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TKR-750 opinions

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emtunderwood

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What is everyone's opinion on a TKR-750? Good, bad, things to lookout for and reasons or considerations on better equipment. Also, was told that encryption can be pushed across a analog conventional system.. I've never heard of this.. Whats your suggestions
 

mmckenna

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The TKR-750 is scheduled to be "end of life'd" in September of 2017. Kenwood shows the NXR-710K as it's suggested replacement. That doesn't mean that support for the TKR-750 will vaporize, it just means that getting parts, software updates will grow more and more difficult. Also, knowledge will eventually erode and the trained/experienced people rotate out.

Decent repeater if the entire system is set up properly. We're using a TKR-850 at one of our sites, but it's turned down to 5 watts.

Using analog encryption will pass right trough these repeaters, that's not an issue.

I'd consider looking well into the future for your designs. While a simple analog repeater may work fine right now, be looking 10 years or more into the future of any of your designs. Not sure how long you plan on running this system, some will push their system until it fails then replace. Some agencies will have a depreciation scheme with a planned replacement date on the horizon. Depends on what you need. I usually try to plan out 10 years and figure on replacing at that point, especially for anything public safety related. Waiting for it to fail, then trying to secure funding, etc. can be a hard way to do this.

I'd look at one of the newer repeaters that can handle analog now and P25 or other digital mode later on with a software/firmware/licensing upgrade. While it may cost fractionally more now, that will probably cover you well out for 10 years at least.

In other words, I'd personally be hesitant to invest in analog only gear at this point, especially something that has an expected life span of 10 years or more. It might save you money today, but it's likely that in the long run it's going to cost a lot more.
 

emtunderwood

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I knew that the TKR-750 is going bye-bye in the near future. For our county, the Sheriffs department and city are digital w/ P25 and the city fire department and county EMS will be changing as well probably to a digital system. They are using Quantars with P25 on conventional system. And what we are running into is the quantars are no more and the GTR for digital P25 are running 40k, which neither our fire department, city or county agencies can really afford that... I know it would be nice but we have compromise somewhere. Most everything in the city and county sheriffs departments are using NX-220 digital w/ P25... I'm sure we will follow suit within 1yr time with NX-5700 but want to be able to use P25 as well... But the NX-5700 is what we were looking at and can afford for 2 repeaters and misc. equipment. But they don't do P25 unless there's firmware update for that. Also, was told of a JPF card to be added to allow P25. What is your take on this situation?
 

mmckenna

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You said "NX-220 digital w/ P25", that's not an option on those. The NX-220 will do analog and NXDN, not P25.
The NX-200 can be reflashed to do P25, or they can buy the TK-5220, which is the same chassis as the NX-200 with P25 and no NXDN.

Edited:
I apologize, I'm confused, I was under the impression the NXR-5x00 repeaters could be updated to run P25, and I was wrong. Ignore what I said about that.
 
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mmckenna

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So, let me humbly backtrack here…

If P25 is something that is absolutely going to happen in the near future, then I'd take a closer look at all this. Problem is you are going to have a hard time making this all work in your budget.

You might have to do a phased approach. Go analog now and utilize what funding you have. Then approach the P25 upgrade as an entirely separate project with it's own budget. The budget you currently have is going to limit what you can do.

Kenwood is selling the Tait TB9100 as their P25 repeater option, and that's going to throw your budget out the window and run over by a dump truck.

So, unless you can get them to increase (double?) your budget, you are kind of hosed.
 

emtunderwood

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Then we are needing a system that we can upgrade to P25 in the future... Any ideas?... Since the TKR-750 is out of the question..
 

emtunderwood

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24k total for both.. We had to move sites, had to purchase new nema enclosure, new coax antennas, etc and construction costs have already been taken care of.. As we are renting space and lost our current site and had to build to their specs.. Nothing else suitable in the area.. $24k is total for both systems.
 

RodStrong

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You can get a rock solid Tait P25 repeater for less than half the cost of one from the mothership. Just sayin'.

Regarding your question about the TKR's. Have a couple in use and I am pleased with them.
.
 

lmrtek

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I still have a many TKR-750s and 850s in service and they are a cheap solution for analog communications

For those who prefer digital, I've installed Kenwood NXR-810s with great results and they are also very affordable

NEXDN digital audio is FAR better than DMR and Motorola audio

For years I couldn't even recommend a decent digital repeater because the only game in town was Motorola and they sounded horrible

NEXDN is the way to go
 

kayn1n32008

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I still have a many TKR-750s and 850s in service and they are a cheap solution for analog communications

For those who prefer digital, I've installed Kenwood NXR-810s with great results and they are also very affordable

NEXDN digital audio is FAR better than DMR and Motorola audio

For years I couldn't even recommend a decent digital repeater because the only game in town was Motorola and they sounded horrible

NEXDN is the way to go



Have to agree. Played with both 12.5KHz and 6.25KHz NXDN with NX2/700 portables and mobiles. The audio is much better sounding than DMR or P25.
 

microx

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RFT (RF Technologies) has taken over for DX (They were actually the parent company making the DX equipment) and they have a line out called Eclipse 2 which can be analog & P-25. Pretty cost-effective if I remember right. Might be a thought to look into.
 

KK6ZTE

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I don't know if this is the case in this situation or not, but some grants can require the equipment to be P25 capable.
 

n1das

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What is everyone's opinion on a TKR-750? Good, bad, things to lookout for and reasons or considerations on better equipment. Also, was told that encryption can be pushed across a analog conventional system.. I've never heard of this.. Whats your suggestions

Watch out for issues with the PA in the 750 and especially the 850. I have a TKR-850 with the original Version 1 PA that was notorious for failures. Mine had to be repaired 4 times to get it to be reliable. The first two times were by Kenwood and the last two times were by ME. I found and nailed the root cause of a lot of the problems and mine has been bulletproof reliable ever since for the past 10 years. If you can keep the PA reliable, the 850 is a great repeater for GMRS and it even has Part 95 type acceptance in addition to Part 90. Kenwood later made a Version 2 PA board for the 850 to address the high failure rate in the Version 1 PA. For anybody looking to get an 850, make sure it has the newer Version 2 PA board.

The 850 is now in need of a 44.395MHz crystal for the 2nd LO in the receiver. 44.395MHz is an oddball frequency (3rd OT type crystal) and hard to find. I may get a crystal from a donor board from a junked Kenwood mobile if I can find one. I'm fixing the 850 up for a GMRS repeater project in the works.
 
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