MOTOTRBO BDAs or extra repeaters

masstech · May 22, 2018

Are there any known problems with DMR going over BDAs?

Need to do pricing comparison to see if BDAs are more cost effective than additional IPSC repeaters and analyze how many BDAs we'd need for the frequencies we have, to close some dead zones in coverage.

The SLR 1000 looks like a great alternative to using BDAs, but need to see if there is a duplexer inside, how far these things need to be spaced apart, and if there is a battery inside or if all power is external. It's also close in cost to a full size repeater.

XTS3000 · May 22, 2018

Have a Cap+ multisite system using a fiber optic BDA to connect the two systems and it works perfect. The lower basement level has 4 XPR8400 and the antenna system is Radiax. The master basement XPR8400 feeds into the fiber BDA system, and routes to the upper most floor where there at 6 XPR8400’s for areawide coverage with a high gain antenna.

I’d stay away from the SLR1000. I don’t think it’s been even released yet and don’t know if even has a duplexer. It’s power is only 10 watts. For the same price, you can get the SLR5700 and buy a $200 Cellwave duplexer, which I’ve had great luck with.

Then there is the SLR8000, which can be a regular repeater and a base station at the same time. There is a duplexer option you can buy for the SLR8000, but you HAVE to buy the preselector as well. If they require you to buy a preselector with the duplexer, that kinda says to me that the duplexer isn’t very good.

Hope this helps you out a little bit in your decisions.

JRayfield · May 23, 2018

Can you hear the main site? If so, then Voting System/Receivers might be a better alternative. They work great with IP Site Connect or Cap+/Cap+ Multisite.

John Rayfield, Jr.

masstech · May 25, 2018

Mixing both of your ideas together. Now thinking of using old hardware as receive only and networking them to the master site. We have some XPR 8300 only 40W and we want to look at SLR 8000s for the upgrade to fill in some imbalanced coverage gaps with extra power on the repeater side.

Maybe we have different problems, but we already need preselectors - lots of FM stations so we have preselectors anyways in our combiner duplexer system.

Completely forgot about what we were going to do with our old repeaters - this is a great idea, even if they are already end of life/support. Thank you all.

Project25_MASTR · May 25, 2018

I've currently got some 800 MHz Connect Plus that works without a hitch with some BDA systems (non-channelized variants) as I'm close enough in frequency and lease the same tower used as a simulcast sub-site for the local P25 system (essentially I work with almost every BDA using that site as a donor site).

To answer XTS3000's question, yes the SLR1000 does have an internal duplexer. If it were me, and in-building coverage were the end goal, a SLR1000 can be cheaper than a BDA and you could just run it straight into the DAS one would utilize with said BDA.

MOTOTRBO BDAs or extra repeaters

masstech

Member

XTS3000

Member

JRayfield

Member

masstech

Member

Project25_MASTR

Millennial Graying OBT Guy

Similar threads