Fire Department: VHF <-> 700/800 P25 Repeater

[spitzman]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for someone with experience or advice on building/configuring a VHF <-> 700/800 P25 repeater system. My fire department is in a tough position with failing radios and Starcom P25 nearly completed but still 8+ months out. We are currently using a mixture of MACOM radios and Kenwood TK-790H's. Our new P25 radios are Motorola APX 8500's.

I am looking for a repeater that can take our VHF freq and repeat that on a P25 700/800 freq and vice versa for full bridging between our legacy VHF and new P25 Starcom. An alternative would be taking the new Motorola audio out/ mic inputs and somehow connecting that to a controller that would interface also with our older radios. Somewhat like a DIY repeater.

Any input into a solution would be very much appreciated!

 

[Cameron314]

Not a DIY thing. Trying to do that between analog and digital like that will sound horrible.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, not a good idea.

If your existing VHF repeater is failing, a better approach would be to purchase a replacement VHF repeater. Good Quantars are easy to find for a few hundred bucks. Get it tuned up by a qualified tech and use that until the trunked system comes along.

Running a cross band/cross mode repeater like that has the potential to sound like crap. Plus, the Starcom guys probably will not appreciate it. Cross banding between conventional and trunked systems also often comes with a lot of delay challenges that make for unhappy users.

 

[ramal121]

Quite a few departments around here marry their legacy analog channel with a new whiz bang digital system. Doesn't sound bad at all. The only thing weird thing is the analog side, you have the robotic digital voice along with all the static we know and love with analog.

Of course this is done through a patch at the dispatch console. Is this possible for you?

 

[prcguy]

The city of Big Bear Lake, CA fire dept seems to have a VHF link tied to a county 800 system. Maybe you could contact their radio people and have a conversation to see how they did it?

 

[gesucks]

You can not legally connect you VHF to STARCOM with out their express written permission.

THE ONLY PEOPLE YOU NEED TO TALK TO ABOUT THIS MATTER IS STARCOM