Thanks Skip. Yes, I figured I might get a few different opinions. I certainly don't want to start a war, though! :-)
Regarding 3rd v. 5th overtone, no real reasoning there. Spectrum's current receiver is a 5th overtone. Our old one is a 3rd. (New crystal needed...) You're a little tuff to pin down on an opinion, though. I see you like Hamtronics well enough to try one of their synthesized models, you have a Hi Pro that keeps on playing like the energizer bunny, and you like Spectrum's audio interface. Haa. Are you a politician by chance? (snicker) I'm not totally satisfied with customer service from Spectrum. That would be one of the things that would hold me back from them. We purchased another repeater some time back and it was apparently shipped with the wrong manual. We tried to make heads or tails of what we saw vs. what the schematic said was there and there were discrepencies. We had to make a few calls back to them and they threatened to start charging us for phone time or we should just send it back as we "obviously didn't know anything about repeaters." Shortly thereafter, they sent the CORRECT manual and schematic to us, sans apology. The attitude presented was problematic, to be sure. Anyway, we'll look at all the companies presented with an open mind and try to forget the bad incident we had with one of them. Thanks- Ken --- In [email protected], "skipp025" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Ken, > > You're goint to get a lot of opinions regarding the quality of > various receivers and a mention by a lot of "sold customers" to > seriously consider using a converted commercial radio... the popular > conversion being something like a GE or Motorola Radio. > > I'm not sure if I "get" the reason why you worry about using a 3rd > or 5th overtone crystal in your receiver. Are you experiencing some > issue with the injection scheme or an image from the adjacent TV > Channel allocation? > > We've just had an Icom IC-RP2210 repeater receiver die and parts are > no longer available. I've ordered a replacement R302-6 receiver from > Hamtronics to drop into the box. I've heard a few negative reports > about the Hamtronics Synth Equipment in the last few months but I'm > willing to try one for myself. Since the repeater transmitter is > still synth I wanted to allow the receiver to be reprogrammed when > and where desired. I'm well willing to trust trying a Hamtronics > Receiver because I've never really had a "bad unit" from them. Not > only have I built and used a lot of Hamtronics gear.. but I've been > using Jerry's vhf projects since the 1970's. My only beef would be > to tell Jerry to get off the $%*(@ speaker phone when I call him. > > I bought a Hi Pro 220 repeater transmitter and receiver about two > years back and it just keeps on playing rock solid. My only issue > might be the whacky way Maggiore (and a lot other brands) treat (or > doesn't treat) the receiver repeat audio. Seems like Spectrum has > one of the better repeater receiver audio interface circuits. > > So read what other have to report... ask a lot more questions and > get out your check book. > > cheers, > skipp > > skipp025 at yahoo.com
