RCM

Yep. At least that's what I tell myself...

Uh oh. I've been known to answer back!

BTW my Phoenix is indeed PLL controlled, and I have found a guy who can program it for me.

Yep, and it's even easier now than it was before. In fact you could take a single-channel crystal transceiver, add an outboard DDS and have all frequencies within the passband of its filters. With memories, offsets, scanning, and whatever you want.

http://www.filtro.net/rf_crystal.html I don't think crystals are going away anytime soon. They're used in lots more applications than just crystal controlled radios.

So you were transmitting on 463.175 with your callsign? Ruh-roh! Just giving you a hard time. I wouldn't worry about it.

I did a bit of reprogramming of my ID-O-Matic IV controller tonight. Minor stuff; changing ID and EOT beep speed, COR polarity, etc. Connected a short section of phone cord to carry mic and PTT signals to the front panel of the TK-805D I'm using for transmit. There are only 4 wires in the phone cord vs. 6 in the mic cord, but it plugs in and only 4 wires are needed, so it works. Actually it would work with only 3 wires: PTT, audio+ and ground. I cleared the memory on that particular radio and reprogrammed it for repeater use. Also turned the power down to 10 watts to up the duty cycle. I've tested it by jumping the COR line and listening to it on another radio. Everything's working fine. Now for the receiver portion. I found a guy on ebay advertising programming on a variety of radios, including the GE Phoenix. I've been in touch with him and he says no problem. So I'm planning to send him my Phoenix to be reprogrammed. I've tested the Phoenix and it powers up, receives, PL works, sounds fine. The only problem is it's currently on the wrong frequency. So when I get it back it should be good to go. That's why I changed the COR polarity on the controller, in fact: I was originally planning to use another TK-805D for receive. COR is active low on the 805; active high on the GE. The GE is a much better choice for the repeater. All connections are external, no mods necessary. And being a two-channel radio, it's not much good for anything else. So that will free up another of my TK-805s for vehicle or base use.

2w vs 4-5w makes very little difference anyway. The main thing the additional wattage does is heat up the radio and drain the battery. A good antenna is far more important.

Kenwood TK-805D. I've bought a half dozen of these. 16 channel, making them ideal for GMRS. They do repeater splits (even non-standard splits), include PL and DPL, and have front-panel selectable talkaround. In other words, you can program a repeater channel and use the same channel for simplex on the output, just by pressing a button. I program all the standard frequency pairs on channels 1-8, which also gives me the standard simplex frequencies. They do scan all channels, or you can lock out individual channels from scan. They are rated 25 watts, but mine generally run 35-40 out of the box. I've read that most of them do exceed the rated power. They're simple to turn down to as low as 3 watts. You have to pull the top cover, but that's no biggie. They are Part 95 accepted. And here's the best part: They are front panel programmable! You have to move a jumper under the top cover, but it's simple. And you can leave it jumpered so you can reprogram at will. That doesn't affect normal operation. They show up on fleabay quite often, usually for $50-$75 with mounting bracket and microphone. And they are a bargain at that price. One more thing: if you want to use one as the transmitter section of a repeater, a standard 4-conductor telephone cord that you can get for $3 at Walmart plugs right in the mic jack and works fine.

Thanks! That's good to know.

Thanks! That's a big help.

Yeah, that's what I was hoping. Turns out they are out of business (even though G**gl3 Maps still shows them) but I found out who their business went to, and went there. One guy there wasn't completely clueless, but they weren't able to help me. I did find a shop advertising programming service for the PLL ones on ebay. I guess I'll open it up and see if it's crystal or PLL, and if it's PLL I'll probably send it to them if I don't come up with anything else. If crystal, I can probably just buy crystals for it and swap them myself.

Must be all that gold in the mountains, blocking your signal. Just kidding! Have you tried swapping the antennas on your radios?

Thanks! According to one source I found, the first generation was crystal and later ones were PLL. Not sure which one this is. I'm planning to go to the shop that the tag is from, and see if they can help me. Maybe they can at least tell me if it's crystal or PLL.

I have a GE Phoenix with a tag on it that lists a 463/468 repeater pair and 141.3 PL. It is a single channel rig with a switch for talkaround. I think it would make a perfect receiver for my repeater, thereby saving one of my TK-805Ds for mobile use. I did see a guy selling programming software and hardware, but at a price that would pay for a better radio. Anyone have any ideas on setting this radio up?

So I finally got around to programming my controller today, and it went off without a hitch. I set it up for Morse ID and an EOT tone (Morse "K"). Most GMRS repeaters I've heard have nothing except a squelch tail, but that's not how I want to do mine. The RF chores will be handled by a pair of Kenwood TK-805Ds.

The GMRS-V1 has both, so you will be good to go there.

Check out the Baofeng GMRS-V1 for a decent handheld radio. It's a pretty good radio for about $55 shipped from Amazon. And, it's type accepted and therefore 100% legal.

That's good to hear! I think the original design was the subject of an article in the ARRL Handbook, in 2008 or so. Unfortunately while I do have a couple of Handbooks, they're older than that.

I just put together a controller kit yesterday, the ID-O-Matic IV from Ham Gadgets: http://www.hamgadgets.com/id-o-matic-iv From the name it sounds like just an IDer, but it actually can control a repeater. It has a lot of features for the low price, and is in my opinion all I really need or can use for a GMRS repeater. Works pretty well as a ham repeater too, in fact. You can get this controller already assembled for about $60, but I elected to save $20 by assembling it myself. It's been awhile since I put together a kit anyway, and that's part of the radio hobby for me. It shipped quickly and wasn't missing any parts. It doesn't include a hard copy of the manual; you have to download a pdf from the website. I had already done so in preparation. It went together with no issues, and no magic smoke escaped when I powered it up to test. I haven't tested it with the radios yet. First I have to figure out the programming, which is done via usb with a terminal emulator program. I also have to interface to the radios, which shouldn't be too difficult.

No doubt about it. That man was a hero.

I was hoping Icom had something in their F series line, but no dice. The only one I found that isn't $350+ is single band and no display. Too bad, especially considering they have a couple of F-series mobiles in the $250-$300 range that are perfect for our needs.

Good points.

You ever met them by any chance? The RT Systems folks, I mean.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on the forum!