WX alerts on GMRS

[gdavis316]

Which reecom model?

[quarterwave]

I found the 1650 on eBay, was just looking for the basic 1630, but found the other one at a bargain price. 

 

I'm going to direct interface it to a Motorola Radius (low power) mobile and use as a control base to the repeater. I have worried about having "control"...my repeater is a MTR2000 so it's 100% duty cycle, but has a TOT of course, and I'm not worried about it, but just that something can get stuck on the air. So, I think the control base idea with the right TOT on it is best, and I am also looking at a WeMo web enabled outlet/switch where I could just shut off power to the control base power supply remotely if something were to happen and it hung on the air. 

 

Also juggled the notion of just putting this on a separate base station / it's own frequency. I use 2 different pairs now, and always scan 675 in my radios too...so maybe a base on 675 with the wx alerts only would be good. There are no other repeaters anywhere near me...so channel usage is not an issue. 

[zap]

So it's 1050 Hz paging…a GM300 should be able to handle it just fine. You really only have to use something like a NHRC 3.1 or a similar setup that will allow the crossing of systems together. Many alerts also send a 1050 Hz post tone these days…

 

You could also use a controller that has a 30 - 45 second TOT on the "WX input" side that could be easily wired to reset the radio in the instance.

 

I've toyed with adding WX alert to a local GMRS repeater or two. Would certainly be interesting. 

[quarterwave]

Update...so far (waiting on a real alert) so good. This went together in about 30 minutes, very slick interface. So, as my luck runs it probably won't stay working...ha ha ha. I can manual key it, and the WX audio is good. So with the WX radio alarm output set to "switch", I have it tied to PTT and Ground through the mic jack, and then also used TX audio there too..so this is all working through the mic jack on a OLD Radius M100. I used a regular LAN patch cord to take it over to a 8 Pin jack, then just tied the lines from the 1/8" jacks down to the appropriate places in the 8 pin jack. Takes a couple minutes to get your pin #'s translated from radio to jack, but it's easy. 

 

I used this old M100 I have, because I don't care if I do something to blow it up. I have had it for a long time, it actually was the first "tester" radio the shop got, so it has to be late 80's, when they started making M100's. It's so old, it doesn't look like the M100's you commonly see (or use to), the face is Gray instead of Black, the buttons are Gray, not translucent, as it didn't have backlit buttons, and it has "Radius" screened on the top of the face, which was not on production models. I think this one was a pre-production demo. It was a shop goat for years, then it was deemed parts or junk, and I got it to use for GMRS. That was a long time ago. 

 

It has been repaired many times, and used as a guinea pig, don't think it was ever installed in a vehicle in its life, but it is beat up. One of the tech put a new final in it one time, and it's a 5 watt unit now. I can get about 8-9 if I crank it up, but it will TX for several minutes at 5 watts without getting warm. 

 

One issue with it is I cannot get into the Radio Wide settings to change the TOT, it is set for 30 seconds. So, I am going to use it to see if this works ok, and then I may have to switch it so I can actually adjust the TOT. I have several 5-10 watt M120's, so once the interface is proven, I can change it out. 

 

I set it up this way so that is was a control base or base, and not directly attached to my repeater, I can keep easier control on it that way. 

[quarterwave]

Update. I did swap to a M120...and I run about 8 watts to hit the repeater from my house. It tests and alerts for my area (FIPS/SAME coded) reliably for a couple of months now. I am limiting the TX to 45 seconds now which give you time to hear the core of the message if it's a severe alert. 

 

Still pondering making a base out of it at the tower site...just make it go out on 675 rather than be on one of the repeaters. 

 

I guess the big takeaway is the very simple setup using a minimum of equipment works well. 

[quarterwave]

I took down my second repeater that this weather control base was hitting. I want to put it back up in a new location, maybe this Spring. In the mean time, I programmed another M120 and took it to the site and swapped it in, so it's a 40 watt base station now, used for WX alerts only. Just heard the test go out at just after 11 as I was sitting at work in my office. The repeater was only running about 15 watts, so this should fill in coverage better. I will say, the setup has been reliable. 

[zikada]

Something like this?

 

https://youtu.be/IzU-7-AUxaQ 

[zap]

So I learned something interesting today.

 

Per QC-II help hints in the HT1000 RSS I learned that you can set both tone A and tone B to 1050 Hz, then enable the auto reset timer (I don't know how you edit that though). When the reset timer expires, it will reset the radio and return the radio to QC-II mode regardless of a present signal or not...which is what is needed with a transmitter that never unkeys.