TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY ARES MEMBERS (OFFICIAL)
ALL ARES AND NON-ARES AMATEURS ANYWHERE (INFORMATION)
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM ARRL DISTRICT 3 EMERGENCY COORDINATOR
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INC.
WOOD COUNTY BULLETIN NR 17.16 DATE: April 16, 2017
SUBJECT: WHAT IS CROSS BAND REPEAT?
Cross Band Repeat is a way to receive on one band such as 2 Meters and transmit on another, such as the 440 band. Cross band repeat can be used to extend the range of a hand held radio. Public Safety operators such as Police use it a lot. They can leave their vehicle carrying a low power hand held radio on one band, and relay their information through their vehicle at a higher power on another band.
It's possible to do the same thing on the Amateur bands. Some dual band hand held, and mobile radios have the ability to do Cross Band Repeat. Not all dual band or triband radios will do it. The radio needs to be designed for that function. Radios that have the Cross Band Repeat feature can be an asset in emergency communications. A Dual Band Cross Band radio can be used as a remote receiver in an area where the radio coverage is limited. It can be tied into a High Profile repeater and re-transmit it's transmissions.
Using two Dual Band Cross Band radios can be turned into an emergency repeater, where no repeaters are available. One radio can be set up to receive on one band, such as 2 meters, and transmit on another band, such as 440, which is called a Link Frequency. The second radio would be set up as a transmitter, which transmits on the paired frequency of the 2 meter input frequency. The receiver of the second radio would receive on the Link Frequency, and transmit on the 2 meter paired frequency. Since there will be no controller on such a set up, there would be no identifier and no repeater tail. What ever audio goes into the 2 meter receiver goes out on the paired 2 meter frequency. It might take a little getting use to, but in an emergency you can extend you communication range.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV