Mike,
As others have noted, receiver selectivity and transmitter cleanliness will
determine how far apart the sites need to be.
All transmitters in the system must be ID'd. Various schemes are possible, and
the FCC is not going to get so specific here so as to stifle technical
innovation. (Although it wouldn't be the first time.) The bottom line is
compliance with the rules. 97.3(6) defines automatic control as:
The use of devices and procedures for control of a station when it is
transmitting so that compliance with the FCC Rules is achieved without the
control operator being present at a control point.
If you create a kluge of a control scheme which proves unreliable in ID-ing as
required, you'll run afoul of 97.101(a), which states:
In all respects not specifically covered by FCC Rules each amateur station
must be operated in accordance with good engineering and good amateur practice.
If you ID the whole system by asking users to do it on the input, you're using
a procedure to control the sending of the system ID, which satisfies 97.3. But
on a band where propagation guarantees users not familiar with your procedure,
random noise, or users of other, distant repeaters getting into yours by
mistake, you'll end up violating the ID requirement often. I would expect to be
cited for violating 97.101 in this case.
If you use a traditional, Morse-audio ID on the outgoing link from the receive
site, it will also ID the transmit side. But you're still vulnerable to having
unidentified transmissions on the repeater output if something other than the
link gets into your link receiver, (such as intermod or intentional,
unauthorized users.)
From a practical standpoint, there's not much excuse these days for using only
one controller. It's ridiculously cheap now to put a separate, very basic
controller at the one site, and a more elaborate controller with any desired
bells whistles at the other site. Run the main controller with zero
hang-time on the link, so you can use a timeout timer on the controller at the
transmit site. The only downside to two controllers is double IDs, and there
are ways to minimize that. (Have a link ID detector at the transmit site to
reset the ID timer there; notch the audio frequency of the link ID at the
transmit site; etc.)
Or, just pick different audio frequencies so you can tell them apart, and let
all the IDs be heard. Hams used to be proud of Morse code. ;^)
73,
Paul, AE4KR
- Original Message -
From: N8FWD
To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 6:42 AM
Subject: [Repeater-Builder] 10 Meter Questions
How far apart does my TX and RX in air miles on 10 meters have to be for
a 150 watt transmitter?
Can I put a ider on the rx site and let it id through the link and through
the transmitter and be legal or do I have to Id at both sites?
Thanks Mike N8FWD
