Date Posted:Thursday, March 19, 22:57:40 Author:Jack Robinson Subject: Fully licenced PMR repeaters available for use - anyone interested?
Hi all.
I own a PMR radio business. We have several PMR CBS repeaters located across the country which aren't used any more.
Talking to a friend recently about PMR446 and CB inspired me with this thought - would anyone be interested in using them as a free CB type service?
Basically I'm licenced to do whatever I want with them. I've got a chain of 3 linked together in the Midlands, covering from Chesterfield to Northampton, on the 165mhz band, all on prime radio sites. It basically covers Mansfield, Nottingham, Leicester, Rugby and Coventry. I think this would probably be the best to experiment on this system with, although I have single site CBS's too (which aren't in the linked system), as well as CBS units in London and various other places.
They're empty at the moment and I'd like to start the ball rolling by asking if anyone is interested in the concept of using fully licenced PMR repeaters as a CB type service?
Obviously there are a few legal implications - users would need to use "type approved" equipment.
How I invisage it working is this:
1: I'd set up a website detailling the repeaters (frequencies, coverage maps, etc).
2: If someone was interested in using them, then they'd have to "sign up", giving me their name and address, details of equipment to be used. This to cover my back legally, since these are fully licenced PMR repeaters, and equipment needs to conform to certain requirements.
3: Once someone's signed up, they would be allocated some form of callsign (which they wouldn't really have to use, it would be more like CB), and a username and password for the website, which would then let them actually see details like the frequencies. Frequencies wouldn't be available to those who weren't signed up.
Really this is all to cover my back, since as I say this is a fully licenced professional radio system. However, the intention (and hopefully the result) would be to have a CB type system, except that you get the radio coverage of a prime radio site (for those who are amateurs, it would be like having several 2m repeaters available, all linked together).
Is there any interest - I'm simply at this stage trying to gauge if there's enough interest and roughly where it is to try and work out the best way of setting up a trial.
If others decided to get a licenced PMR repeater on air for free use by all, then I'd hope that this website could also be used by them, so it would cover their back too and would detail all the similar systems across the country.
I hope someone would show some interest in this - it would be like amateur 2m repeaters that are free to use and you don't need to be an amateur to use! They would probably also give better coverage than amateur repeaters, since they're located on prime radio sites.
