n4gix

All that sounds fine as long as you can be satisfied with around 14 mile radius (or less) from mobile to the repeater, and about 3 miles (or less) radius for an HT. The single, absolutely most important part of a repeater is the effective height of the antenna, the antenna itself, and the lowest loss heliax cable you can afford. After two years of operation, I finally sold my Bridgecom BCR-40U repeater last week. A local GMRS operator put it on his new 150' Rohn 45G tower with a Commscope DB408 ANTENNA UHF406-512MHz 8 bay Repeater Antenna (http://www.va3agv.com/2015/07/commscope-db408-antenna-uhf406-512mhz-8.html for a picture of the antenna). He is also using 1 1/4" LDF6-50 heliax (https://www.awcwire.com/part.aspx?partname=ldf6-50 ) from the antenna to the duplexer. The same equipment on his tower and antenna system now has an effective radius of 45 miles mobile, 12 miles HT. What of world of difference height and antenna made! The tower/antenna/feedline cost ~$5000 The Bridgecom (new) cost ~$1500* *Nota Bene: I sold him mine for $1030. Because he's only about 7 airline miles from me, I still get to use and enjoy the repeater!

Obtaining a crystal isn't really the crux of the problem. First is calculating the precise frequency for the crystal that the GE Mastr II requires (hint: it ain't anywhere close to the final operating frequency!) Then having someone with the knowledge re-factor the required capacitance, resistance, and tuning coil necessary to "net" the ICOM package to 2ppm frequency tolerance, and "cook the ICOM" properly.

Could you ask him if he knows of any other source for Master II ICOM's. Since International Crystal went out of business my Master II repeater has become a huge and heavy boat anchor... 73 de NGIX / Bill

That is a very good, time-tested and reliable controller. You won't be disappointed with its performance.

That was a frightening experience for the three who managed to get down.

Congratulations for the acquisition. Enjoy!

Have you checked the SWR on the coax and antenna? Excessive SWR can cause the power amplifier to clamp the output to protect the transistors.

I'm close to using up my yearly allotment of words, so have been more parsimonious lately.

I do hope those eager 'hams' actually obtained genuine GMRS licenses and aren't operating illegally. It sounds like a great plan of emcom training though.

I've been using a COMET CA-712EF with great success now for several years now. It's survived 90mph gusts during several winter/spring storms that blow in.

10,000? Hyperbole much?

What is the point in trying to parse out the meaning. It's a trivial matter to program the repeater to either voice or code ID automatically. Mine does, but with no tone so it won't annoy users who's radios are using tone control.

I'm monitoring the 20m Maritime Mobile Network for the next few days as a precaution.

Please understand that an "antenna tuner" actually doesn't nothing of the sort. What it really does is present a 50 ohm impedance to the radio's final amplifier, thus fooling the radio into thinking that it sees a 1:1 SWR.

It is an XPR7550 I've been using for the past few years. I wanted to add some corrections for the statewide Hoosier DMR network, as well as some new GMRS repeaters I regularly use.

I can confirm your report. NJ + Input tone XXX DPL returns only your repeater. NJ + Freq 462.XXX returns nothing at all! Strange... I don't know if this is a bug/glitch with the site or something I did. It's kinda odd that other 6250 repeaters do come back in the search but mine doesn't, but mine will come up if I use the input code without the frequency. I also wonder if other listings have the same problem. [staff Edit to remove repeater access data in the open part of the forum.]

Unfortunately, the 12.1 (Build 245) I got from there about 2 years ago isn't available any longer...

Don't allow one "Sad Sack" operator spoil your enjoyment of a repeater. If nothing else, contact the repeater's owner and let him know what this clod said. Allow him to set "Sad Sack" to rights.

Same here in Hammond, IN. There are quite a number of schools both public and private who use FRS radios.

The received tones are stripped out and the controller will then insert whatever tone the repeater owner has set. If the tones were "passed through" they would most likely be degraded to the point of uselessness. The controller on my Bridgecom allows up to 32 separate input tones, and a similar number of output tones. They do not even have to be the same tones... This allows me to set up separate tone pairs for each family unit, as well as an "all call" set of tones. For example, the "Gibson Family" might have Rx 188.2 Tx 88.5 as their unique pair. "All Call" tones are Rx 141.3 Tx 141.3.

Tones that are received by the repeater are normally stripped out (that is removed entirely) before being sent to the transmitter's modulation circuit.

Rich, all GMRS repeaters have a +5 MHz offset. For example, a repeater on 462.675 will require your radio to transmit on 467.675 as well as the required CTCSS (PL) tone to access it. Repeaters are by definition "half-duplex" since they use separate transmit and receive frequencies. They are called half-duplex because your radio cannot transmit and receive at the same time. A cellphone or landline phone are "full-duplex" since both ends can talk and listen simultaneously. If you use only one frequency, then it is known as "simplex" since you have to take turns talking! GMRS repeaters are no different that any of your local 2m or 70cm ham repeaters. In that respect it is considered bad manners to use the repeater's transmit frequency for simplex operations.

I sold well over 800 UHF versions of them down in deep southeast Texas when I owned the GE Service Station in Kingsville. I added a DTMF microphone and a DTMF decoder and horn relay to them in order to create a "poor man's mobile phone". All incoming calls were answered 24/7 by a live operator. The operator would then dial the 4 digit code for the called party. The user would take the mic off the hook to put the transceiver in "monitor mode" to make sure it wasn't in use, press * to get a dial tone, then key in the number they wished to call. Sending a # would then end the call and release the repeater. Customers could buy their equipment and have our shop install it, then pay a modest $50/month for service. Alternatively they could lease the equipment for $100/month. The primary repeater was located just south of Kingsville at the top of a 680' guyed tower, and it provided sixty mile radius coverage easily. Over the years I added three additional repeaters to pretty much cover the eastern Rio Grande Valley area. I really liked those little transceivers! Eventually I partnered with a company in Corpus Christi and the King Ranch. We installed five channel 800 MHz EF Johnson trunking systems in six locations to provide much wider dispatch and mobile phone service. EF Johnson engineered a mobile unit for us that would auto-switch to use cellular service in those very few areas of coverage

Yet even today multi-thousand dollar service monitors still use BNC almost exclusively...

Thanks. Pity the webzine went defunct though.