Poor mans repeater

[JoJo]

 I know absolutely nothing about Ham radios but i saw a video that might interest those who do.

http://1776patriotusa.com/shtf-communications-homemade-simplex-repeater/

[Jackalope]

I've built a couple of simplex repeaters.  Actually, Radio Shack use to sell a simplex repeater box, and they pop up on eBay once in a while.  The one that I have now uses a old Icom IC-2A as the transceiver.  Everything fits into an ammo can.  A NMO mount quarter wave whip antenna was mounted on the top, and the box itself serves as the ground plane.  I mounted a 10 watt solar panel on the side and a SLA battery provides the power for the repeater.  It could be left unattended on a mountain top and provide regional communications.  I may end up replacing the IC-2A with an ID-51A, since that would give me a simplex D-star repeater.

[pkveazey]

Those recorder type repeaters were terrible. They will work, but 2 $30 BaoFeng UV5R's will work as a crossband repeater with just a cord connection between them and the transmit side set to VOX. I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of those diagrams on YouTube.

[JohnyMac]

A buddy of mine bought a repeater at the Horseheads, NY hamfest.

It consisted of a small lunch box/ cooler, a Baofeng HT, a lithium battery a short length of coax attached to a homebrew 2 meter antenna, and on top of the lunch box was a ¬ 10" x 10"  solar panel. The solar Panel could be disconnected from the box and positioned to scan the south.

His plan is to put it on top of one of the many mountains around here. The channel will probably be set to a marine channel.

Anyway, once could build one for easily under $100-. If you don't have a few mountains in your AO, make a couple and place in friends attics around your AO for emergencies.

Great post JoJo!