Motorola GR1225 UHF Repeater

[ImTheGuy]

Greetings Forum,

I am contemplating purchasing the Motorola GR1225 UHF Repeater as my very first GMRS repeater. I want to purchase this to provide my subdivision with better quality GMRS communication abilities, while at the same time, learning about repeaters and antennas.

 

Does anyone have any current or past experience with this repeater? What is your opinion of this repeater for a beginner? Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

 

[quarterwave]

Those are good small repeaters.

[JohnE]

good little machines.

just a point of information though Motorola is no longer supporting the replacement parts for that radio  just an FYI

[ImTheGuy]

good little machines.

just a point of information though Motorola is no longer supporting the replacement parts for that radio  just an FYI

 

Oh, okay. That is good information. I'd hate to make a fumble with it, in my learning, only to find I couldn't fix it. Thanks.

 

[ImTheGuy]

WOW! I just learned that even though you may get a good deal on a Motorola radio or repeater, it may not be a really good deal. $300 for the software to program these things! That's at least two times more than what you can get the radios for! WOW! I guess ICOM has spoiled me.

 

That's a shame. I really like the Motorola product. What a lesson.

[quarterwave]

A radio shop won't charge a fortune to program it for you. 

[PastorGary]

From personal experience in my primary area, once a piece of Motorola equipment no longer has factory support, the local dealers will not even do programming.  Sounds like Motorola is taking a lesson from Microsoft with planned obsolescence to sell new products where profits are substantial, while thumbing their nose at customers who won't play their games.      The local Kenwood dealer's business expands every year because they add old Motorola customers to their client list.

 

[JohnE]

when I bought my Kenwoods my boss asked why not Motorola's, simple answer is they don't do what I need them to do.

[quarterwave]

From personal experience in my primary area, once a piece of Motorola equipment no longer has factory support, the local dealers will not even do programming.  Sounds like Motorola is taking a lesson from Microsoft with planned obsolescence to sell new products where profits are substantial, while thumbing their nose at customers who won't play their games.      The local Kenwood dealer's business expands every year because they add old Motorola customers to their client list.

 

I agree, they have played that game forever. Everyone's mileage will vary, usually you can find a shop that will still do them, since the shops are not owned by M. If not, there is always some good ol' boy that has a copy of the s/w he downloaded from a foreign website. LOL. 

[tinman212]

Former GMRS WQGK720,Ham W2ERD. My GMRS repeater was and still is a Motorola Desktrac UHF, the nice thing about these repeaters is that they have thier own power supply and fan and in my case it run 24/7. They can be purchased off Ebay for about $350 to $500  and if you know a Ham operator he may have the software to program it . You can use a mobile duplexer which you can be purchase from China for about $50 or less , they even will tune it to your, or you can us two UHF antennas  one TX and the other for RX. With any radio system you need a good UHF antenna,and a short run of LMR-400 coax with N-connectors if possible and you need to get in up high. My system when it was on line would cover about 25 or more miles at 28 watts . When it come time to renew my GMRS licenses it would have cost me $200 and because my repeater got very little use I let go.

 

Because of the narrow banding a lot of good Motorola radios are up for sale. I have four 900Mhz repeaters running 24/7 now all using Motorola radios.

 

If you need programming and are willing tp pay the postage both ways I can help you.

 

Gene  tinman212@verizon.net

 

Just checked on the GMRS license renewal its $85 for five years..not $200, sorry..

[PastorGary]

Gene - thanks for the info and welcome to the MyGMRS form...

[quarterwave]

Renewals are $200?

[tinman212]

The last time I checked yes it was,maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong. My Ham licenses is good for life time...

[tinman212]

If any one is looking for a good cheap GMRS HT check out the Baofeng Dual Frequency UV-5R on ebay for about $60, it will cover all the GMRS frequencies as well as the 5 MURS VHF open to the public.... I have 3 of them and they are outstanding buys for that money...and they program easy...

[tinman212]

I stand corrected on the fee to renew the GMRS license, $85 for five years.. Back to the Baofeng UV-5R HT it also makes a great scanner..and it also receives FM radio....

[Tim]

I can program most motorola equipment and most kenwood's

[gdavis316]

I've got two gr1225's in service.  the only problem ive ever had was a cold solder connection.  All of them do it a one time in their life.  it didnt cost much to fix, and the shop charged me 85 for programming and tuning diplexer.  The shop i use has a lot of these inservice as community repeaters.  mine work great, keep it around 25-33 watts.

[Jake313]

I have one of these in service now and I love it. From what I understand the low power setting is 25 watts and the high is 45 watts. If I wanted to dial the high down to 33 watts as mentioned in the previous post, that can be done through the RSS correct? I'm assuming I'll also need a watt meter for this as well. I might even only dial it down to 40 watts high since the repeater is not very active. 

[Tim]

if you want the PA deck to last a long time keep it at 25 watts at this power level the repeater is 100% duty cycle at 45 watts it only 50% duty cycle we have one that had a bad PA and I put a 10 watt gm300 PA deck on it set it to 6 watts and put a 10 db Attenuator on it now has a 1/4 watt out driving a msr2000 PA set to 50 watts and it dont get hot only warm plus we have 2 cooliing fans on the PA deck the best thing to do with a 1225 repeater is set it to 10 watts and get a TPL amp that takes 10 watts to drive it and you'll never have to worry about the PA deck by the way I got the 1225 with bad PA for $5.00 one hell of a buy

[JohnE]

this is the same way I run my 650.

have a Kenwood TKR850 running 3W into a Johnson 1010 PA that can do 110w/15in. the amp was rated 100% duty cycle at 100W and could be pushed to 125, never went beyond that though. as a side note if tuned properly will only pull 17A of current.

this set up will run all day & night as long as the power supply keeps up.

[Steve]

I know this thread is a little old but I just wanted to say that I just purchased on of these repeaters. 

 

(some of you have been following my repeater build with my two kenwood radios, I am still going to build that as a learning experience and then decide what to do with everything later, i just could not pass up what I believed to be a great deal for this repeater, at home, low usage, low RF area (my roof) and possiblly portable for camping trips which I've always wanted to be able to do.)

 

The guy I am buying from is programming and tuning the duplexer it for me, his brother is a M tech, so that's pretty good news.   It comes with the standard controler with roger beep and hang time and CWID.  Okay, so what I'm trying to find out is does anyone know more about the basic controler, if the roger beeps are programmable to something custom, it would be annoying to hear "beep!" every time (I prefer the soft sounding "boop" at the end and a few seconds of hang time).  

 

So I was thinking, as a next step, I would look into 3rd party controlers for this unit.  That's what I'm trying to find out more about.  (the manual is no where to be found online)  So i'm trying to find out, what are the features of the basic controler, such as what options for beep, hang time, ID intervel, can i set the ID to only ID during active use and then shut up and be quiet while the repeater is not being used, etc.   Then what controlers will work with it?  Any?  Can i just use my exsisting elektra 2000 controler if i just make a custom cable and tell the software that its using an external controler?    To be specific in my question, is it limited to ONLY a speical kind of controler(s) or can it be any controler.   If i can some day intergrate (with a custom cable) my elektra 2000, I can then have the Voice ID and custom tones and beeps that I like.   

 

The main points I have understood from this thread and other threads is to run it low power (I dont think i need more than 10w) and watch out for cold soder joints on the Power Amp.  Also the power supply might go bad some day. ...and this is great for low duty.    ....and if i ever want to put it up somewhere with other radio gear, i'll have to get a better notch filter / duplexer and maybe run it low into a seperate PA.  I dont see that happening anytime soon but its what I understand.

 

Over the summer, I might want to look at running it off 12v battery as DIY.   I know there is a kit from M that will allow the unit to kick over to DC when the AC is gone, but I'm not looking for that.  I will run it AC at home, or DC in the field on batteries and solar, by passing the AC power supply.  However that's like 3 or 4 steps ahead of where i'm at if you know what i mean. i'm just shareing my thouhgts for the future use.  

 

At this point, I just want to get it set up and start testing the coverage area around my home.   

[gortex2]

There is a few controllers that came as options with the 1225. The basic internal controller is the best i have found. I have mine set for ID only and they work fine. There was a Zetron controller that many added to give phone interconnect and other features. Personally unless you need a special feature stick with the basic programming. Using the internal controller is the best. To change to an external controller you need to reprogram it for external control. 

[zap]

From what I remember of the GR300/500 controllers (minus the RICK which doesn't have internal ID capability) the courtesy beep can be set from 300-3000 Hz if it's used. What I don't remember is whether or not that beep can be sent with PL disabled. 

 

What a lot of guys will do here locally (amatuer or GMRS) in conversions is use an aftermarket tone board, not run the audio through the tone board filters (to strip the PL) so it just pushes it out the transmitter. When the repeater ID's or gives a courtesy tone it doesn't have a PL encode so it won't open squelch unless your radio is operating in CSQ or you have a Motorola with the microphone out of the hanger.

 

I think in a bunch of the Motorola controllers it can be set...I just don't know how to do it.

[Steve]

...When the repeater ID's or gives a courtesy tone it doesn't have a PL encode so it won't open squelch unless your radio is operating in CSQ or you have a Motorola with the microphone out of the hanger....

that is an awesome idea..... i wonder if the unit can do that with the standard controler and not the after market tone generator, decoder, etc.

 

The guy is programming it this week, i should have it next week.  i asked him to have ch1 on the radio as my GMRS frequency (575 in this case) low power, and then ch2 on the radio, the same settings but high power.   for tones, i asked for PL on the in and a different PL on the out for extra privacy.   i will ID when i use it, at this point, its gonna run at home, so i'll be the only one using it.    i'll get a programming cable and dig for the software and then later i can enable the ID and other options.

[zap]

Should be able to strip PL from the ID. It's a common function on modern Moto radios (nearly all of them either have a dedicated PL defeat pin or a assignable on the accessory connector).