System Cost?

[SKYNET156]

Hi All.

I am just wondering what the cost of 1 single site LTR or Passport system would be?

This is just an idea i have brewing, it may or may not ever happen, but i am just wondering,

Say i have 5 mobiles used as bases and 50 portables used for business operations and about 10 backup radios?

All of the equipment would be used onsite and never leave and it would need to omit enough wattage to cover a 2 story building of 50,000, including a basement and 60 acres of land,

and at this time the system would support about 20 talkgroups,

I tried going through a radio vendor in charlotte, but it has gotten me nowhere because they make you feel like you should be walking out the door with a $500,000 system that day,

So i am asking here what the cost of the equipment might be to set up a single site trunking system like the one above?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[slicerwizard]

If you want to keep costs down, you're not interested in PassPort.

[SKYNET156]

So, in a long story short, Just LTR Standard would be the most cost efficient option?
We are going to have to many users to use conventional channels, and i talked alot about FCC cost in the last few weeks with a few friends, and the cost for the Conventional channels Vs. Licensing for trunking channel use are drastically different from what i understood, but i could be wrong,

But Trunking is our best option that me and a few co-owners/friends talked about for daily use,

I am not sure the cost of a Type II or Smartnet/zone system would be, but i haven't considered the option yet because i know that just the Smartnet/zone controllers can alone be very costly, but i have found limited information on Smartnet/zone system cost yet, i am still in the midst of researching cost options and user flexibility.

[zz0468]

Originally Posted by SKYNET156

I tried going through a radio vendor in charlotte, but it has gotten me nowhere because they make you feel like you should be walking out the door with a $500,000 system that day

That price tag doesn't seem out of line with what you're asking for.

[greenthumb]

Motorola doesn't sell SmartNet or SmartZone systems anymore, so anything you would get or find would be off of the used market. And that may be a way to go if you can find a local government entity that is surplusing most of an old system that they have upgraded.

[SKYNET156]

that is something that i was highly considering, i have seen controllers and repeaters sold at a low cost, so i am looking into that possibility

[wayne_h]

What kind of channel/talkgroup capacity are you looking for? LTR or some of the newer digital technologies (MOTOTRBO, NEXEDGE, etc) that support, or will support, trunking would be viable choices.

I would forget looking at any type of Motorola trunking. Especially if it's used and you're not familiar with the hardware. Even something like Harmony would be too costly for you.

[SKYNET156]

cost is the biggest issue, i have spoken with someone that is dealer out west and they told me that they can set me up with a 900mhz type II system set up for around $12,000,
but that also means that i still have to go through and get approved in the licensing stage of things as well as have a motorola tech come out and program the repeater and duplexer and also the trunking controller and issue a system key,
so i am figuring around $17,000 used, but that will not be with a motorola service agreement, so, if things go south with the system, im pretty much out of luck,
so at this time i am evaluating other low cost systems,

[pachanga22]

A 3 channel LTR system would more than handle 55 users. I think everything you need could come in under 10K.

[qball]

I just looked up a couple of things for you. Say you are going to put in a 4 channel LTR system on UHF, this is an estimated cost.

4 Kenwood TKR850 repeaters - $5,600.00
LTR controller - $6,000.00
4 power supplies - $1,500.00
4 channel TX combiner - $10,000.00
4 channel RX multicoupler - $2,500.
2 antennas - $2,000.00
200' coax - $1,500.00
connectors - $50.00 ea
misc wire, connectors, cable - $1,000.00
1 week technicians time (1 tech at $90/hr) - $3,600.00
Licenses and licensing services - $2,400.00
55 Radios (at $700 ea) - $38,500

The way I figure it, you are in for $72,400.00 pre-tax.

Oh, do you have a 100' foot tower to put the stuff on?

This is all a rough guess and most of the prices were derived from Tessco.com or google.com searches. It isn't cheap to run a system, but Nextel would cost you $3025.00 per month. At that Nextel rate, it would take just a few years to make the trunking system worth the capital expense.

You could probably install two UHF repeaters for around $10,000.00. I just bought 2 antennas and feedline to mount the antennas at 100' ea, (2) 100w amplifiers, 2 power supplies, and had the antennas installed for almost $7000.00. I already had the repeaters and radios.

I hope that this helps!