DigitalNY

We can talk in hypotheticals all day, If you wanted to maintain your current UHF radios / pagers... Find a local comm's company and discuss putting up a second UHF site. Get a second UHF Frequency for the area to be covered by the new UHF site. Program it into your radios to replace your existing frequency in those areas, and add the old frequency as an additional channel for when that unit travels into the coverage area of the primary (pre-existing) UHF site. Use a pair of VHF radios with directional antennas (yagi's) to link the primary UHF site with the new one that's farther out to extend coverage area. The benefits of this would be not having to buy new mobiles & portables to replace your existing UHF ones. It would look similar to.. Site A &#40;Primary System&#41; <-----> Site B &#40;Secondary System&#41; UHF Freq A VHF Link UHF Freq B 462.550 152.100/152.700 462.575 For example, you have town xyz which is 20-30 miles from your primary dispatch center at city abc. You put up a new UHF site at town xyz. The units in that town use UHF Freq B (462.575). Their audio is carried across to a VHF Link to your primary UHF site at city abc where it is put out over UHF Freq A (462.550) for the rest of your agency to hear and is received by dispatch. When it comes down to it, I would stay away from 800MHz, UHF Systems and trunking systems and would look at the possibility of a VHF system. VHF Lo-Band is going the way of the dodo and is being replaced by multi-site VHF systems in many areas of the country. This includes upstate New York where I'm located. A multi-site VHF system would give you a very wide coverage area (possibility of 2000sq mi+) and a single VHF site can give 1000sq mi under good conditions. You may also be able to tweak your existing UHF system for better coverage. What's the power output of your current UHF repeater? Is it simplex or duplex (do your radios transmit on a different frequency than they receive on? If duplex what style / brand / model of duplexer is present at the repeater? What is the HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain) of the antenna at the repeater site? What kind of antenna is it and what kind and what length of feeder is it being fed with? What kind of mobile / portable radios are you using in those areas that have marginal coverage? What is their power output and are you using gain antennas on your mobiles? There are too many options and variables present to give rock solid advice on a forum such as this. Go with the sure ways of improving reception and range which is always better antennas, higher with better feedline! All the frequencies in this scenario are made up and pertinent to the scenario.. I pulled the VHF freq out of the air and the UHF Freq's I used were FRS Frequencies, I wouldn't go using them for EMS ;-) Ric