Retevis RT97 UHF Portable Repeater - Ham Radio Q&A

The Retevis RT97 is a UHF portable repeater with full duplex capabilities and 10 watts of output power. The RT97 is an all in one solution that gives you a portable repeater in a rugged, small package.

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Colophon:

[pupdaddymail]

It's now FCC approved for part 95 (GMRS) now that the in/out was corrected. The output now says 10 watts, but after testing a few times with different equipment I found the output is actually about 4.5 watts. It still gets pretty good range with a good antenna.

[olafelsberry]

KB9VBR I really appreciate your passion for two-way communications

[WBBRA]

Hi, WB8BRA here. Nice video. I built a 1 watt repeater on VHF with no duplexes but two 3 db gain antennas separated by 10 or 12 feet. The tower height was 80 feet. It was a permanent system or a portable system we used. I constructed the metal boxes and it was about 5 inches high, 14 inches long and 11 inches wide. I got the VHF engineering boards from this old company and put it all together. Timers, IDer, and etc, This repeater covered Shiawassee County here in Michigan very well. It was used for about two years, I got a 5 watts repeater with duplexes later, as permanent system then only used as a portable system. I also had a UHF system that I built with control circuits autopatch and etc. Of course this was back in the late 60's. My first repeater call was WR8REG since the FCC said you had to have a WR call for repeaters. The first FCC rules back then really sucked, and then they changed them later so I could us my own call. As you would say, I home brewed my own. Damn I loved this stuff and leaned a lot. Now we use what we call Rice Boxes.;;;;

[TimonSuricata]

you could fix that freq reverse problem in the software, just flip the freqs, u may need to switch the cables on the duplexer but should be fine.

[kdyou]

I wonder if it would be possible to wire an ID-8 id'er to the transmit side to at least make the repeater fulfill the identification requirements.

[robertmeyer]

nice small repeater .I can say their is a GMRS version. RT97G . is pre set for the GMRS 8 repeater channels. you have to pick one when ordering. Their is a version with mic/spearer port allowing to use repeater locally as base. also allows ID unit to be installed. tunning duplexer is not hard with spectrum analyzer with sweep gen . also a good VNA can do it. the rated power on that is at the transmitter before the duplexer. so will be some loss an power at antenna. can program threw PC with programming cable. will run on 12/24 volt LiFePO4 battery just fine with solar. I set one up on GMRS that way. with low power need to use good coax for UHF . like 10 MM M & P copper foil copper braid coax. like hyper flex 10 . and keep length short. . also a high location is best with out large buildings or hills in way. UHF is line of cite. 73's

[daveNMXX]

Really nice video...amazing that they can make a uhf repeater so small!

[jesseperkins]

So could you put a linear amplifier in line with this and boost your output power?

[aprilk]

Quick tip

In order to avoid damaging the contents of your package, place your index finger along the back of the blade close to the tip. Your finger will stop the blade from over penetration into the package.

[spakkajack]

i use cross band with 2 radios using vox. very simple. im sure most serious hams have have dozens of radios which are gathering dust.

[ryantoomey]

For remote control you could probably use a DTMF decoder connected to an electro-mechanical relay with the repeater power supply wired through the relay contacts, then you would need to hook the DTMF decoder to a separate receiver on a different frequency, then if you need to shut down the repeater in an emergency, you could then use a handheld radio (provided you are within range of the repeater) on the separate control frequency and press the required DTMF keys which would open the relay and cut the power to the repeater.
A much simpler option would be to plug the repeater power supply into a "smart plug" and then you could power the repeater on and off using a smartphone, but this would only work as long as the control operator (you) and the repeater site both have access to an internet connection.
For identification, you could setup a separate transmitter within range of the repeater hooked up to an automatic keyer on a 10-minute timer.

[DonHavjuan]

A Leixen UV-25D is a 20w full standalone cross-band (if you want) 2m/70cm repeater with its own battery, full local control just like a HT (which it is, and you can use it as one) for about $150, and it's smaller. For $50 you can hook two UV5Rs together with a cable.

[johnmartin]

Thanks Michael, looks like a rugged unit👍

[grigorirasputin]

Sounds like a good unit except for the crummy reverse pair restriction it was designed with. Hopefully Retevis will correct this problem in the near future. Thanks for the helpful review!

[donaldsmith]

I can see where this would be nice to have in emergency use for local area search and many other things. Also with the low power needed it would be great in a small airplane for search and rescue! 10 watts at 5000 feet would have a very good coverage! It would be nice to be able to change the input and output frequencies, but thinking that this could be used to pick up hand held radio to send to repeater input. Most hand held radio can hear repeaters but can't get back to them. I may be able to think of other things it can be used for after having some time to think about it.

[Ellarian_Liara]

you could set a timed with activity sensor radio separate from it to play a recording every 10 minutes the repeater was active

[schnitznschnatzn]

In your video you can see that the transmitter connects to "high" and the receiver to "low" on the duplexer. Any chance you can try swapping them around, so that the uplink is the high frequency and transmit is the lower frequency?

[This_Month_In_History]

Did you ever figure out out to setup automatic id'ing for a full time repeater?

[ivanmendoza]

If you hook up a BTECH AMP-U25 you can go from 4.99W out put to 20-40W out put

[bobbybeta]

If this is not legal for GMRS, then where can we purchase a GMRS repeater?