# Questions about radios



## lexsurivor (Jul 5, 2010)

Sorry if my question sounds ignorant, but I know close to nothing about radios. I plan on taking some radio classes in the future but I don't know much at all about radios so I was hoping some of y'all could help me answer a question.

My question is whether or not it would be possible to carry around small handheld radios around a farm to communicate to one another, but also have it linked so what ever was said on the handheld radio on a per-determined channel would be sent to your long range stationary radio (which is also on your farm) and then sent out like a regular message from the long range radio. Then when a signal was received by the long range radio could it be sent to the handhelds? This way you would have the long range of a ham radio with the portability of a handheld. Is this at all possible and if so what would you need to do to achieve it? Thanks for taking the time to read and answer my question.


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## DKRinAK (Nov 21, 2011)

Folks do this every day. Its called a repeater system.

The basics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_repeater

and

One place where implemented.
http://www.papasys.com/

another type of repeater system is the cell phone you carry.

Hope this helps.


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

It also depends on how long range you are talking about. As DKRinAK mentioned, repeaters do that, but it is also possible to link a handheld radio to an HF radio (via a crossband repeat function), but I'm not sure of the legalities of doing so.


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## lexsurivor (Jul 5, 2010)

Thank you for the information. It helped a lot:thankyou:.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Lex, depends a lot on distance as to what solution(s) you might want to consider. Also check out Murs (Murs-Radio.com) as with them you can also link motion sensors which can report in movement for the area they cover. I think you only get 4 zones, but it could be a way to have more "eyes" out there without needing bodies to go with the eyes. If your farm distance isn't that large, then this might be another option to consider.


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## cajunmeadows (Oct 21, 2011)

Anyone have experience with c-crain radios. Worth getting?


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

cajunmeadows said:


> Anyone have experience with C.Crane radios. Worth getting?


Like this one??
http://www.amazon.com/Crane-FMT-Digital-Transmitter-Adapter/dp/B0000E6I1N


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## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

There may be a way to Cross Band repeat for a HT to HF for long range (multi state), but I'm not aware of it. You can set up a dual band (2M/70Cm) maobile radio sith a crass band function as your base unit and use HT's to go thru that. You basically talk in on one freq and out on another. You can get this set up with a mobile rig, 2 HT's, power supply, coax, and antenna for the mobile Brand new for around $1000. It can be used from a vehicle as well. We are set up to do just this ourselves. I have used this set up to work 8-10 miles away in the hills around here. it works well.


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

bacpacker said:


> There may be a way to Cross Band repeat for a HT to HF for long range (multi state), but I'm not aware of it. _(snip)_


I believe that the Kenwood TS-2000 (for one) does have the capability for crossband repeating in any combination (VHF/UHF, HF/VHF/ or HF/UHF). There are some legalities of being a control operator for an HF rig, but it certainly can be done. It would give you the capability of using a hand held VHF/UHF radio and working HF for greater coverage. It's not cheap though, with used radios averaging probably around $1000 and up.


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