Notice: Without an appropriate radio license, repeaters are illegal to deploy in the UK at the current time. The use of parrot repeaters on PMR and CB is a grey area. In theory if uplink and downlink are on the same frequency it does not infringe the license conditions. I have formally contacted Ofcom for clarification about this, but they have failed to respond. So in the absence of clarification assume current use to be illegal.
A 'guerrilla repeater' is a low powered repeater system using either a simplex (parrot) repeater box ( see video #2) connected to either a transceiver. The transceiver can be PMR, Ham, UV5R,CB, or anything else you wish. Configuring the system with a UV5r/PMR makes a very small bundle. Place this in a waterproof box, with a rechargeable battery and charge controller fed from a PV cell attached to the outside of the box to create a self-contained, self-powered unit that can be deployed onto the roof of a tower block, in a church tower, on a hill top etc etc.
Its guerrilla because deployment is clandestine and with out consent of anyone. Obviously the unit needs to be well hidden, but in direct sunlight in order to be stand alone functional but without attracting attention.
We use the Radio tone simplex repeater unit. This records audio from the transceiver, stores it for a short time and then retransmits it to the audio in(mike) connector of the transceiver, which re-transmits the message. Its known as a parrot repeater because it effectively parrots whatever it hears. Uplink and downlink can be on the same or differing frequencies. Indeed you could even uplink using a PMR and then downlink on CB if you wished…. But I can see no application for doing this.
It is possible to create a real-time repeater using back to back PMRs or any other hand held transmitters. I covered this in an earlier thread, video #3 is a good description of how to do this.
Privacy vs open access: A repeater can be set up with open access so that anyone at all can use it. This would be appropriate for a community communications project. It can also be set up for semi private use by employing wide spaced uplink and downlink frequencies and CTCSS/DCS coded transmissions. The Radio Tone Simplex unit is able to be turned on and off using DTMF codes sent from a remote transmitter, so can be activated and deactivated at will from a remote location.
Links:
Simplex repeater in operation ( London)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTRizAhBFuQ
Simplex repeater product and setup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNCn3zXFQ0
A back to back real time repeater using two UV5rs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KrH86Dzhnc
Update
A bit of muddle-engineering for a waterproof repeater housing, made from a 1 gal paint tin
Neat idea, and easily painted for camo.
Using a metal tin means that an external antenna is needed though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REocFY78Pyg
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