Hi Lou, I'll throw out my wishes for you to have fun and enjoy building a repeater, but I'll also throw up in the air my usual comment to all budding repeater-builder type folks...
Find a local club that needs help. There's ALWAYS someone locally that needs help with an existing repeater or system! (Or move to Denver, we'll put you to work!!) Repeaters need maintenance, not a lot, if they're built right, but there's always "something" to be done/checked every year or so. And every few years, you might have some tower/antenna work to do, and every few other years maybe some measurements to take critically with good test gear to see if the repeater is still performing to baseline specifications that you measured a few years before that... and... things fail... or get blown up by lightning... Well, the list goes on and on... it never stops, really. After you get picky about audio you can start obsessing about that, and come up with a project list twice as long and difficult as the "just get it on the air and working" list! There's always something to analyze, think about, and try to make better... without making it worse. Many clubs/organizations are short of qualified folks to work on their systems. There's lots of "radio operators" out there, happy to use the systems, but the number of techs who'll work on them -- it is a very small group of people in most populated areas. In rural areas, you really might find 3-4 people total who REALLY do repeaters right. (Hint: Pick repeaters in your area that seem to have better performance than others in the area and then look up the callsign. Find out who owns/operates it and approach those people. FIND THOSE techs... they "did it right".) If you read up on EVERYTHING you find at the Repeater-Builder website about your club/local organization's repeaters, and all the general information there -- and there's a LOT!... Then start asking around to find out who the REAL repeater techs are in your local organizations (hint: it's not always who talks about it the most on the air!), you'll probably find some of the best people you've ever met in Ham Radio. Try to meet a few people that do this stuff... get a feel for the local "community" of repeater builders. Many people think the folks in charge of certain clubs don't work with other clubs in the area, and often -- although not always -- this isn't true. Most of the folks doing this stuff do know and work with each other on problems, even if their clubs "compete". Many repeater builder types are willing to Elmer new folks along in return for some help on their systems. NOT ALL are, though -- some are crotchety old grumpy coots who won't talk to anyone. Don't worry about it, all aspects of this hobby have both types. (GRIN) And their biggest "turn-off" will be if you show up once, and never come back. Make a commitment to stick around for a while, you'll learn some interesting things. Repeaters are fairly different from many types of Amateur Radio... a "specialty" if you will, within the hobby. And can be quite challenging to get "right". Showing someone the ropes kinda requires a commitment from both sides that is a little notch above this just being a "hobby". Especially if a lot of folks are counting on a particular repeater or repeater system. Okay, off the soap box... plenty of well-wishers here, and folks who'll answer questions. Off ya go! Find a repeater that needs fixing! (By the way, no harm done building a typical "back-yard" repeater to do some learning. Hopefully your area has some frequency pairs set aside for "experimentation" and/or "non-protected" use. Those are a great open "playground" where you can learn a lot, and not have to deal with coordinating the repeater at first... just be courteous to others also using those pairs, if your area has them.) Nate WY0X
