Look around on ebay or on some of the yahoo groups. I have seen midland commercial radios for as low as $10. I sold a ton for $35 about a year ago. And most people can program them for you also. They are much easier to get signals into and out of. Save the 2200 for a mobile as standard ham gear doesn't do well in repeater service because of sensitivity, selectiviy and small heat sinks.
Also as noted by nate. You really want to check out duplexors. These will cost the most and are not small unless you are going to run 1 or 2 watts. What kind of area do you need to cover. More than a few miles will require either height or power. And the more power you use, the more duplexor you will need, and you will still need some height for good recieve. Fyi we run an 16 watt vhf repeater at 120 feet in sunny flat Florida and the best price I could find on a set of duplezors that worked well was $600 for a Sinclair 6 pack. Its about as small as it gets at just over 2' tall 1, wide and 9'' deep. And it doesn't like to get moved or bumped alot. So bottom line is if you are short on cash look for duplexors first, then commercial radios. BtW we run a self contained midland 3400D vhf repeater. I have seen them around for $200 to $300 on the midland group at yahoo Anyway email me if you want morw info and happy repeating. Rob. KS4EC Sent by Good Messaging (www.good.com) -----Original Message----- From: Russell Trippy [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 04:24 AM Eastern Standard Time To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] cor location in an ic-2200h The controller is a CES RM-10 I look to the future because, that is where I will spend the rest of my life. ________________________________ From: Nate Duehr <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tue, March 16, 2010 3:20:48 AM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] cor location in an ic-2200h On Mar 15, 2010, at 11:33 PM, Russell wrote: > Hi, I am building a portable repeater for our ARES Club. > I have 2 Icom IC-2200H 2 mtr units, a ces rm-10 controller. > I am new at this building, and cannot decipher the info > given by the controller instructions. It will help if you'll tell us which controller it is. > It advises to use the radio cor connection and here is where I'm > stumped. A COR is any logic signal inside the radio that triggers when either the squelch is open, or probably better, whenever CTCSS is detected (if you're requiring CTCSS on your repeater). Some controllers take inputs for both as separate signals and let you then turn on/off the requirement for CTCSS in the controller by choosing which logic input to trigger off of, or my preference, logically AND'ing the signals together, meaning both COR/COS and CTCSS must be active from the repeater's receiver before the repeater will repeat. This signal, as in on most Amateur grade gear, is NOT available on any of the connectors of the IC-2200H, per the manual at http://www.icomamerica.com -- pages 1-5. The only way you'll find it is with a logic probe, oscilloscope, or similar and knowledge of the radio's schematic and internal layout, and you'll have to "bring it out" from inside the rig. There are MUCH easier options for this, including... - Use of the commercial Icom rigs. They have appropriate programming software and connectors for interfacing them to external hardware. - Maybe consider talking to the sponsors of this mailing list... Repeater-Builder The Company (TM? GRIN...) -- they make much higher quality repeaters out of older commercial gear than can be easily cobbled together from a couple of Amateur-grade mobiles. They can also discuss duplexer options, see below for more on that. > It also wants a connection at the output of the discriminater > circuit. A Discriminator circuit can be found in any FM/PM radio, it's the audio prior to being de-emphasized directly off of the circuit that detects it from the RF input. Most controllers will also work with "regular" audio from a speaker or better, some place in the radio that gives a constant audio level. (If you use the speaker circuit, someone might walk up and turn down the volume control and mess up your carefully set levels that provide correct deviation on your repeater transmitter that matches the deviation of the FM signal being received.) Again, need to know which controller you chose for your engineering project, and why... > I have been a tech over 35 years, this issue is causing my teeth > to fall out, I already lost most of my hair. Ahh, don't go that far. It's just a repeater! (GRIN) > I would really appreciate any help you might have. > 73==Dan w2rdt > > BTW: I know these are not the best units to work with. > Financially right now, it is all we could afford. My bigger concern is, "Why 2 meters?" -- getting a duplexer that can handle a standard ham radio 600 KHz RX/TX split small enough to be "portable" is a pain, unless you're going to run a VERY low power level. You might have to look into doing a very non-standard and much wider split. This is why most people building "portable" repeaters are doing it up at UHF where the standard split is 5 MHz... Also if you haven't been perusing the Antenna, Duplexer, and other areas of www.repeater- builder.com -- definitely check those out. This "I want to build a portable repeater" question comes up so often, I wonder if someone has time to turn it into an article for RB... -- Nate Duehr, WY0X n...@natetech. com Since 1974, the award-winning Alpert JFCS has helped families of all faiths throughout most of Palm Beach County, FL, via counseling, seniors services, residences for the disabled, mentoring children, support groups and a lot more. SOLUTIONS FOR LIVING www.JFCSonline.com Please take note of our new website and E-Mail Addresses. Please update your contacts ASAP. . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE: This e-mail message and all attachments transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain legally privileged and confidential information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or other use of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this message and please delete it from your computer. Since 1974, the award-winning Alpert JFCS has helped families of all faiths throughout most of Palm Beach County, FL, via counseling, seniors services, residences for the disabled, mentoring children, support groups and a lot more. SOLUTIONS FOR LIVING www.JFCSonline.com Please take note of our new website and E-Mail Addresses. Please update your contacts ASAP. . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE: This e-mail message and all attachments transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain legally privileged and confidential information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or other use of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this message and please delete it from your computer.
