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Repeater amplifiers, also known as signal boosters, are specialized RF systems that extend radio coverage into enclosed or shadowed areas where abrupt propagation losses impair communication. Materials such as soil or rock, brick, cement, reinforced concrete, metals, and metal-coated thermal glass panes are notorious for their ability to block electromagnetic radiation in the radio frequency range. In the interior of structures made of those materials, and in areas where natural or man-made structures block radio propagation, radio frequency levels may be 30 to 100 dB or more below unobstructed levels (nothing but cosmic ray particles and neutrinos penetrates into deep mines, for example). Repeater amplifiers boost radio signals to levels sufficiently high to provide reliable communication in those enclosed or blocked areas.

Historical Background
Repeater amplifiers have acquired great prominence in the radio communication industry in the last few years, due to a rapidly growing demand for extended communications services inside all types of urban structures. However, they made their first appearances several decades ago, as a part of "leaky feeder" or "leaky coax" radio communication systems in underground mines, vehicular and railroad tunnels. One-way repeater amplifiers were used in various configurations for simplex and semiduplex radio communication in underground tunnels. Two-way repeater amplifiers appeared more recently, and TX RX Systems Inc. has played a significant role in their development.

TX RX Systems Inc. was the first manufacturer of fully integrated, two-way repeater amplifier systems in the U.S. The first UHF two-way repeater amplifiers were manufactured in 1978, in response to a requirement by Motorola Communications. They were subsequently installed in an Inland Steel Corporation coal mine in Illinois, where they continue to provide reliable underground radio communication to this day. Since then, thousands of TX RX Systems' repeater amplifiers have been sold for private, commercial, government and military applications that include paging, radiotelephone, trunking and two-way radio systems in the frequency range from 66 to beyond 960 MHz.

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