Thread: First Repeater?
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Old September 2nd 04, 12:03 PM
Michael Black
 
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"GW" ) writes:
Anyone know anything about the first repeater in the U.S.? I heard it was a
2m repeater in California but would like to know where and the callsign.

George, K6GW

Define "repeater".

Obviously, the relays of the early days, as in "American Radio Relay League",
was a form of repeater.

The ARRL's "FM and Repeaters for the Radio Amateur" from 1972 opens with
a brief history, and it makes the case that the first VHF repeater was
on 5 meters, in 1932, with the callsign W1AWW. Though it would not
appear to have been an automated repeater.

There were AM repeaters, in California, in the fifties.

I think the earliest FM repeater dates from the early sixties, but I'm not
certain. There were articles by Byron Goodman in CQ from about 1964 on
converting commercial two-way equipment to amateur use, but I'm not
sure if FM repeaters started up then.

Michael VE2BVW