Repeater: Is anyone going to buy the President Washington to use it for the "relay" function?

[Big Kahuna]

Pretty interesting to see this feature included.

AUTOMATIC RELAY This function turns your PRESIDENT WASHINGTON into an automatic relay point. Once set up, your radio will automatically transmit the message received on the RX reception channel to the TX transmission channel. The duration of the message is limited to 5 minutes. When the function is active, your radio is locked. To unlock it, see the LOCK function on page 10. If there is a power cut, your radio will resume its configuration and the AUTOMATIC RELAY function will remain active.

https://president-electronics.com/cache/documents/product/washingtonenv0.23advanceduserguide-768.pdf

 

[BC Coyote]

It's a cool feature, but I'm not sure how useful it is in the real world......
In 40 something years on the radio only a couple times have I ever said to myself "damn! I wish I had a repeater right now!". That said, I can see how it might be useful in certain geographical circumstances such as where an operator lives in a deep valley surrounded by high hills or ridges. A repeater up on one of those hills would sure be nice to have in that situation !

The downside ? I think the concept of having to have the people you're talking to on two or more different channels (depending on whether they are a direct contact or thru the repeater) is going to be hard for a lot of CB'ers to grasp.

Then there's the additional cost of more radio gear. You have your base setup, and your mobile setup each with antennas, and now you also have to buy ANOTHER radio to be a repeater up in a high place, and IT needs an antenna too! Many folks can barely afford one radio........

And on top of all that you need somewhere to house the repeater. If you have a buddy that lives on top of one of your nearby hills you're in luck, otherwise it's a big problem (no power, no infrastructure etc.)!

I wonder why this idea wasn't implemented as a simplex CB repeater such as they have in Europe & Russia. Instead of rx on one channel and tx on another, it receives a signal and then retransmits it on the SAME channel. Makes it all a lot simpler as there is only one channel in use.

 

[Pez]

It's a cool feature, but I'm not sure how useful it is in the real world......
In 40 something years on the radio only a couple times have I ever said to myself "damn! I wish I had a repeater right now!". That said, I can see how it might be useful in certain geographical circumstances such as where an operator lives in a deep valley surrounded by high hills or ridges. A repeater up on one of those hills would sure be nice to have in that situation !

The downside ? I think the concept of having to have the people you're talking to on two or more different channels (depending on whether they are a direct contact or thru the repeater) is going to be hard for a lot of CB'ers to grasp.

Then there's the additional cost of more radio gear. You have your base setup, and your mobile setup each with antennas, and now you also have to buy ANOTHER radio to be a repeater up in a high place, and IT needs an antenna too! Many folks can barely afford one radio........

And on top of all that you need somewhere to house the repeater. If you have a buddy that lives on top of one of your nearby hills you're in luck, otherwise it's a big problem (no power, no infrastructure etc.)!

I wonder why this idea wasn't implemented as a simplex CB repeater such as they have in Europe & Russia. Instead of rx on one channel and tx on another, it receives a signal and then retransmits it on the SAME channel. Makes it all a lot simpler as there is only one channel in use.

I don't have one to test, but from what I can tell, it IS a simplex (parrot) repeater as you mentioned, but with the added ability to select a SPLIT / Offset - if you choose too. (It will not run in full duplex like a traditional "repeater" does.)

From the manual:

To activate the AUTOMATIC RELAY function, you must first :
- be in FM mode (see § MODE page 7)- select the RX channel. (see § CHANNEL SELECTOR page 7)
- have set a CTCSS/DCS code - in RX mandatory.(see § CODE SET page 15)
- have activated the CTCSS/DCS function (see § CTCSS/DCS page 8)
- If necessary, have configured a frequency offset using the SPLIT function(REPEATER). (see § SPLIT page16)

I am definitely interested to see one in action.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

It will be great when the DX starts rolling in. It will repeat the DX five minutes at a time.

 

[Pez]

It will be great when the DX starts rolling in. It will repeat the DX five minutes at a time.

If they (the DX stations) are in FM mode and they have the correct CTCSS tone, then yes. But in practice, it's not that likely. I have run a few repeaters in my time and that has never been a problem, but never say never!

 

[BC Coyote]

To activate the AUTOMATIC RELAY function, you must first :
- be in FM mode (see § MODE page 7)- select the RX channel. (see § CHANNEL SELECTOR page 7)
- have set a CTCSS/DCS code - in RX mandatory.(see § CODE SET page 15)
- have activated the CTCSS/DCS function (see § CTCSS/DCS page 8)
- If necessary, have configured a frequency offset using the SPLIT function(REPEATER). (see § SPLIT page16)

I am really happy about this part ! Having it be FM mode only and only with CTCSS set is going to rule out the vast majority of regular CB'ers having any interest in it.
My big concern, as with Shadetree above, was skip and the village idiots being rebroadcast all across the land.................
That's also really cool about it being able to function as either a semi-duplex or simplex repeater depending on the setup.

I suspect the BIG users of these repeater radios are going to end up being taxi companies and other commercial users in places like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina where CB is very common and FM is already in heavy use.
As I mentioned above, CB simplex repeater systems have existed in Europe and Russia for decades and the primary users there are commercial interests as well (mostly taxi's and delivery companies).

 

[Onelasttime]

For what they will want for this I am holding out for true NPC, eSSB, Digital Modes, PC or Android interface 100%, DSP and EQ on RX and TX, user definable audio and tx bandwidt and not at all FCC Part 95 compliant! Anything else is a "Why Bother". Shake $hit up and give me a good HF rig at a low price of get out of the game!