What should I get as a 50w repeater?

[kayn1n32008]

Thank you, but is the 40w output instead of the 50 allowed going to impact my tx range significantly?

Not an inch. To see any significant increase in range you would likely need to go from 40w to 320w (roughly a 9dB increase in power output). Honestly, increasing power output will do nothing more than increase your power bill.

Better feedline and higher antenna will do much more to improve range than more power will. About all more power will do is improve signal penetration into structures

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Not an inch. To see any significant increase in range you would likely need to go from 40w to 320w (roughly a 9dB increase in power output). Honestly, increasing power output will do nothing more than increase your power bill.

Better feedline and higher antenna will do much more to improve range than more power will. About all more power will do is improve signal penetration into structures

In a perfect environment with no ground attenuation…should see about a 10% coverage increase (talking about several thousand miles of coverage to begin with). But the ground is by far the largest attenuator that has to be dealt with and 1 dB is not marginal enough.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[902]

I've been running GMRS and ham repeaters since about 1982. I second what others have said about Bridgecom. I own one, I know what's inside, and it works fine. The support I receive from Ron, the owner, has been above any support I've had in land mobile radio. He's making an honest go at his company and will do just about anything he can for customer satisfaction. That, and everything in a neat, integrated package, made the repeater worthwhile to me. It's also very serviceable and parts are available if you know how to go down to component level. With software programming, the UHF repeater will do multiple CTCSS tones for common use and maybe a different tone for different families of users, or different subgroups. And, it IDs. Yes, you can functionally do that with the CDMs, a power supply, and a Zetron Model 38, but it may all add up in the end, and your only support is looking back at you in the mirror.

I also like the idea of MASTR II, and other commercial grade repeaters. An MSF makes a tank of a repeater and is cost-effective to buy, thanks to narrowbanding making them obsolete for everything except GMRS and ham use.

Many of the crystal companies have gone under thanks to synthesized radios and off-shore manufacturing. The two that I know of, International Crystal and Bomar, have minimum quantity orders that make it quite expensive to buy.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I've been running GMRS and ham repeaters since about 1982. I second what others have said about Bridgecom. I own one, I know what's inside, and it works fine. The support I receive from Ron, the owner, has been above any support I've had in land mobile radio. He's making an honest go at his company and will do just about anything he can for customer satisfaction. That, and everything in a neat, integrated package, made the repeater worthwhile to me. It's also very serviceable and parts are available if you know how to go down to component level. With software programming, the UHF repeater will do multiple CTCSS tones for common use and maybe a different tone for different families of users, or different subgroups. And, it IDs. Yes, you can functionally do that with the CDMs, a power supply, and a Zetron Model 38, but it may all add up in the end, and your only support is looking back at you in the mirror.



I also like the idea of MASTR II, and other commercial grade repeaters. An MSF makes a tank of a repeater and is cost-effective to buy, thanks to narrowbanding making them obsolete for everything except GMRS and ham use.



Many of the crystal companies have gone under thanks to synthesized radios and off-shore manufacturing. The two that I know of, International Crystal and Bomar, have minimum quantity orders that make it quite expensive to buy.

Bomar ceased production of channel element crystals about 2 years ago. It's just ICM now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[N4GIX]

It is possible to buy "used crystals" from salvage dealers, but you take a risk that they might no longer be in calibration...

The other problem of course is that unless you have access to a service monitor, it might prove very expensive to have the receiver and transmitter aligned for your specific frequency.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

It is possible to buy "used crystals" from salvage dealers, but you take a risk that they might no longer be in calibration...

The other problem of course is that unless you have access to a service monitor, it might prove very expensive to have the receiver and transmitter aligned for your specific frequency.

That is why I got into hamtronics receivers and exciters for ham use. Essentially remove everything but the PA and PS from the unit and replace with a controller and $60 tone board. You spend an extra $250 on the equipment versus crystals…but it comes aligned to frequency (also saves a considerable amount of space).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[N4GIX]

That sounds interesting! I was out of the GE LMR business long before Hamtronics came around.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

That sounds interesting! I was out of the GE LMR business long before Hamtronics came around.

Only down side is hamtronics no longer can justify the cost of type certifying their exciters for either Part 90/95.

I'm waiting on MMDVM's developers to get around to P25 so I can repurpose a few old Micor PA's I have.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[902]

Bomar ceased production of channel element crystals about 2 years ago. It's just ICM now.

Oh, wow! I didn't know that! Bomar had an interesting local history to me, having grown up in NJ (as a kid, we'd buy scanner crystals and shake them before we'd leave the store... most of the Bomar ones would clink from having been broken - but they eventually improved, they were also located a few thousand feet away from a girl I almost married 26 years ago). I just read that the employees acquired the company from Bob Citron earlier this year. I guess we can put them in the LMR crystal graveyard along with Sentry from Chickasha, OK.

 

[SCPD]

Adding a little levity to this topic,- which I must say, has been very interesting and informative--- I am going to step back to last week when I posted- and was answer'd about- our Motorola XPR repeater............

Quoting--
......"Coyote, the XPR8300 repeater has really poor heatsinking and a rather inefficient fan. We have had some burn up running above 20 watts............"

and
"Ohhhhhhh My !........... that's not good thing............lol "
"That little Motorola sits in a rack in a back room, maybe we haven't cooked it (yet!) because it has a very limited use... probably measured in minutes per day. At the the same time, Cmdrwill, thanks for the Alert.... I will pass it on to the Tech's and maybe they will power it down to a safer level (they get upset with me if I touch their things.........")
* * * * * * *
.
-----------Okay, that sets the stage. Now to Scene 2," Today:"

I mentioned about the XPR8300 having overheating issues to are Technical department... and I received a very pained, tired look from our head Tech.
...........".Lauri, that repeater was set to 12 Watts on the day we installed it. It's only you and your engineers that like to run things at plus-200% or more duty cycles............"
.
So I walked off chagrined,------ back to what I apparently do the best-- burning up stuff....lol

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Oh, wow! I didn't know that! Bomar had an interesting local history to me, having grown up in NJ (as a kid, we'd buy scanner crystals and shake them before we'd leave the store... most of the Bomar ones would clink from having been broken - but they eventually improved, they were also located a few thousand feet away from a girl I almost married 26 years ago). I just read that the employees acquired the company from Bob Citron earlier this year. I guess we can put them in the LMR crystal graveyard along with Sentry from Chickasha, OK.

I literally paid $20 for 9 GE Custom MVP's I was wanting to build repeaters for literally 4 days after they shutdown production…I was very upset I had to pay twice as much to get them crystalled. In fact, I still haven't touched them now.

 

[902]

I literally paid $20 for 9 GE Custom MVP's I was wanting to build repeaters for literally 4 days after they shutdown production…I was very upset I had to pay twice as much to get them crystalled. In fact, I still haven't touched them now.

That sounds about right. I have a MASTR II and MASTR IIe repeater in the garage that I've wanted to crystal up. For one reason or another (nothing rational), I avoid shipping things, and I've been meaning to recrystal these things to 2 meters for maybe 15 years or more. I probably should break down and send a set of ICOMs to International before they take a dirt nap.

 

[I_am_Alpha1]

Most of this discussion has been based on repeater A vs repeater B and C...I want to know what hardline and antenna the OP has. Hope it's not a fiberglass HAM antenna and LMR-400 (or worse RG-8X). Also if you are worried about heat, add an extra fan or lower the power and add a PA. A local HAM club has 4 repeaters using Motorola mobiles. Each TX radio has a fan on the heatsink with the power turned down and a PA (with a fan) added--been that way for 20 years with a fairly high duty cycle. They have 1 Kenwood TKR with the power cranked down to 1.9W running into a 20W PA--TKRs are nearly impossible to program these days.

Use this website Coverage Prediction to get an idea of how your repeater will work. It's free to register.