Bob M. wrote: "These stations are relatively new, so finding one in a ham's price range is very unlikely." You know that's sad. As most repeaters are club run and the clubs should want to run good equipment for their repeaters and they should have some money from their members and be able to spread the cost out. Quantars have been out since at least 1995. I have some at work that I service that are dated that old. That's 12 years old already. I've seen a number of them for sale for about $2000 dollars. I know quite a few hams that will spend that much on a single HF rig, or even more. I guess it depends where your priorities are. I want to know what happened to testing new things and ways in ham radio?
'Rant mode off' I am a ham, I have to complain, it comes with the ticket. Anyway, I only know about the VHF Quantars as that's all I have at work, and I picked one up used myself, and am running it mixed mode (IMBE P25/analog) here in Detroit. It's still the 150.8 Mhz to 174 MHz receiver and it tunes out pretty good on my input in the 147 Mhz range. It is slightly above specs with no modifications, but not much at all. Off the top of my head if specs were 12db quieting at .25 microvolts, then it was running 12db quieting at about .29 or .30 microvolts after I tuned it in to the 147 MHz range. I didn't try it down to 144 or anything so I don't know how well it would work down there. The software programmed the freqs no problem. It just gave me a warning saying my frequency was out of the band split and asked if I wanted to continue as performance my not be as specified. I of course said "just do it already" and pressed the program button and the rest is history. It's now been running for two years no problems. I did of course also turn down the power output, in case I was stressing the PA being out of band. I checked it on the service monitor (before it got stolen out of my truck) and it looked pretty clean both digital and analog. I don't know about hooking up a external controller, as I'm just using the internal one. It does all that I want it to do, which is just ID the thing with my call in CW in CSQ. I do have the full service manual for the machines though. If you want to know what the outputs are on the thing I can try to copy some of the pages, but I'm not copying that whole thing, it is literally four inches thick. My interfacing for work is done by the V.24 port or by status tone on the back, the way they were designed, so past that right now I haven't looked into it yet. I haven't had the need or the time. T.J. --- In [email protected], "Bob M." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I suspect that the external interface to the Quantar > would not include all of the signals someone would > want for an amateur repeater controller. The station > was designed to be controlled by a two or four wire > line to a console. As such, it would probably use tone > or DC signaling for control functions. No Motorola > customer would need PL detect or even a COR. > > I've seen Quantar service manuals for sale. I'm sure > that someone could find many of those signals floating > around on one or more circuit boards, but whether they > appear on an accessible connector is another question. > These stations are relatively new, so finding one in a > ham's price range is very unlikely. That could limit > the availability of the stations somewhat, making > conversion to amateur service even rarer. These could > be the reasons why repeater-builder has been looking > for info so long. > > Bob M. > ====== > --- Don Kupferschmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hello to the group, > > > > I've been watching this post (below) on > > Motorola-User and have seen no > > replies. Perhaps it's too early in the game > > (date/time) to see some. > > > > I'm also interested in the Quantars and want to gain > > some knowledge with > > this system. In looking at the repeater-builder > > website, Kevin has asked > > for some articles converting the Quantars into the > > ham bands with controller > > agility. I've only seen one previous post on > > someone tackling the Quantar > > system and taking it down to the ham bands. > > > > So, I'm cross-posting this article into > > repeater-builder. > > > > Any of the users have either general or specific > > knowledge on converting the > > Quantars that they would like to share with the rest > > of the group? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Don, KD9PT > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "copfromjersey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 12:10 PM > > Subject: [Motorola-User] quantar pinouts > > > > > > > Hello All, > > > > > > I have plans to interface a Quantar to an external > > controller. I > > > understand that the Quantar has to be placed into > > base station mode to > > > accept a four wire control from the external > > controller. Does anyone > > > have the pinouts for the Quantar so that I can > > physically interface > > > the controller. Pinouts for PTT, TX Audio, RX > > audio, Gnd, PL Detect > > > and such. Any help would be appreciated. > > > > > > Thanks Everyone > > > > > > > > > Eric
