EDACS guy here. I have 13 that I take care of. Of those 13, 10 have been online for the last 5 years with no real problems. I had one PA to burn up but that was because I forgot to reconnect the coax. The EDACS control channel transmits 24/7 and has been on Channel one 95% of the time for the last 5 years, so continuous duty is no problem. If you do have a problem, M/A-Com has TAC which is free tech support M-F 8-5 Eastern. I think they even have a flat rate module swap as well. Don't hold me to this but I think the Lynchburg, Va ARC is using MIII repeaters. As far as where to get one, check www.fmr-inc.com. There are a few stations on there now. Just be prepared to lay out some big $$$$.
Jamey Wright Systems Analyst/EDACS Administrator EDACS Master Technician Morgan County EMCD 911 Decatur, AL 256-552-0911 > -----Original Message----- > From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Repeater- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nate Duehr > Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 6:21 PM > To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com > Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Mastr III - Anybody using one? > > Tony L. wrote: > > Does anyone out there have a VHF Mastr III in service as a ham repeater? > > > > Feedback - good or bad? Sources for purchase of used/reconditioned? > > Not personally using one here, but know of people who are. They're > solid machines, if you have the proper programming software and know-how > to set them up correctly. (I don't.) GE / Ma/COM / Whatever they want > to call themselves can be as touchy about that as Motorola is, if they > hear about the software running around in the wild. Something to think > about, as always, with ex-commercial rigs these days. > > AFAIK, the nicer part about GE's software from everything I've read or > seen is that there's no screwing around with modifying it in Hex or > other silliness to make it go out of band, like much of Moto's stuff, > and I doubt it has the same goofy limitations of hacked up Moto RSS that > causes failures if you read a radio with one version of software, where > you can't always write with another... generally GE stuff I've seen > doesn't have that level of annoying stupidity... but I can't say for > sure on any of that. > > I let someone host one at one of my sites (my basement) for over a year, > for a link, and it never did anything "inappropriate" during that > timeframe. It just sat there and ran, and I ignored it. I have typical > above-ground (pole) power service with the resulting outages, > brown-outs, etc... and it always rebooted and came online normally after > anything the power company threw at it. > > From a user-only perspective, the ones I've used as a user have sounded > great, and seem to always "be there"... no major maintenance items on > them that I'm aware of, or any comments of same from the folks I've > known were running them. In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't > heard any of those folks EVER do any maintenance on them, that they > mentioned. Some have been on-air in my local area for about 5-6 years > now, on and off. (I say on and off, because the folks using them have > reconfigured things, moved things, experimenting... just the nature of > their systems.) > > Of course, Public Safety folks use quite a few of them also, if you > could find some EDACS-heads on a list more used to seeing that type of > discussion, or even P25 folks that have the add-on P25 card, they could > probably tell you more about long-term maintenance items and/or failures > they've seen. > > Nate WY0X > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > >
