Re:building a repeater out of 2 Kenwood TK-830G's > Why would you want to? > > Surplus Kenwood TKR-820 units are readily available for $300 > and less. I have seen at least 30 sold in last 3 months on > eBay. These purposes built units have the power supply, > interface, BEEFY heat sinks for the TX RF transistors and > sometimes even the UHF duplexer !
A few more talking points regarding the use of a TK-830 mobile RF Deck in Repeater Operation versus a TKR-820 The TKR-820 requires the use of the KPT-50 programmer, which not a lot of people have. I as a Kenwood Dealer happily sell them... but they are expensive unless you can find one used. In case you didn't notice... the TKR-820 Repeater "RF Deck" is also the TK-820 mobile radio mounted in a box. Portions of the circuit are of course different for the repeater but the chassis (heat sink) is pretty much the same animal. The normal internal Duplexer is just a "flat-pack" what a lot of people call a "mobile" style and having it inside the repeater chassis is not really a big deal. It's much better to replace the internal Duplexer with a more traditional "full size" BpBr unit, making the use of an external Preamp and RF Amplifier much more practical. Don't get me wrong... I have a fair number of TKR-720 and TKR-820 repeaters (and the TKB Base Stations) in operation. I'm just trying to toss out reasonable reasons why there is nothing wrong with making a repeater out of the TK-830/890 Mobile Radios and that running those radios at their rated output is normally not going to cause problems in most examples. In case some of you haven't noticed... many of the current "desk top repeaters" are pretty much mobile radios in a box, which is nothing new really. 50 cent plug... When Narrow Banding is officially jammed down our throats... I stock and sell the factory Narrow Band Kits for the TKR-720 and the TKR-820 Repeaters... that is all... "Resume All-Skate", "All Skate Slowly and Safe" thanks cheers, skipp
