zap
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Posts posted by zap
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That would actually be ideal. Your grounds should be as short as possible and a rod should be driven at the base of the tower to ground it.
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So here's what you are looking at from an average shop.
$50/ hr in travel charge
$100/hr tech time
$150/hr system tech time (things like testing repeater, checking for desense, tuning duplexer)
$200/hr engineering time (this will be the whole networking of the system)
Plus, material.
Then there is the whole networking aspect. IP? Link radios? Remember, hiring professional services means professional solutions so you'd be looking at NXU-2s and at a very minimum Ubiquiti PtP radios (assuming ISP connections are not available and LOS between sites is).
You're likely looking at $1500 to $2000 to setup the repeater at your home and another $3000-$6000 for getting everything networked.
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Laird FG45xx antennas.
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I actually like this better
http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/pctel-asp7795-810.html
or this
http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/pctel-asp76551-827.html
have been using both on my personal and service vehicles for 30yrs
The thing I don't like about the antenna farm, stopped listing things as dBd or dBi.
The antenna farm also resales directly off of Tessco for a good portion of their products. LMR antennas you can generally get much better pricing from Tessco or Hutton.
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Mobile or base?
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Lots of research and trial and error.
Well go with trial and error.
Like for weatherproofing connections, I much prefer Cell tape to butyl (coax seal). It's also easier to find as Ace and Tractor Supply often stock it as "Magic Tape". For line grounding, butyl is the best way to go though.
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UHF Motorola Maxtrac 16 Pin radios are all over now. The PA wasn't the worst of the bunch and the last 2 I picked up were under $50 each. Being GMRS is wide band and most folks can't use these for much else they make great GMRS repeaters. I have 4 set up in different area's and while none are used alot they all function and are easy to setup and build. MY last unit cost jsut under $300 for 2 MAXTRACS, a mobile duplexer and a power supply.
The problem with the Maxtrac, the PA actually backs down in power based on a timer in the logic board. The GM300 on the other hand used a thermistor to control power.
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I think that any of the new Midlands would be a poor choice for this. You'll want to verify this, but I would be surprised if they're rated for any more than 5% talk if that. In repeater use, they will overheat rapidly and probably fail early on. They just don't have the heat sinking that commercial or professional grade radios have.
For $150 or less, you can find a good used Motorola M1225 that will hold up much better than the Midlands, especially if you lower the power out a bit. There are other Part 95 mobiles that would work comparably well.
You'll still want to provide extra cooling. A muffin fan works well.
I think your HamTronics receiver is overly expensive for what you get. It doesn't even come in case, and you have to purchase the coax separately. You can pick up any number of different commercial grade mobiles for around $100 that will perform equally well. Remember that the receiver does not have to be Part 95 certified.
Regardless of your choices, you still need to add in the cost of a decent power supply plus the transmission line and antenna.
The ID-O-matic is OK I guess. If it was my project, I'd use a pair of Motorola M1225's and a repeater interface from Ebay seller mre1032. I'd program up the radios identically so that they could be swapped if there's a problem. The two radios would cost barely a half to 2/3 of what you're suggesting, and will perform much better and longer.
The M1225 won't hold up much better. Too small of a heat sink compared to its predecessors. There was a reason the R1225 was in a GM300/Radius chassis with appropriate heat sink compared to the predecessor repeaters and even it was known for failing.
As far as the hamtronics receiver goes, on average they have 40 dB better adjacent channel rejection…so yea the have a lot going for them over a $100 mobile radio.
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It's doable. Right now you'd need a Maxon data radio with external sink for the transmit side and either another for receiver or a hamtronics receiver (about the best receiver that can practically be purchased right now). 30 ft of vertical separation and CAT5e to provide PTT, audio and COR as well as power (you'd want 24 or 48V for all intents and purposes). Still looking at $600 cost if the Maxon's were type accepted for GMRS.
Add the cost of a duplexer and subtract the extra antenna and combine enclosures, you'd have a decent TTR.
That's what it would cost with current tech in a reliable package though.
In retrospective, Motorola sells a P25 tactical repeater (battery, duplexer at 4W) for $22,000. Etherstack on the other hand has one they are bringing to market for (15-30W depending on configuration) for $30,000.
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Review Section 47CFR 90.425 of the Commission rules. Same basic requirements as for GMRS, with very limited exemptions.
But often not followed on the business side. Public safety and trunk systems are generally better about IDing.
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Same repeater IIRC as the Ritron.BridgeCom Systems BC-40DU
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One guy actually built an FRS repeater out of a GR1225. Presumably the receivers were not FRS accepted :-)
Receivers don't actually require type acceptance for the service they are operated in.
Only issues I've ever seen with part 90 equipment involved malicious/destructive interference from either a hams who assumed he was in the right because he had a general license or someone who just didn't care.
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Probably more experimentation going on the commercial side right now than anything.If you want to play with more than just analog FM, come to the dark....i mean
hamside.-RfMedic
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Define 180°
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Shop and personal radios are all XTS's still. Been sending more APX's out lately but we haven't gotten any for ourselves.
GATRRS is a large system and it is potentially about grow in size even more with the addition of another sub-system (I think it is only a matter of time before most of the Motorola systems in the state become a single unified system).
It'll be interesting to see how some of this comes out.
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Correct. One of the many reasons I settled on Simoco Xd infrastructure. Some of the others include analog to digital patching, digital to analog patching, full duplex calling in Tier II and Tier III and just the price point for Tier III operation compared to other Tier III offerings.
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I was sitting in Saginaw when that tornado hit. I remember driving down I35 to Austin and it was just a wall of north bound utility trucks. Fort Worth's setup is very similar, most of the talk groups are encrypted.
Down here in the Austin area, GATTRS is a mix. Some are encrypted, others not. Sometimes it's dictated by the department (Round Rock PD for example) other times it's not. Sometimes it's dictated by other systems. One of the talk groups I utilize is tied to TxWARN and therefore has to be strapped secure.
Now there are also interoperability talk groups (which number in the 30's which are clear). Theoretically once dispatched, traffic can move to an OPs TG but doesn't always happen so many departments choose to encrypt everything.
In 800 MHz there are a handful of interoperability channels which are analog only (info is published in NIFOG). There are also some semi-new channels in 700 MHz which are Phase 1 only (clear).
You might write your city management about the importance of disaster talk groups which can be tied in to in case of emergency which are clear. Make a stink about it. News agencies generally don't like being cut out of operations due to encryption either.
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Would you mind sharing details on how you set it up? Did you use a custom version of app_rpt? If so, would you mind sharing the files with me please?
Haven't had a need to set up a repeater with app_rpt so I've never really messed with it. Asterisk I've dabbled with a little but commercially most linking is either done with native IP connections built into the repeaters or using products such as the NXU.
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Any repeaters in the Austin Texas Metro Area
in General Discussion
Posted
I live in Round Rock. I typically keep my issued service monitor in my truck. PM me if you need help or duplexer tuning. I will say, highly recommend using a Band-Pass/Band-Reject type duplexer if your site is to be collocated with other UHF repeaters.
I'd run a rtl_power plot for the repeater spectrum and see what comes out…I may do that (Brushy Creek area here) and see what I find.
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