Joe, your very first stop should be here:
http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/geindex.html be prepared to spend a few hours at least. This site is simply the very best place to get educated about amateur radio repeaters, period. Spend as much time as you need here to get a fundamental understanding of the subject. Then come back here and ask good questions to help you clarify issues/points. - you'll need the MastrII mobile cable, remote, speaker and mike to get started, and yes, unless you want to butcher the lock (not recommended), get a key. I mostly use Robert Parker at CW Wolfe for my MastrII/Mitrek goodies. (see the repeater builder site for vendor info). Or you could get these in ebay - I think I saw a set for bid the other day. I have an extra MastrII set I'll give you if you want to pick up in Charleston SC - please do not ask me to ship, I just don't have the time right now. - you'll need a good RF signal generator to get the radio retuned to 6M. the HP 8640B's are a good choice, you can find them in the ~$300- 400 range sometimes on ebay. Here's one to look at, just do a search for others. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ViewItem&category=25407&item=3868957492&rd=1&tc=photo - repeaters are expensive. Expect at the very least to spend $4-5k for a very simple building top site, more if you need to climb towers, etc. Actually, most of my money for a repeater goes into the controller, duplexer, feedline and antenna. The actual radio portion is only 15-20% of my cost. - consider the Motorola Mitrek series transceiver. Smaller, more sensitive rx, and you can get them at give away prices. - if you want to get serious abt building repeaters, you will need a good service monitor (a few more thousand dollars) - consider 440 band as your first one, everything is smaller and a bit less $$ (ant, duplexer) and with the 5Mhz splits, a bit easier to set up. Yes, you don't get the same range, do get a bit better building penetration in urban areas. - repeaters are fun, repeaters are tempermental, repeaters are expensive, repeaters are very frustrating at times. good luck John/N4SJW --- In [email protected], "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hello group, > I have just purchased a GE Mastr II low band radio to start off my experimenting with some of the available commercial radios and the possibility of one day building a repeater on 2m or 440. I am a tinkerer at heart and would rather build my own stuff than buy it so I'm hoping I will fit in here. From what I have read, MAstr II's are as good a starting place as any and offer some good options for what you can do. I am also looking at tinkering with a Motorola in the future, but for now it's a GE to start with. Hope that was a good choice. > > My goal at first is to get the thing operational on 52.525 to use simplex mobile. This should give me some experience with the radio and its internal workings, tuning, and general operation. I have purchased the bare radio on Ebay as you can see here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3868675552 > I figure the $25 bucks is worth tinkering with it some. Hopefully it has the ICOMs in it since it's locked. > > Here's the questions I have: > 1)Am I going to have to find a key before I can even check this thing out or is there a way to get inside without it? > 2) I am on the lookout for a mike, cables, and control head for this thing now. Are they all the same for the different Mastr II's like the VHF, UHF, low band or am I going to have to find one specifically for 50 MHz? > 3) Where can I find more info about this whole ICOM thing? I understand that they are housings for crystals, but can I just order the right crystals and replace them in these housings? This whole 2C 5C EC thing is confusing. Maybe this will all make sense when I eventually get my hands on the radio. > > Thanks guys, hope these aren't stupid questions. As this is my first attempt at working with any "non ham" radio off the shelf I need a lot of help. I did a search on this list for any info on the Mastr II and didn't come up with much specific info. The repeater builder site has useful information, but some of it is over my head right now and assumes some general knowledge about some things that i just don't know yet. > > Joe > KG4WMP Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
