Most radio projects should start here and stop here. One repeater on a well-chosen antenna position covers a site, and everything more complex is justified only when this stops being enough.

• Site-wide coverage from one repeater, without a network to design
• Digital voice that stays intelligible to the edge of coverage rather than degrading gradually
• Text messaging alongside voice, on the same channel
• Longer battery life than analogue at the same power
• Straightforward installation and low cost

Most Hytera repeaters support mixed mode, carrying analogue and digital traffic on the same channel. Departments move across in stages instead of the whole site switching in one night. Mixed mode costs one of the two time slots, so it is a transition state rather than a destination — but it removes the need to replace every radio at once.

Coverage is limited to what one repeater reaches, and capacity to what its two slots carry. When users start waiting for channels, or when the basement and the far yard cannot be reached, the answer is not a more powerful repeater — it is XPT for capacity or indoor coverage for the gaps.

Where the antenna goes decides most of the result. See wide area coverage.