Been there! I helped negotiate a spot for four ham repeaters for an Atlanta-area club on a platform at 1400 feet on a broadcast tower. A true dream site - free rent, free AC power, no commercial tenants at the time, just an FM broadcast station, and permission to put two big NEMA rack cabinets on the platform. Downside - infrequent access.
The club went with Icom for 440 and 1.2, and Maggiore for 2m and 220, using built-in controllers just the way they came. They wanted "newer equipment with a warranty." What a nightmare. The Maggiore 220 machine's controller got stuck in transmit for months before they could get a tech up there, and the others had more subtle problems. A few years later, another chance for a nice site, downtown building rooftop, not as high, but again I was the only one there. No club entanglements. I used a converted GE Mastr II mobile with an S-com 5K, later upgraded to a 7K. It's played there with one PA repair in over 10 years in a sealed, non-ventilated outdoor cabinet, sitting in the Florida sun. (Which, by the way, has never set off the 120*F internal cabinet temp alarm.) The GE was a fraction of the cost, and has better parts availability today than a 10-year-old Icom repeater. 73, Paul, AE4KR ----- Original Message ----- From: wd8chl To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 10:39 PM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Grinch words/list for repeater and radio folks going into 2008 Paul Plack wrote: > ...Your club elected a tech-challenged board, ...and they all actually believe that the made-for-ham repeater equipment is better then commercial grade Motorola or GE simply because it's newer.
