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write your own review of the Computer Automation Technology CAT-1000.
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WA4VBC
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 4, 2011 11:55
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Good
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I have 2 CAT-1000s and found them to be very good. The response fron Ron at CAT has been outstanding.
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RFSOAKED
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Rating: 0/5
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Jul 11, 2008 13:17
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Junk..
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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A pain to program, clock doesn't keep time, needs repair and maintenance that costs as much as a replacement controller from NHRC.
Customer support is horrible, try to get any help from Ron and its "your equipment causing the problem" whatever...
JUNK!
I have since replaced the CAT controllers with NHRC-4's and everything is working flawlessly. Funny how changing the controller fixed it when Ron said it was the repeater..
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K4PDQ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 12, 2008 10:37
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Excellent Controller
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have been using a Cat 1000 on my repeater since 1992 and it has been a real work horse for me. The only time I had problems were from surges coming in on the phone line (even with Polyphaser protection in the phone line). Usually a couple of IC replacements and it was back up. I stopped using the phone patch many years ago (everone has Cells now) and the controller has been basically trouble free since then. I have a Doug Hall remote base and Kenwood 701 and they work fine with this controller. Ron always gives great support for his products and you can rely on this controller.
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N2FDU
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 26, 2005 12:17
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A Real Workhorse!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Our club has 3 CAT-1000s; 2 in service, and one on a repeater taken out of service when a site lease was terminated. All work great; minimal installation issues and easy programming.
Our only problem has been with a remote base function terminating whenever there's a power failure. Other than that, we're satisfied.
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N3ELM
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 20, 2002 15:45
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Outstanding
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Our club has been using the CAT1000 with DVR, Doug Hall interface (Kenwood 701A), and audio delay board since 1995. We have been very impressed and pleased with all aspects. It exceeds our needs and expectations. It is nice to know it can grow with you in the future. Support (Ron) is great. The manual takes some time to get used to. It does not flow well, but the info you need is all there. We bought it along with a Maggorie R1 VHF repeater. The two companies have worked VERY well together. We would buy another CAT1000 in a heartbeat.
Club: WT4RA Smithfield, VA
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WD8DK
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 13, 2001 15:56
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good controller
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Our club recently installed a CAT 1000 controller and Doug Hall Interface. Both components are working perfect. The CAT manual is a little confusing though. Audio quality from the interface can be adjusted by removing capacitors from the board. The CAT can be expanded to include Digital Voice Recorder.
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NB3O
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 13, 2001 12:52
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On the Bench
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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We have two CAT-1000's in operation, one for over 5 years and the other over 1 year. They perform flawlessly and are easy to program using the CAT-1000 32 bit Windows based editor. DTMF tones can also be used to program the units similar to other units.
The CAT-1000 features allow scheduling, user macros, a remote HF rig control port for Kenwood and Yaesu rigs, and a bunch of user defined digital inputs and outputs.
The support and technical assistance after a few lightning strikes has proven to be the best selling feature of this product. Ron has always come through in a quick and timely fashion. He and his partner Al treat their customers as long time friends and are always ready to assist guys like me that are not too computer literate in getting their controllers up and running. They depend on word-of-mouth for a large amount of their advertising.
This unit is economical to repair since the IC's are socketed. The CAT-1000 firmware is field upgradeable. The board uses through-hole components so identifying and replacing a burnt resistor at the telephone interface after a lightning strike on the telco line was easy.
We are currently running one of the CAT-1000's with the weather firmware to operate with a Yaesu VXR-5000 repeater and the Peet Bros Ultimeter 100 weather station. The system reads the wind and rain-fall over the repeater on the hour. We also added the CAT WX-1000 weather receiver to provide severe weather voice announcements over the repeater. This unit costs a bit more than a Radio Shack weather radio, but has a significantly stiffer front end that will not be desensed easily by a VHF high power repeater. It also has a voice synthesizer to announce the text of the weather alert over the repeater at regular intervals. The weather receiver is controlled by the user definable digital inputs and outputs of the CAT-1000. The interconnect cables were very easy to build.
We added the digital voice recorder for club announcements and the audio delay board to eliminate the squelch tail. These options installed in minutes and have superior audio quality.
After looking at the S-Comm and other competitors, the CAT-1000 has offered us more functionality for the money. I would recommend this unit for those that want the Cadillac version of controllers.
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