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Control Station Recommendation

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emtprt

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Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 21, 2004
Messages
56
Location
Connecticut
I am adding a control station at our dispatch center for second repeater system. This will be used for our Fire/EMS service. The channel will be used at large scale incidents to reduce traffic on the dispatch channel and for administrative purposes.

The control station will also have our primary channel programmed in it and be can be utilized as the primary dispatch link to the dispatch repeater when we have a phone line failure.

I have received multiple quotes from a number of vendors. The control station quotes have ranged from a 40 watt mobile radio interfaced into the dispatch console to a 100 watt base station.

I have limited the choices to a mobile cdm1250 radio with a 9Db gain yagi antenna and preselector or the 40 watt version of the mtr3000 with the same antenna configuration.

The repeater that will be utilized is able to hit the repeater with a portable radio so 40 watts and the 9db gain antenna will should work fine.

I am looking for recommendations and issues that people have had with similar setups.

Thanks
 

jim202

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
2,729
Location
New Orleans region
The big hidden problem that most radio geeks forget about is that the more power a transmitter has, the more interference to other radios in your com vehicle you will have to put up with. What this does is actually mute the receiver of other radios on a weak signal when you key up your high powered transmitter. If there was an important radio traffic coming in when you keyed up your transmitter, it just got blown away and the receiver went quiet.

The second problem that is often ignored is that the higher power transmitter requires more prime power. Do you have enough prime power to be able to key all radios at the same time to make an emergency broadcast?

I have been in several mobile command vehicles that they just insisted they needed to have all 100 watt transmitters. The first time I was in the vehicle, I asked the question if they could provide enough 12 volts to maintain all the radios being keyed at the same time for a broadcast. Well later that day, I was working on an interoperability gateway that had all 16 radios connected. One of the features on the gateway was an all call button that I had recommended that it be removed. Told the people there that I didn't think they had enough power to maintain all the radios at the same time. Well during out testing, we managed to hit the all call button. It shut down the whole vehicle. They had it connected to a shore power feed and it caused the feed breaker inside the building to trip. So as I suggested, the all call button was removed from the gateway.

Do some real engineering when you lay out a com vehicle. Try and keep radio antennas as far apart as your roof space will allow. You can shorten up the distance between antennas of different bands, but don't skimp on distance for antennas on the same band. Use good, well shielded coax, not some of the junk you get at the Radio Shack.
 

SteveC0625

Order of the Golden Dino since 1972
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Oct 24, 2009
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2,795
Location
Northville, NY (Fulton County)
If this unit is intended for use only with a repeater and not in simplex mode, even 40 watts is probably excessive. Since it will be connected to the dispatch console, I am guessing you have a radio room or transmitter room somewhere in the building where the radio and power supply will be installed.

I am a big fan of the CDM radios.They are fairly rugged, inexpensive to purchase, easy to program, and an all around nice unit. I am guessing that since you are looking at the 1250, you need more that 4 channels.

If you can reliably hit the repeater from your center with a portable, a 25 watt CDM (or other radio) should be way more than adequate.
 

fineshot1

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2004
Messages
2,532
Location
NJ USA (Republic of NJ)
I am adding a control station at our dispatch center for second repeater system. This will be used for our Fire/EMS service. The channel will be used at large scale incidents to reduce traffic on the dispatch channel and for administrative purposes.

The control station will also have our primary channel programmed in it and be can be utilized as the primary dispatch link to the dispatch repeater when we have a phone line failure.

I have received multiple quotes from a number of vendors. The control station quotes have ranged from a 40 watt mobile radio interfaced into the dispatch console to a 100 watt base station.

I have limited the choices to a mobile cdm1250 radio with a 9Db gain yagi antenna and preselector or the 40 watt version of the mtr3000 with the same antenna configuration.

The repeater that will be utilized is able to hit the repeater with a portable radio so 40 watts and the 9db gain antenna will should work fine.

I am looking for recommendations and issues that people have had with similar setups.

Thanks

The cdm1250 radio will do just fine and you will probably be best off to turn the power
down on it - no need for 40 watts. Also, no need for a 9dB gain yagi. Any 3 or 5 element
yagi should do the job just fine. It would also be a good idea to have a spare radio and
remote adapter programmed up identically. You never know when lightning will strike
your dispatch center. For all that you would still be better off then spending many more
$ on an MTR3000.
 

emtprt

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 21, 2004
Messages
56
Location
Connecticut
The dispatch center is a regional center that is 10 miles from the repeater site. There are a number of large buildings near the center. The radio will be located in a rooftop utility roof and the antenna will have a 40 foot cable run. We already have 2 spare 9.2 Db gain yagis available so we decided to put 1 to use.
I always keep 2 spare radios available in the event a unit fails so swapping out a CDM1250 would not be an issue. The plan is to program 2 channels in the radio because of the console limitations.
 

Thunderknight

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
2,216
Location
Bletchley Park
Don't forget that you may need to license that as a fixed station as well.
Depending on your height, antenna choice and power out you might fall under the 6.1m rule, but otherwise that is a fixed transmitter that needs licensing as a separate location on your license.
 
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