skydiver297 wrote: > I have been tasked with researching what is needed for a non profit > organization that is involved in Wilderness Search and Rescue within > our County. > > Right now, we have a frequency of 155.1 but have not yet applied for > a second freq. It will have to be in the Public Safety Range for VHF. > > We are looking to outfit a Mobile Command unit and need a 50 watt > repeater that will work inside a mobile command without having to run > a huge generator just to run the repeater. > > Ideally, we would get a Duplexer as we don't usually have room to > place 2 antennas.
It's going to be tough. Unless you can get an input frequency more than about 4-5 MHz away from your output freq, a duplexer is going to be very large (think 2'x2'x3.5'), very touchy (easily damaged/detuned in a mobile environment), and very expensive (think upwards of $1000). At 5MHz separation, there are some smaller, less expensive "mobile" type duplexers become available. Also look at dropping your power out requirement. 50W is too much in a Comm Van. 20W will be plenty. Trust me. You're going to be talking to 5W handhelds, so you're already over matched. And the less power you can get away with, the better, because of interference issues. Since you don't have much room for antennas for other radios, they will all be closer than desirable, and there will be interaction. Keeping power levels down will minimize that. > We are kind of looking at the Motorola GR1225 repeater but would like > to get opinions on this radio and any others that you can suggest. > > Is a 16 channel unit overkill for what we need? > > Thanks > Ray Yes. If there is a single channel version, go that way. You won't be able to change channels anyway because of the duplexer.
