Radioguy7268

A mobile radio that sits on your desktop and has a power supply is NOT necessarily a Base Station. As Marc eloquently stated above, it's the operation that counts, not the configuration. A Base radio operates on the lower 462.xxx frequencies. A Control station may appear very similar to a Base, but a Control Station transmits on the 467.xxx frequencies, and listens on the lower (base side) of the pair.

I have seen certain PL/DPL codes that cause issues with some radios. If you can see the receiver LED is active before you actually start hearing audio, try switching your radios to a different PL code on the same freq & see if the problem goes away. For most of what I saw, it was usually the lower frequency PL tones (below 80 Hz) that were the ones that caused problems.

There is no coordination through the FCC. Self-coordination is the typical method. If you're already thinking about installing your own 20 watt repeater, have you determined that there are no other repeaters in your area that offer you the coverage you need? If so, you should have a pretty good idea already of what pairs may be available in your area. There's a pretty long thread on the site that goes over many of the issues of standing up your own repeater. https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1402-you-just-got-your-gmrs-license-now-you-want-your-own-repeater/

Before you get too excited about the long range possibilities of a low band repeater, talk to anyone who has actually built one, or tried to use one. Beyond the problems of skip, near-far, and antennas that can double as fishing poles, you also find out that you need to have one antenna tuned for the transmit frequency, and another tuned for receive. Typical bandpass cavities are 5 ft. tall, you will need enough space for at least 6, and you better keep them in a climate controlled environment, unless you want to keep a separate set tuned for each season. You also need to know that a typical low-band mobile antenna is only good for about a 500 KHz spread while your proposed pair is 3 MHz apart. Noise is a huge problem, terrible at times. It's only gotten worse in the last 25 years. There's a reason why Commercial (paying customer) Low-band has become a wasteland. Actually, there's many reasons beyond the ones I've mentioned. Most manufacturers have abandoned the band.

I once had a "channel saver" repeater set up to scan on 5 UHF trunked channels. The concept was that the system needed to be operational within one year on all 5 frequencies in order to file a Construction notice with the FCC. In order to do that, we built up a 5 channel scanning repeater (all the frequencies were fairly close together in the 451/452 range). A portable could key any of the 5 licensed channels, and carry a short conversation to prove operation - just not on all 5 channels at once. A split antenna system was already in place, and we just used a widely tuned bandpass cavity on the transmit side. We got the idea from Nextel, who was doing a similar thing on 800MHz analog channels they had acquired, but not yet transitioned into their iDEN system. Unusual, yes. But not bizarre But ultimately a waste of time and material.

Glad to hear you got it fixed up. The wideband entitlement issue is troublesome, as Motorola is no longer supporting older 'legacy' software, and the EID's only work on the newest, current software. Otherwise, you are left with trying to hex edit the software & bypass the built in checks that forced narrowband in the newer software versions. As you discovered, R05.16 was the last legit version that allowed CP200's to be programmed wideband with 25kHz.

A Fixed Station is one that's been repaired. /s

Motorola moved all the current model software over to a new website. For most folks, that's at myview.motorolasolutions.com. Unless you want to go through all the steps to migrate your account over to Myview, only to find that they probably don't have the legacy # RVN4191 CP200 software ( I myself haven't checked lately), you're better off to do a google search and try find it on the web. The benefit there is that you would likely find a version that's been hacked to allow wideband. The last versions of the analog CP200/PR400 R05.18 software were narrowband only, and most GMRS folks want the ability to program 25kHz wideband. Note: the more recent CP200d is a different animal, and uses different software for programming.

Do not mount antennas with 50 watts or more ERP inside the cab within inches of your head. Read up on Specific Absorption Rates and RF safety. Also realize that transmitting at 50 watts to someone who is holding a 4 or 5 watt portable is overkill.

I am pretty old, and stuck in my ways, but I'm pretty sure that a "simplex duplex box" that doubles as a "GMRS specific box" requires about twenty some 8x10 color glossy photographs with circles and arrows, and a paragraph or two describing what each was to be used for. I'm thinking your description is a simplexer with delayed audio being re-transmitted back out on the same frequency it was received on. But I'll wait for those photographs and a clear description of the function of each magic box. Enjoy.

I don't believe that the old TK-880 software is capable of using anything other than Comm port 1 through 4. In your Kenwood software, what Comm port are you assigning the software to use? What does your Device Manager say is the port assigned to your USB programming cable?

When I get a used radio and program it, I will often put in a common frequency and label it as "TEST" instead of "Channel 1" That way, when I have the radio on my tuning bench, I know the frequencies (and codes) that are in the radio, and I know it hasn't been programmed to a customer frequency. I don't believe you are actually seeing a Test mode - ie: Something the radio is locked into. I believe you are seeing someone else's old programmed name for the first channel in the radios. Especially if the two radios talk to each other already. A Kenwood radio should drop into a "Program" message when you have the proper cable & software, and try to read or write the radio. Some of the older Kenwood software required you to run a regular Comm port (not USB) and the software only allowed a choice of Comm1 through Comm4 for serial ports. Trying to use a newer computer with old software can lead to some issues.

"I can neither confirm nor deny." For the younger folks out there, check the reference to the Glomar response, and it's place in Government history. If you really want to get wrapped up into some deep rabbit holes, check out the relationship of Howard Hughes to the whole Glomar thing. Most kids (My college age daughter included) have only ever heard of Howard Hughes as "The Aviator" and Leonardo DiCaprio. They don't know about Glomar, TWA, or the Mormon Will and Ice Station Zebra.

I'd also point out that in 2017, when Hurricane Maria blasted through Puerto Rico, many people were basically left to fend for themselves, and went weeks and months without grid power, running water, or even cellular service. This was especially bad in the inland areas up in the mountains, but was still an issue even in areas outside of Ponce & San Juan. They aren't necessarily doing this for overall footprint, they're doing it to allow for localized reception in pockets and areas that aren't served by larger systems. They also want to maintain control and ownership of the repeaters, and not rely on someone else to keep a system powered up 24/7.

I don't think anyone really answered the OP's questions, although the information given is a bit lacking in details. A few questions that might help narrow things down. 1. What's your budget? Who will be in charge of decisions? Is this a centralized control, or left up to individuals that may or may not want to spend $$? 2. Do you plan to supply your own labor, or purchase a plug & play system? 3. Do you have ownership/control already of a location for the repeater? 4. Do you have a need to communicate with other existing radio users in the area? Will this be a private system just for your users? Or do you wish to share? 5. What is the elevation at this Community Center? Do you have the ability to place an antenna and/or mast/tower at this location? What's the surrounding terrain like? As far as a general shot at answers: Bare repeater. Used $500 to $1500 New $1000 to $5000 Need to allow for labor costs if you don't know how to program/install Antenna & Duplexer system New is the best option here, costs will vary greatly, but as little as $400, as much as $2500 Individual portables could be less than $50 or more than $500 depending on what folks might want. Bare bones GMRS repeater capable units are fairly cheap. Mobiles that mount in vehicles are more expensive. LoRa i'm assuming is LoRaWAN - which is effectively Long Range data bursts in the 900 MHz ISM band. Good for telematics & GPS, not so great for voice, but that begs the question of what's the primary use and purpose of this system? If you're looking to do chit chat for local folks on a wide open community channel that anyone and everyone could join in on, then GMRS might be a pretty good choice. If you're looking for exclusivity or privacy, and you want to do tracking or data transmission, there might be better options.