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Author Topic: Ready made or build it yourself?  (Read 52008 times)

WB0YLE

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RE: Ready made or build it yourself?
« Reply #15 on: March 09, 2011, 06:44:16 PM »

As a repeater owner and builder I was wondering how many other repeater owners have built their own or assembled their repeater out of something like Motorola or GE equipment. Or just purchase a ready made unit like an Icom. Share your experiences for the rest of us.

Larry W6LAR
147.180+ 88.5 / 445.340- 88.5
Redlands/Yucaipa/Calimesa/Colton/Highland and San Bernardino CA.

I don't know whether I homebrewed, integrated a system, or bought off the shelf...:)

Ok...I did all three.  Let's face it, time is money...so I turned to folks with good reputations (repeater-builder.com) for the Micor high-band conversion to the 1.25 meter band...found some 220 db products bpbr duplexers, repurposed an old PC to run Asterisk app_rpt, bought a few dongles to interface the analog radio to the USB ports on the PC...soldered cables to interface to the radios...figured out inter-can cable lengths and built jumpers, leaned how to use a service monitor to tune the duplexers (109db TX to RX isolation, 1.9 db loss total per side) and hacked at writing config files.  Raised my own antenna, ran my own cable...you name it.

So, bought somewhat off the shelf, melted some solder for others, hacked at programming...and on 15 December...lit up 224.54 in the lower bucks county area of PA...did I build?  Did I buy?  Did I integrate parts from all over?  All of the above...guilty!

And had a great time doing it!

73 Bryan WB0YLE
Allstar 27294
Echolink WB0YLE-R
224.54- 141.3
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W5RDW

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RE: Ready made or build it yourself?
« Reply #16 on: March 17, 2011, 03:19:35 PM »

I just acquired an Icom 220 MHz repeater (RP-2210) along with an antiquated ACC RC-96 controller. The controller I am going to set aside for now in favor of another brand. I have no experience with the Icom repeater and was wondering what should I expect when I put this on the air. I have a good set of Telwave duplexers with around 90 dB isolation. For now, the repeater will be on the bench, but it will probably never be in a high RF environment. 

Any experience (good or bad) you have had with this type of repeater would be much appreciated.

BTW, my input on "Ready Made or Build it yourself” covers all what has been written about so far. My first experience with repeaters was a 2 meter Spec. Comm (ugh) receiver and transmitter followed by a Midland 13-509 220 MHz repeater. I then rebuilt the 2 meter Spec Comm using a Icom 2A for the receiver. I eventually rebuilt the repeater for a short time with a pair of Mitrek’s. After that episode of a few years, our club went the appliance route with a 2 meter Maggiore HiPro and it has worked well for many years. I also have used a Motorola MSF5000 for a 900 MHz repeater. Nice and easy to get working on the ham bands, but big and HEAVY!


Roger W5RDW
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Roger White W5RDW
Murphy, TX
Ham since 1961

K1CJS

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RE: Ready made or build it yourself?
« Reply #17 on: March 31, 2011, 08:01:04 PM »

My experience with them, is that I would take a commercially built one, any day of the week and twice on Sundays.  The pieced together ones around here, were constantly having issues, to the point where people wouldn't even bother to attempt to use them.  The city I used to live in, has had a commercial unit on the air continuously for over 20 years with no problems whatsoever. 

Not to start an argument here, but the way a home built repeater is modified, built and used contributes to its reliability.  If a radio transmitter is run at almost full output, it will last a lot shorter time than one that is set to run at half its rated output.  Also, when doing the mods and the building, don't scrimp on parts.  Get the best parts available, and use quality, name brand components and connectors.  A lot of failures can be traced directly to penny pinching--using cut rate parts.

A club I used to frequent went to a commercial unit repeater from a home built one that was built by a person who could well have been called a master engineer.  When it went down, the whole system was down until the whole repeater could be removed and the spare repeater could be installed and set up.  Sometimes took hours.  If an individual component repeater was used (the one the commercial unit replaced) it would have been a simple matter of unplugging the bad part and plugging a replacement in.  A ten minute job.

In short, to each his own.  Some feel a commercial unit is better, others (who may be more handy doing such things) feel a component type home built unit is better.  It all depends on how YOU feel about it.
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KM3W

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RE: Ready made or build it yourself?
« Reply #18 on: May 13, 2011, 10:17:58 PM »

It would depend.....on whether you are starting out or an old head at it. Just starting out...I'd say yes, build it yourself. There is nothing like the first time you do a smoke test, and it fires right up!! But make sure you have manuals, and hopefully can find an Elmer. Unless you are a radio tech, it can be difficult work.

Frankly, after almost 30 years....I just want to plug and play. I own a Maggiore Hi-Pro UHF machine...and it had been on the air since the mid 80's. But it only puts out 12 watts....the 100 watts amp in only putting out 60 watts or so.

Recently, I bought a Bridgecom for GMRS, and I like it, as it as both more powerful and has a hotter receiver that the Maggiore. Plus, it's commercial grade. So...I think I will buy another one, It has the capability to allow another controller to be installed without taking it apart. Great idea!! Thinking of an Arcom or FF systems (because of the my IC-900 remote bases. 

de KM3W
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N5NPO

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RE: Ready made or build it yourself?
« Reply #19 on: May 14, 2011, 05:43:19 AM »

I work for a Two Way Land Mobile radio company. We sell Kenwood, Icom, Vertex and M/A-Com (now Harris) equipment. We have tons of Kenwood TKR-750's, TKR-751's, TKR-720's, TKR-850's, TKR-820's, TKR-830's, NXR-700's, NXR-800's and NXR-810's... We have sold a few ICOM repeaters with mixed results. We have also sold tons of the M/A-com Mastr III's.
The Kenwood repeaters are hard to beat. They have mechanically tuned preselectors and are very reliable. If you get a TKR-750/751 (VHF) or a TKR-850/851 (UHF) you should have years of great sounding repeater service. They are about as plug-n-play as it comes. They have excellent built in controllers that will do most any function one would need. Sorry no digital voice ID'er or time announcements, etc...
If I was going to go the easy route to get something on the air quick witout hesitation, I would go with a Kenwood...
Having said that, I have "built" or "assembled", retuned, rebanded and repaired several GE Mastr II repeaters. They are hard to beat. If you can get one, and that shouldn't be to hard, there are 1000's of them out there, you will have a well engineered and reliable machine. So far I have built 3 from peices on 2m and 6m and rebuild countless others on 2m and 6m. I haven't worked on any for 70cm yet, my company used to have a dozen in LTR UHF service and I did rebuild a few PA's.
I have enough parts to built a half dozen more right...

If you have the time, go GE Mastr II. If you don't, go with a Kenwood. You won't be sorry.
just my $0.02 worth.
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W0DLR

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RE: Ready made or build it yourself?
« Reply #20 on: June 03, 2011, 05:03:16 AM »

My .02 cents worth. 

I have a Micor that has been going constantly 24/7 for probably 12 years now.  It has a RC100 controler that works flawlessly.
The only time I had problems was with an RC1000 with autopatch.  Lightning got into something everytime a cloud came up (seemed that way anyway)

I took the autopatch off, they are about worthless with cell phones nowdays, and haven't had a  problem since.

I have had experience with factory built and home built.  They are no better than the builder.  If you think one thoroughly through before putting it together and document what you do, you will be ok.  Thats my experience.

If I were doing it again, I would use Micors and Mitreks.  I think the Mitrek is a little easier to convert and smaller in size.  Don't get it too hot, turn the power down and fan it if you can.
73
Dave W0DLR
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