Well, I wanted to use GM300s until I found out that I can't afford the software and cable to program these radios. Now it looks like I will have to settle for new ham gear. With the Motorola radios, I'd have to take the radios to a shop and pay $45 per radio every time I wanted to change something, even the squelch setting. I can't afford that.
73 de John AF4PD -----Original Message----- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Paul Plack Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 1:03 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Ham installation quality/non-quality I've seen two cases in which club boards, over the advice of the tech people, insisted on ordering new ham-grade repeaters so they'd be covered by a manufacturers warranty. Apparently, the directors didn't consider how ticked-off the users would be when the new repeater had to be out of service for 3 or 4 weeks to be fixed. Old Moto or GE stuff is both better quality and way cheaper than new ham-grade stuff, meaning you can keep a stack of spares around. Buying an expensive, poorly-shielded box of low-quality surface-mount chips "so anybody can work on it" is actually pretty funny. Obviously they've never worked on older commercial stuff, which usually has manuals so detailed any chimpanzee with patience could get it fixed. 73, Paul, AE4KR
