preparation for this project. So far, I've determined that this repeater will be housed in 4 inch foam-core PVC pipe. The foam-core pipe is lighter weight by about 50% than its regular counterpart. I'm estimating that it will have to be a 2 foot section to hold everything. It will be divided into 3 sections. One for each radio, and one for the batteries and support electronics. The center cavity will have a metal or mesh top and bottom to prevent RF saturation and block a certain amount of RF between the top and bottom compartments.
You might ask why I decided on this configuration. I think it actualy dates back to the mid 80's to something a business radio repair person told me when I was helping him work on a base radio at a tower site. The radio of course was in the shack, and the antenna was about 100 feet up. I stepped out the door with my HT to test, and the radio guy called out after me to expect it to not work, at least not well. When I questioned him, he told me that there is essentially a cone of silence below an antenna. And depending on how high up the antenna is, the base of that cone can extend for quite some distance. So I thought I would incorporate that into the design to help cut down on blanking and intermod since I was not planning on using any caveties with this setup.
Lots of great ideas found when doing the research. I'm looking forward to woking them into the design.
Enough for now. As the project progresses, I'll take pictures and document it.
73
Steve
KDØWSW
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