[Anonymous / Deleted User]

I just discovered this project and I’m excited to get started! My goal (for the moment) is to create a repeater at my house that allows me to use my HT anywhere on my property while my base station is connected to my big antenna. This project looks like the perfect solution, so my question is, what to buy? I see there is hardware listed but I had a few questions before I purchase anything.

RADIOS
It looks like I need to have two radios for the repeater and plan to use two existing HTs.

SBC
I’ll be getting a RPi 2 unless you suggest otherwise.

DIGIPEATER
Based on the picture on the Hardware page it looks like I’ll need an EasyDigi to interface the radios. Do I need two of these, one for the TX radio and one for the RX radio? On their EasyDigi site I see there is a model that I can get for about $10 that just has be assembled. Will that model work, or should I get a different one?

USB SOUNDCARDS
I see two listed, is one recommended over the other? Do I need two of them?

TTL
Any documentation on this? I’m not sure what it is or how to install it.

Sorry for all of the questions, but I don’t see this anywhere else (if it does exist, please let me know). I’m happy to write a step by step setup guide if one doesn’t exist, assuming I get this going.

Thank you for the awesome project!

[Aaron, N3MBH]

I will see what I can answer at the time, but I have some questions for you about your use. If you want to extend your coverage from your property…being able to roam around with an HT and have your base retransmit at higher power, why not just use a base/mobile rig that has a cross-band repeat function in it? You won’t need all the bells and whistles if that’s your intent. Don’t get me wrong I am excited to have you interested in the project, but I am just wondering if it is too much for your needs.

If you do want to go this route I would recommend doing a one-way cross band repeater setup. In other words, you would receive on one band (i.e 70cm) and transmit on another (i.e. 2M). This would eliminate having to have duplexers/cans/filters to be able to achieve same band repeat. You’d just set your handheld up to transmit on 70cm to your one-way cross band repeater, then listen straight to the repeaters output that you are repeating to.

As far as the easy digi, you should need only one as it has two channels on it. Make sure that you don’t get the VOX model. You want one with the optocoupler on it to handle your PTT on the TX side. On the RX side you will probably need to mod that radio and add a COS output to it and do some simple interface circuitry to the COS gpio pin.

Don’t worry about the TTL adapter, you don’t really need that. It’s just another way to connect to the board..instead of network/ssh or a monitor/keyboard.

As for the RPI, you will probably be OK getting a RPI 3 if you want. The current build doesn’t support it just yet, but I just got my RPI 3 in and I am working on rebuilding the 1.1.0 release to work on both. The next release will be a little ways off. But if you are planning to use it around your property, one of the new features will be relay control, so that would be an advantage of going this route if you wanted to control things around your property with DTMF tones.

Hope this is of help.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

OpenRepeater is offered free of charge. Find out how you can support us.

[Anonymous / Deleted User]

Thank you for the information! I will order the RPi 3 then and get the proper Easy Digi. Great to hear that you’re adding the relay controls to this system. That will be perfect!
Good advice on the cross band repeating. I will have to have the radio not connected to the big antenna set to the other band, and being the link to my HT. Unfortunately, the HT cannot hit or receive from the repeaters I’m trying to use, so it’ll all have to go to my OpenRepeater.

Thank you again for the help!

[Aaron, N3MBH]

I’m not sure that I completely follow. If your HT cannot receive the distant repeater and your base can, I am not certain how ORP will function in your setup. A standard Mobile/Base rig with cross band functionality would probably be your best bet. Those are bidirectional capable for that purpose where ORP is unidirectional. Hope that makes sense. You are certainly welcome to experiment as that is part of the fun of Ham Radio.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

OpenRepeater is offered free of charge. Find out how you can support us.

[Anonymous / Deleted User]

Ahhhh, OK, I see what you mean. I though I could basically create a cross band repeater system with this system and two base station radios. Any chance I could have this system mimic a bidirectional cross band system? Even if I needed to get another sound card/Easy Digi, that would be fun to create.
Or am I just barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks again, Aaron for the great explanation!

[Aaron, N3MBH]

I would recommend the radio with the built in crossband repeater if I was trying to do what you were doing. You may be able to do something with a link radio (second port). But that’s not officially supported in ORP just yet, but SVXLink (the core code) supports it. You’d just have to do some customizations to the code.

Also I just wanted to let you know that the current build (1.1.0) has been updated to be compatible with the Raspberry Pi 3 as well as the RPI2. You can find this on our downloads page. Other than that nothing has change in the build…same version of ORP. Stay tune for a later announcement of our next release we are currently working on.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

OpenRepeater is offered free of charge. Find out how you can support us.

[Anonymous / Deleted User]

Aaron-
You rock, sir! Downloading it now…
I’m glad to finally have my RPi. The soundcard and Easy Digi should be here soon, too. I’ve been reading the man pages for SVXLink and I’m optimistic that I’ll get some of this working, perhaps all of it giving enough time.
Thank you for all of your work!!!!

[Chris, N4VDR]

I was reading through this post because it interests me. I am interested in a full cross band repeat. The 2 bands I want to cross, I have not been able to locate a rig that offers the mode and the bands I want to use.

Would it even be possible to accomplish this task (full cross band) with this hardware and software?

[Aaron, N3MBH]

vader7071,
Yes and no. You would need to ports, basically double everything including two rx and two tx radios on the respective bands. As the software is right now, you would need to hack it to your needs. You will need to read into svxlink config and follow the knowledge base article about doing so. So I guess it’s a matter of how savvy you are. Hope that helps.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

OpenRepeater is offered free of charge. Find out how you can support us.

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