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Reviews For: ICS Basic Repeater Controller

Category: Ham Repeater Controllers

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Review Summary For : ICS Basic Repeater Controller
Reviews: 7MSRP: 83.95
Description:
Values entered in Volts, Seconds, WPM (Even Fractional)
COS & CTCSS inputs for repeater RX (can be ANDed)
Control Receiver COS and audio inputs
38 Commands available (Four new ones! V1.09)
Separate control receiver inputs - Has Priority
5 LEDs to indicate controller status
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.ics-ctrl.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0073.9
KG9DW Rating: 2014-08-18
Worked for 1 year Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Worked great for one year, then company appears to have gone out of business. No response from emails, and website says no more product. I have a $100 circuit board that goes into a key down mode that isn't useful as a repeater controller! Stay away!
KC5TDG Rating: 2010-03-06
Great product Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I gave this a 4 because I had to call tech support to find out if I had to install a diode or not, because the parts list did not show it, but the schematic did. Brian was very helpful and answered my question right away. This controller works perfect, I did everything it was suppose to. The beacon mode is a nice feature to have! I upgraded to the RC210 for the bells and whistles. The manual is kinda hard to understand on some subjects, but it will get you there!
K4RCC Rating: 2009-11-25
Good, stable basic controller.. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Works as advertised. Good value for the money. My only 'gripe' is the audio.. Mine seems to 'amplify' white noise.. I don't understand it, and it's difficult to explain, but there is some sort of artifact on noisy signals. Almost like the thing boosts the noise.. Sounds great on quiet signals though.. YMMV though.. 73's
W9NUP Rating: 2009-10-08
Nice Basic Controller Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the kit. Assembly time was a couple of hours.

Setting up the DTMF input, I found an oscillation on the U3 op-amp chip which restricted the window for the DTMF lvl. A .1 ufd across the U3 power pins eliminated the problem.

I give it a "4" rating as I agree with previous statements about the manual. Also the pc board needs to be revised as some parts are no longer used creating a void on the board.

All in all a nice little controller that works as advertised.
VE2JKA Rating: 2008-10-04
Gained a point! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
After careful consideration and extended tests, this controller is a good value vs cost. ICS (Brian) Have very good service & support.

I am still a little dissatisfied with the manual, however that's only my personal opinion.



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Earlier 3-star review posted by VE2JKA on 2008-08-10

Yet another controller that requires more than one visit to the site :( ... Quite buggy, don't like the audios produced..

Big 0/5 for the manual.

Quite disappointed will not buy another.


FORMER_K6KDK Rating: 2004-11-28
Strong Features, Low Price Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
If your idea of a repeater is a solid reliable "form follows function" machine, and not a "Chatty-Kathy Doll" with so may useless bells and whistles that no one could possible understand or use, then the ICS Basic Controller may be what you are looking for.

The ICS Basic Controller represents a tremendous bargin in a simple uitility controller. It is a well made high quality board. The software is well de-debugged and follows a simple easily learned logic pattern. All this, and the price of admission is very low.

A feature of both the ICS Basic Controller and their Linker IIa Board is the implimentation of a true Control Rreciever input that takes "prority" over the Repeater if the system control operator sends DTMF tones to this "control only input port". This is a feature lacking even in some very expensive controllers, and, besides complying to the letter of the FCC law, it gives the repeater owner a nice warm fuzzy sense of security that this controller will be almost impossible to jam or high-jack by an intruder.

The company answered a few support emails from me within 24hrs and showed good responsiveness to my questions. Also they shipped the unit off my Pay Pal internet order in just a few days. I reccommend that if you are shopping for a controller that you download the User Manual from their web site and give it a read to see if the Basic might fit the bill. Speaking of the User Manual, this is probably the only negitive in the whole mix. The manual is in need of a good proof reading, if not a complete re-write. There are some horrible gramatical constructions that would probably have given my high school english teacher a heart attack, and there are some out right errors that a proof reading would have caught. (examples: Function Code 53, which is the Clear All DTMF Command Lines" function is mistakenly described as "To allow the user to keep the IDer from operating". Also there are sentence constructions like " The control a control reciever gives you is necessary for automatic control."

But the bottom line is that the unit is top quality and I would highly reccomend it.

-Dan K6KDK
W5GNB Rating: 2004-04-17
Nice and simple.. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This controller is very easy to connect, setup, and use. The tech support from the company is superb. I have had mine operating for about three months now and it has been flawless.
Great product and highly recommended!!