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I just bought a new one too. I haven't gotten around to even doing temporary installs (I have until Saturday morning). Carrying an Astro Saber and XPR6550 around the Permian Basin for basic comms. Don't even have an AVA for the Saber. Have the antenna, console and radios (for now) picked out. Just haven't purchased the console or gotten busy with the antenna.

If your monitoring from a Baofeng while keying the TX radio...chances are your also desensing the receiver on the Baofeng. Get about 100 feet away from the repeater antenna and see if that makes a difference.

Sounds interesting.

The filters on the Baofengs aren't too great so they are a little subject to adjacent channel interference (even at 5 MHz of offset). We learned over time when testing Baofengs, put about 20 or 30 ft between the two handhelds.

It's only 5W. Doesn't do repeaters. Only features PL (no DPL or split tones). Haven't seen a price tag associated with it yet. I bet it's also narrowband and not wide to be to spec with the bubble pack radios. If it had DPL and the repeater offsets, it wouldn't be a bad little radio for use as a link radio...

The only thing I've never been too fond of baofengs of is the squelch settings. Either too much or not enough (to the point tones don't make a difference). The other big problem, I try and design my repeater's to run 25% duty at a minimum. It's not something that can be accomplished without dropping the power (lower than what the PA is actually speced at) or tearing the unit apart to add some heat sinks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That'll be interesting. I don't remember which RF module the 888's. The receive on the radios is pretty good (down to -126 dBm on the one I threw on my R8000). You can actually pull COR off of them if you know where to find it (and completely forgo the need for a true controller). The only issue I foresee is if using a duplexer, you will have roughly 1.5-2 dB of loss in the system meaning you may be outputting closer to 2 out of the duplexer.

I was gonna suggest, sometimes PL tones close to multiples of 60 Hz (118.8 for example) can bleed AC line noise through. Can't have a coordinated amateur repeater (very few exceptions) in Texas that doesn't have a PL on the receiver so we just run PL's on pretty much everything.

Could be a few, could be many. One thing I've found with many people is that they all assume there is an upcost/lease fee associated with all sites. There are a lot of (good) sites out there that can be found for free. I've yet to sign a site lease yet have some of the best locations in the area. Sometimes you can wheel and deal. Sometimes you just need to get creative. For example, if you find a decent location, provide your own power (solar, wind, with backup generator) and fill out some forms, wait for approval, etc you can put up a site in National Forest. On a good peak. Doesn't take power...just need to be able to occasionally access the location.

Would it be wise to assume you are using a RX PL?

Stand-offs are easy. Go get a stick or two of unistrut from the local hardware store, some conduit (whatever you may need for antennas to clamp to) and the appropriate unistrut clamps (for clamping to the tower face). And if you need to side mount a DB antenna then you just use the appropriate strut clamp to clamp the antenna directly to the unistrut (both top and bottom if necessary) Works like a charm.

Repeater Builder has a good write up on off grid repeater systems. The rick connects through the rear accessory connector on 16 pin radios. Bit more of a pain if we are talking about using the masked logic boards with 5 pin accessory. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Split is 5 MHz in GMRS. 600 kHz is only found in the amateur 2m and some parts of the VHF-Hi LMR band.

Rohn 20, Rohn 25, Rohn 45, Rohn 55, Armalite?

Software definitions. KPG - Kenwood Software CE - Vertex Software RSS - Motorola's Radio Service Software, usually DOS based but there are some exceptions with the 1225, Quantar, MCS and a few others. CPS - Motorola's Consumer Programming Software, all made to run in Windows. CS - Icom's Software

The way Motorola built their PAs, the 10W-25W radios are actually the most efficient. The RSS can be found online for free (P25 forums) and the same generally runs $20-$30 for a ribless model. Depending on what version 880's you have, that software can also be found online for free.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 1225 radios. I started playing with an RKR1225 not too long ago. I have several (new in box) UHF M1225's sitting in my closet and several VHF M1225's laying around. (Also have some PM400's laying about). However, Ken, I would say it would probably be easier to pick up another M1225 as the 16 pin repeater cable runs about $10 online. There are also some 4 channel versions laying about here and there. Takes a little more time and effort to get it done with a Kenwood. Another plus, the Kenwood can be enabled for FPP (all the info is in the service manual which can be found on the Repeater Builder site).

Almost sounds like not enough drop to key the radio. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What I would recommend using connectors. That way if you ever want to replace the feedline to something with less loss later on its easy to do. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What I would recommend using connectors. That way if you ever want to replace the feedline to something with less loss later on its easy to do. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Probably need to find Pofung's guarantee code (though the radio may not be manufactured by Pofung) and search that way. So the catch with the Anytime Tech, Baofeng (now Pofeng) and a few other Chinese radios is that most of them physically aren't capable of the emissions they are certified for.

I was actually talking with a /\/\ tech earlier today about linking Quantars. Me and some friends have been wanting to get a VHF pair in Lubbock county and a VHF pair in either Williamson, Travis or Hays county (roughly 370 miles apart) just to run P25 with encryption. Anyway, what was learned from today, the Quantar really pre-dates ROIP so it was mainly shipped with an option for 4-wire leased line connection. That being said, there is currently Raytheon's NXU which takes 4-wire to VIOP (at $900 a pop) and a handful of others for around the $500-1000 range (not sure I would trust the $150-$200 Chinese options to be maintenance/headache free). That's about all I've found out specifically about Quantars… If you can see it, it's LOS. Oddly enough, I'm in the WISP business. Most of the stuff I deal with is Ubiquiti 5 GHz and 3.5 GHz APs. Usually run about 4-8 miles at the most but that being said an acquaintance just tested a hop using high gain dishes that runs from Denton, TX to Saginaw, TX (it's about 35 miles) and it's seeing 120 MB/s up and down. I'd run the path loss on it. So for a 2.4 GHz 26 mile hop, your looking at about 72 dB of loss…which should mean full speed as long as there isn't too much noise.

Is your Id-o-matic set for active low keying? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is your Id-o-matic set for active low keying? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't believe so.