Members Input Needed.

[WRTM295]

As some of you my know in April of 2024 our system was totaled by a lightning strike. Right now we are using a small repeater the RT97. One of the member of our group showed us this Repeater system shown below . With a duplexer installed what would your opinion be on this setup. Please keep it serious.

[Jaay]

20 minutes ago, WRTM295 said:

As some of you my know in April of 2024 our system was totaled by a lightning strike. Right now we are using a small repeater the RT97. One of the member of our group showed us this Repeater system shown below . With a duplexer installed what would your opinion be on this setup. Please keep it serious.

If it does the job for you, that's what is most important. Screw all other opinions.

[Socalgmrs]

Seriously if it works great.  I would not count on it working very long but it may get you through.    But for the $530 price tag a good used 40w Motorola can be had on eBay ready to hook up coax and antenna and go. 

[Jaay]

10 minutes ago, Socalgmrs said:

Seriously if it works great.  I would not count on it working very long but it may get you through.    But for the $530 price tag a good used 40w Motorola can be had on eBay ready to hook up coax and antenna and go. 

You're BEING an ASS AGAIN !! 

[WRUE951]

i have a similar setup up, two Maxon 8402's in a Fat 50 Ammo can, duplexer mounted on the exterior and she works fantastic for my portable camping operation.   Any pair of decent radios and a controller if needed should be fine. although you may have to shield for descent. Im sure you know, your antenna is going to be the main factor.  get her going 

[nokones]

6 hours ago, Jaay said:

You're BEING an ASS AGAIN !! 

Why is he being an ass again? He may always be one of those "Some People" who is not every ones favorite person, but was his post asinine because the context of the post does not have merit or is inappropriate, or just because of who he is on the forum? His post is a valid question and it amazes me why people with limited funds continue to waste their money on cheap inferior products that have a high risk of failing and if they would have spent their limited monies on a product that is of a lower risk of failing would be further ahead in not wasting their monies and their valuable time. 

If the said repeater is for a community to have some type of an emergency communications net it should be with a known reliable product and not be a high risk with the possibility of the system failing and being unreliable. Cheap Pandaland products have no place of being used in any important system that need to be reliable and robust for any emergency type of communications involving the preservation of human life or property.

[WRTM295]

I'm asking you guys for your input. This Repeater was someone's ideal. I'm not familiar with is setup. Here another repeater system that was brought up to use. Any opinion on this?

[Jaay]

12 hours ago, nokones said:

Why is he being an ass again? He may always be one of those "Some People" who is not every ones favorite person, but was his post asinine because the context of the post does not have merit or is inappropriate, or just because of who he is on the forum? His post is a valid question and it amazes me why people with limited funds continue to waste their money on cheap inferior products that have a high risk of failing and if they would have spent their limited monies on a product that is of a lower risk of failing would be further ahead in not wasting their monies and their valuable time. 

If the said repeater is for a community to have some type of an emergency communications net it should be with a known reliable product and not be a high risk with the possibility of the system failing and being unreliable. Cheap Pandaland products have no place of being used in any important system that need to be reliable and robust for any emergency type of communications involving the preservation of human life or property.

Because his Constant insistence on cutting down people's efforts are tiring ! He speaks shit without thinking first, and a lot of it is incorrect !  I worked with a employee just like this, and eventually it got his nose busted !  SOCAL said This, without any consideration for the op.   "I would not count on it working very long"     How the fuck does he know how long it will work?? HE DOESN'T and shouldn't make assumptions for other people !

[Jaay]

32 minutes ago, WRTM295 said:

I'm asking you guys for your input. This Repeater was someone's ideal. I'm not familiar with is setup. Here another repeater system that was brought up to use. Any opinion on this?

I would suggest reading reviews on it first before making a decision, but that's just me. I read reviews on Anything I consider buying.

[WRYZ926]

There is also the Bridgecom BCR-40U that costs the same as the Baofeng repeater. We have been using one for about 1 1/2 years.

The downside to the BCR-40U is that it does not transmit the CW ID with PL tones. This means that if you have receive tones set on your radio, you will not hear the repeater ID. Otherwise the repeater works well. We bought our Bridgecom without the builtin duplexer since we had a spare one that is better than the builtin one.

Now if I remember correctly the Bridgecom repeaters actually use two Maxon radios inside the case.

 

[WRYZ926]

Another option if you need a top quality repeater for mission critical use is to look for a used UHF Motorola Quantar repeater. They can be configured for GMRS and are excellent repeaters. You can find them for around the same price or less than the Baofeng and Bridgecom repeaters. You will definitely need a seperate duplexer with the Quantar which will add to the overall cost.

[WRUE951]

34 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

There is also the Bridgecom BCR-40U that costs the same as the Baofeng repeater.

 

YEA,  i would consider the Bridgecomm UHF Repeater.  It's using the Maxon 8402A radios which are pretty decent radios, made in S. Korea.  Another option to save a ton of money (i use this setup for my portable repeater) is  two Maxon 8402A radios, daisy chained and programed for repeater use.  

[WRUE951]

37 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

There is also the Bridgecom BCR-40U that costs the same as the Baofeng repeater. We have been using one for about 1 1/2 years.

The downside to the BCR-40U is that it does not transmit the CW ID with PL tones.

 

Open Repeater is free but you need a low end Rasbearry Pie to get around the CW / PL issues.  When i was using my Maxon's for main repeater i had it set up with the Open Repeater Controller, it worked great - Voice, CW, Time etc.   

[WRUE951]

just found this.  I use one of these for my repeater (have two spares  because o got them cheap cheap)..    I would jump on this fast, it won't last.  has the CW built in, works great in Analog and programing software can be easily found on the web.     Programing is also very easy. 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/388241287196?_skw=hytera+repeater&itmmeta=01JRPEFTZ08X1HGRTPVHAS7AX8&hash=item5a64fbe81c:g:23kAAOSwIkxn-U9c&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1e%2BB54XualnWfmh2IwQqtEulw42KYIFMgK5AkRQqwu9wISL1tOHCp7Ose8ZMWvjsntu7j%2F7%2FIMEJPBdIDZPJHAiRKXpz%2BRr1%2FqViHTGK0gIn3GjI35%2BCGoTtiZxWLZtmumMfhYY3c%2BJi8aOdZEXqoJjhGmKH5aptIxg54A126XZhsyg%2FclclDpcL%2F82X3up2hbNCjmTW0Hp7XRy8cTMlwN5RqRClVvDPOPOXHEwaWwpptv9HtY9h0eqTTq4sWMPHFD9q0xVpe3%2FoYXvp13cTFm2jphY6xoWUHEXpSaWr9WtUA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9Kvv87FZQ

[WRUE951]

another Hytera..  Little her than last one i posted but still a good deal    https://www.ebay.com/itm/276997164408?_skw=hytera+repeater&itmmeta=01JRPEFTZ027AFTNB6C4EQ3CQ9&hash=item407e514d78:g:NQgAAeSwHw9n6~Eh&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eE7V0qSPAiEgDsx6SFtLYgU7fchMxEe1bCKP7C%2FO0AlB%2FqVNOSueFJDO57geTAyhAALQNGN70niy%2Bk9NNUQ%2FXBArDdxXyI19j4%2FgninaPcfA9Iu7V5fOdKu3aqZbpmyrKpWqhkWyrXW%2BmHrpM3B1vRVO8qi3otCwQZoqnbdayCHPD2bn9CA0OMZkzfc31N%2B51%2FZugneX7vWoZZK1obFTfea%2FSLW%2FDVfCJJLztHCpmzkbCH6guI3DYlRIwSEhSMAGEgrSXuk1JNh5rgPMhY6oZzQpwhkbY7MwW9NBbZ3hZaDg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9Kvv87FZQ

[WRYZ926]

9 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

Open Repeater is free but you need a low end Rasbearry Pie to get around the CW / PL issues.  When i was using my Maxon's for main repeater i had it set up with the Open Repeater Controller, it worked great - Voice, CW, Time etc.   

We are going to connect our Bridgecom repeater to one of the Arcom RC-210 controllers to take care of the ID issues. We already have two RC-210 controllers at the repeater site and one will have the GMRS and 70cm repeaters connected.

[WRUE951]

2 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

We are going to connect our Bridgecom repeater to one of the Arcom RC-210 controllers to take care of the ID issues. We already have two RC-210 controllers at the repeater site and one will have the GMRS and 70cm repeaters connected.

RC-210 is a nice controller and they work well with the Bridgecomm Repeaters.   Nice Choice  

[WRYZ926]

We have one RC-210 currently connected to our 2m repeater and an Allstar node and we have been pleased with it. And good to know they work well with Bridgecom repeaters.

[WRUE951]

3 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

We have one RC-210 currently connected to our 2m repeater and an Allstar node and we have been pleased with it. And good to know they work well with Bridgecom repeaters.

there aer a few videso out showing how too's and testing.   This one is by Bridegroom.    

 

[WRYZ926]

Yes I have watched those videos along with downloading all of the instructions.

[nokones]

1 hour ago, WRYZ926 said:

There is also the Bridgecom BCR-40U that costs the same as the Baofeng repeater. We have been using one for about 1 1/2 years.

The downside to the BCR-40U is that it does not transmit the CW ID with PL tones. This means that if you have receive tones set on your radio, you will not hear the repeater ID. Otherwise the repeater works well. We bought our Bridgecom without the builtin duplexer since we had a spare one that is better than the builtin one.

Now if I remember correctly the Bridgecom repeaters actually use two Maxon radios inside the case.

 

Most repeater stations do not transmit the tone/code with the Station ID. The station ID is not for you, it is for the FCC.

[WRYZ926]

1 minute ago, nokones said:

Most repeater stations do not transmit the tone/code with the Station ID. The station ID is not for you, it is for the FCC.

The other issue with the Bridgecom is that the ID cuts anyone off if they are transmitting through the repeater. The easy fix is to use an external controller. That way the ID volume will lower and still allow others to transmit at the same time.

[nokones]

About 3 years ago, I bought a brand new rack mount Motorola Repeater still in the box for $700, not including the duplexer. The brand new EMR Corp duplexer ran me about $450.

[nokones]

5 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

The other issue with the Bridgecom is that the ID cuts anyone off if they are transmitting through the repeater. The easy fix is to use an external controller. That way the ID volume will lower and still allow others to transmit at the same time.

My repeater's station ID has a polite mode whereas, the ID will stop when there is traffic and resume from the start.

[WRUE951]

46 minutes ago, nokones said:

My repeater's station ID has a polite mode whereas, the ID will stop when there is traffic and resume from the start.

The Arcom and Open Repeater willl do the same as well as voice if you choose too.