Question About Repeaters

[BubbaDX]

Warning! You are about to read a stupid beginner question...

I have been playing with my FT-8900R and listening to a few local repeaters. So far I have about 70 programmed into my transceiver. Tonight I was listening to a conversation on a 2 meter channel while scanning 2 meter and 70cm with the other side of my radio. I happened across the same conversation on a 70 cm channel and was kind of surprised. Is this common?

 

[W5LZ]

It's not all that common, but it isn't super rare either. It's a lot more common now than it was a few years ago, there are just more radios that can do that cross-banding now. Or, since it sounds like you were hearing both sides of the conversation, it was a cross-band repeater, also more common now because of more radios capable of both bands in the same 'box', so to speak. Or, a repeater on one band linked to a repeater on the other band, for whatever reason. Getting to sound a little 'odd' yet? Why do people do all that? Basically because they can. There are a few good reasons for doing all that sort of cross-banding, most of the other reasons fall into that "cuz I can" thingy. When you get to where you can really understand all of this stuff, you will be certifiably 'nutz' and should seek medical help. I've found an 'over the counter' remedy, called beer...
- 'Doc

 

[regencycb]

Warning! You are about to read a stupid beginner question...

I have been playing with my FT-8900R and listening to a few local repeaters. So far I have about 70 programmed into my transceiver. Tonight I was listening to a conversation on a 2 meter channel while scanning 2 meter and 70cm with the other side of my radio. I happened across the same conversation on a 70 cm channel and was kind of surprised. Is thicommon

Yes quite common many different bands may be linked and carry the same traffic. Where are you located ?

RCB

 

[BubbaDX]

Thanks for the replies. I am just south of St. Louis, MO. I know there are a couple different linked repeaters around, but I was not expecting to find them crossing bands. There is a lot to learn in this hobby and the more I learn the less I think I understand.

 

[Pigshanks]

Down in my little corner of Alberta, a local club has a nice vhf machine about 30 miles south of town, 3600' elevation which is about 1500' above the surrounding area. This machine call really talk far, but it is hit and miss in the river valley that much of the city is sitting in. The club has another vhf repeater sitting on the top of the river ridge on the eastern outskirts of the city to cover the valley. Now there is coverage over a large chunk of southeatern alberts with a handheld on .5watts. But still not happy because some had only uhf handheld, the put up a uhf repeater on the ridge with the vhf repeater. So now we have 8 frequencies tied up when you key up any one of these machines, and all this in the name of "BECAUSE WE CAN". Oh and the joy it brings when one of the machines starts to act up and the control op is nowhere to be found!:headbang

 

[WX2MIG]

Sometimes it's done for a good reason too....

In my area we have the BEARS System, it's a variety of 2 meter, and 440 repeaters. Some are linked all the time, and some are not. Once a week we have a Skywarn training net for the entire Philadelphia / Mt. Holly district that covers parts of Maryland, all of Delaware, 95% of New Jersey, and eastern Penn. They link the entire system so everybody within that wide spread area can check-in. They also do this during area wide severe weather events like hurricanes. This system also includes a few APRS repeaters, and Echo Link connections.

Pretty much the same thing can be done with D-Star repeaters, but they are connected via the internet through gateways or reflectors.

 

[KingCobra_CDX882]

Yes it is Quite common..
as explained above by others

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

It may have been a linked repeater or it may have been the UHF link itself that connects two repeaters.

 

[ian van]

this happened to me once.