Which of the following best describes the function of a repeater in telecommunications?

The function of a repeater in telecommunications primarily involves amplifying signals. A repeater receives a weak or degraded signal and boosts its strength so that it can travel further along a transmission medium without significant losses. This is especially crucial in long-distance communications, where signals can weaken due to distance, interference, or physical barriers.

By amplifying the signal, the repeater ensures that the transmitted information remains clear and intact as it moves from one point to another. This amplification process helps maintain the quality of the telecommunications network, allowing for reliable data transmission and effective communication.

In contrast, converting signals generally pertains to devices like modems, which change the format of data for transmission over different types of media. Encoding and decoding messages are functions associated with the process of transforming information into a format suitable for transmission, and then reversing that transformation at the receiving end, respectively. While these are important processes in telecommunications, they do not describe the primary role of a repeater, which is focused on signal amplification.