How do repeater stations work?

[feralmerril]

Yesterday the wife and I took our quad high up on top a mountain in the boonies near us. There was about a 6 ft square concrete building. We were takeing in the 9,000 ft view, but of course it was very windy. So we got near the building for a windbreak. There was a vent and we could hear the highway patrol or a similar agency talking back and forth to the desk as clear as if we were sitting between them on the couch! I was tempted to say some wiseass remark but refrained myself. You think it would have been picked up?

 

[Wickahoney]

I doudt it. Of course if you were to enter the building ang use the microphone , then yeah it would work.

Continental Telephone the local for this little patch of souther Idaho and sout eastern Oregon has a Micro Wave repeater station up on top Wild Horse Butte at 7745 feet. Huge windmill and a big disc. On occassion if the leave stuff turned up you can here tlephone conversation but mostly you hear digital signals.

Because I spend so much tyime in the area and have pulled their maintenance man out of the mud and or snow a time or two over the years , I have a key to the door.

Inside hanging on the wall, hooked to all that "STUFF" is a regular old telphone that works just like any other telephone other than it uses the microwaves rather than a copper wire.

The tower or repeter is just on a mountain where the signal can hit and be rebroadcast and boosted down into whatever hole the police have that is/was a dead spot.

But then you already knew that. ;-)

RWT

 

[mtb1bkr]

I'm kind of shocked that they actually leave a speaker on at the repeater station. The repeater or retransmission stations we use in the Corps are usually manned as we move a lot. I would have thought an unmanned civilian station would be sealed up pretty tight with no way to snoop. I guess that since the station is way up there, there's not much concern about folks coming around and if it's a police station, then there's not much valualble info you could glean from listening in. You could have talked all you want up there. When a radio is in retransmission mode it will only transmit the stuff that is coming in over the air waves. You would have to key a mic on the system to be able to transmit.

Bill

 

[Ogandydancer]

In Amateur radio repeaters work like this; a signal comes in on one frequency and then re-transmitted on another frequency and the power is boosted. It is just like a regular radio with a speaker and Mic. Probably what happened was whoever was last to maintain it forgot to turn the speaker off when they were done.

 

[feralmerril]

I had been wanting to get in that area since we moved here 4 years ago. Finaly I met a guy, a recluse who lives in the area near it. I knew this was some realitor project selling parcels in the area. They would have you belive you are tresspassing when you arent! That is getting to be a big pet peave of mine. All over many areas people will try to "act" like they are legal and you arent. When in fact the roads or trails are built by the county or some other goverment enity. People will place no tresspassing signs in a manner that makes you think they own the road when they dont. Usualy goverment workers like forest service or blm go along with the deal! Less people in their empire! As a aside, its a small world. The nice guy had a familiar accent. I asked him his roots and we were both from the same area of wisconsin, however I am probley 35 years older. Anyway he gave me the lowdown of the road system, and it opened up a beautiful area near me, where even other locals seem to be snookered out and afraid to explore. At first I almost thought there were two people in that building no bigger than a outhouse, it was so clear! I will post a photo or two when the wife runs them off the computer. A beautifull view about 2 miles as the crow flys from my house and almost a mile higher. We already live at 6,000 ft. Seems like you can see 1/4 utah from there.