- Today on Ham Radio Q&A, you've been waiting for it,
the field test of the Retevis RT97 portable repeater.
So please keep watching for more.
(upbeat rock music)
Hi, I'm Michael, KB9VBR, your host for Ham Radio Q&A.
I'm on a mission to inspire
and educate the amateur radio community.
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Earlier in the summer, I took a look
at the Retevis RT97 portable repeater.
Thank you to Retevis for providing me a review copy
of this for these videos.
But as a recap, the RT97 portable repeater is available
as either a VHF or UHF unit and it can be ordered
with either a five megahertz or 10 megahertz offset split.
This is an FM analog repeater, has 16 memory channels,
wide or narrow band operation, CTCSS and DCS tone squelch,
and it operates between 12 and 24 volts.
It is a full duplex repeater,
but due to its compact size, you know,
you can only get either a five or a 10 megahertz split.
And Retevis will program the frequencies
into the unit for you, so they can tune that duplexer.
Please watch my first video on the RT97
for more information on the specs and the operation
and some of the pros and cons of this repeater.
For this video, I'm gonna set it up
and do some field testing on it.
See what kinda distance we can get
using just a handheld radio.
To test the repeater,
I set up a parrot station using a laptop computer
running an application called Echostation.
And then also connecting it, a small UHF handheld radio,
and then the BTech APRS cable.
The Echostation is a simple Windows application
that can function as a repeater controller,
announcement machine, or a simplex repeater.
And links for all these items are
in the video description below
if you want to check out any of 'em.
But I'll be using it as a simplex repeater
so I can hear the quality of my own transmissions
as I travel around the area.
Now normally Echostation will control the radios
using the serial port, but to simplify things,
I just put the radio on VOX control.
You know, its not the best solution
as there's some clipping of the transmissions,
you know, but it's good enough for this test.
So let's go outside and give the Retevis RT97 a workout.
I'm out here at Reservoir Park.
It's one of the highest points in the city of Wausau.
And this park gets its name
from the water tank that's behind me here.
It's also a great place for a repeater site.
And there's a couple repeaters up here already.
One for the police department and another for public works.
So I thought this would be a great location
to test the Retevis RT97 portable repeater.
I've got the repeater in the car
and it's connected to my dual-band mobile whip antenna
on the back end of the car here.
This is the Comet SBB-7, a high-gain whip
on a UHF so it should work great for the test.
So, I'm gonna get on the bike and tool around town
and let's see what kinda range we can expect.
(upbeat music)
- We're at River Lake Park.
This is about one mile away from the repeater site.
KB9VBR, KB9VBR, testing, one two three four five.
(audio repeating through radio) KB9VBR testing
one two three four five.
Audio quality sounds good, full scale about a mile away.
(upbeat music)
Okay second stop this is about two and a half miles
from the repeater site.
We're at the downtown municipal airport.
A little bit further away.
We've got some trees and houses around here.
We'll see what we can get.
KB9VBR, KB9VBR testing, one two three four five.
(audio repeating through radio) KB9VBR testing
one two three four five, Wausau Downtown Airport.
Signal is definitely noisier here.
Not as strong as it was at the first spot.
Let's go to mile four and see what that sounds like.
(upbeat music)
All right, we're at the four mile point.
So let's do another test and see how the repeater sounds.
KB9VBR testing KB9VBR testing one two three four five.
We're at the Schofield Dam.
(audio repeating through radio) Testing KB9VBR testing
one two three four five.
We're at the Schofield Dam.
(wind gusts) Still a little bit of noisy.
Still you know fully readable.
You can understand everything,
but definitely not a full quieting signal.
Let's bike out to six miles and see
what it sounds like from there.
(upbeat music)
All right we're at the
six mile point at the hospital.
I think we're in Weston.
And let's give the repeater another test.
KB9VBR testing KB9VBR testing one two three four five.
Weston St. Clare Hospital.
(audio repeating through radio) Testing KB9VBR testing
one two three four five.
Weston St. Clare Hospital.
Okay that was still pretty good transmission
at six miles out.
Still a little bit noisy.
I think that's with the antenna
that I'm using over at the repeater site.
It's probably the reason why.
But otherwise, good copy at six miles out.
So let's try seven miles.
That will be at the southernmost edge of town.
(upbeat music)
We are seven miles away from the repeater site.
It's as far south as I'm gonna go today.
And let's give her another test!
KB9VBR KB9VBR testing one two three four five.
Cedar Creek and Kronenwetter.
(audio repeating through radio) KB9VBR testing
one two three four five.
Cedar Creek and Kronenwetter.
Okay two test transmissions there.
The first one had a lot of dropouts.
The second one I had a lot of hash noise.
If I reorient myself a little bit,
I might be able to get a stronger signal.
But I think we're pretty much
at the limit here about seven miles.
You could probably squeeze out eight
if it's a good clear spot, but I'm gonna call it quits.
I think it's a very successful test.
Each time we had readable copy, mostly clear.
As we got towards the end, you could hear more
of that hash noise, but also remember too
that you know that the parrot's gonna pick
up some noise and retransmit it back.
So it's gonna double the amount of noise I would get
if it was an actual person-to-person repeater contact.
So kinda keep that in mind.
But otherwise I think the test went very well
and now I gotta bike back home.
And now a little bit from my impressions
on the RT97 portable repeater.
You know I was really surprised
by the distance I was able to get
with using just a handheld radio
and the mobile whip antenna on the car.
You know things, the first couple transmissions
at the one mile and the two mile,
you know, they sound reasonably good.
As I got at four and six miles,
I could definitely tell that there's more hash
and noise in the signal.
And finally you know the seven mile,
that was really kinda stretching rubber band to its limits.
And one thing to really consider though,
you know, if you're testing a repeater
or simplex communications is it's really dependent
upon three things, you know, your antenna height and gain,
repeater output power,
and then of course, your local terrain.
And I was able to park my car you know
in a fairly high spot.
So we had really good coverage around the city.
And you know the city's kind of in a bowl shape
'cause we're in a river valley.
So I think that, you know, that kinda helped out
with the initial tests as I was closer in
and really in low spots.
But as I got a little bit further out,
you had a little bit more of hills
and other obstructions that started
to kind of affect the quality of my signal.
And you could kind of tell that
as you listened to the transmissions come back
to you from the Echostation parrot.
But all in all, you know, I was really impressed
by its range, seven miles isn't bad.
It kinda covers the whole city,
especially for a 10 watt repeater.
If I was to put up a little bit higher antenna,
you know, put the antenna up a little bit higher,
use a little bit higher gain antenna
and not the whip on the car,
I think we probably could've got
a little bit better distance.
Of course if I was using the mobile radio
to test things out, you know,
then the distance would be greater, too.
But you know, I think with a 10 watt repeater,
the best, you know, the most accurate real-world test is
gonna be using a five watt handheld radio.
You're gonna be kinda lopsided using a mobile radio
to test a 10 watt repeater.
But all in all, like I said, I was impressed.
And I think you know this is a great choice
for communication groups, emergency communication teams
that are looking for a portable repeater,
an event repeater, you know something you can stick up fast
and just hand out radios or have people
with that frequency programmed in.
And then you've got your own repeater
for the event or the other, or a disaster situation,
or whatever else you wanted to use it for.
So with that in mind, I think it's a great tool
for that purpose.
Do you have any questions or comments
on the Retevis RT97 repeater?
I'd love to hear them.
You can leave in the video comments below.
I'll filter through those, answer 'em the best I can
and also maybe I'll pick a few
for my next your questions answered video.
For more articles and information,
be sure to check out my blog at www.jpole-antenna.com.
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Number one, give me that big thumbs up.
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Well, that's it for this time.
I'm Michael, KB9VBR, have a great day and 73!
(upbeat rock music)