Karan, Joe, WA7JAW here in Southern Oregon. I have had some experience using two Yaesu mobiles and would do that only as a last resort. A repeater group in my area had 3 sites that they had used a pair of Yaesu two meter mobiles and a mobile amplifier for repeaters. They lasted a few years and were pretty marginal and required multiple amplifier replacements. Only one site is still working. I replaced one with a Motorola Micor repeater and the second one with a GE Mastr II repeater. I am not sure if you can get Motorola radios over there, but a couple of their mobiles can and do make a acceptable light duty repeater. None of these repeaters made out of mobiles will have any real duty cycle, like a factory made repeater will have. Turning the power down and adding a factory repeater power amplifier is the most reliable, but when you get done purchasing all the parts, you are not that far off from a real repeater, which you typically only have to buy once. The two mobile solution sometimes ends up costing more over their lifetime, than say a Kenwood TKR would. As people often say quality only hurts once. When you buy it.
I would recommend the Kenwood over the Vertex, but either unit will give you good performance. Just make sure you order the correct model for two meters. I would not even consider the Icom factory repeater as I have had bad experiences with several models of the Icom units. I prefer the Arcom RC-210 repeater controllers. Ken at Arcom provides very good support and can also hook you up with a complete package with a new Kenwood TKR repeater and RC-210 controller all wired up and ready to go. Duplexer sounds like it should work fine as long as it has at least 90 db isolation at 600 KHz separation. Make sure your feedline and all jumpers are good quality double shielded cable, or use heliax for best performance. Stay away from the cables with a foil type shield as they are a very good source of noise and desense in repeaters. Good luck with your project. Joe - WA7JAW --- In Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com, Karan Bakshi <vu2...@...> wrote: > > Hi All > > Need help! > > I am new to this group, I am a Ham Radio Operator call sign VU2YEP, from New > Delhi, INDIA. > > We are planning to open up a repeater club. Most likely it will be a VHF > repeater. We use 144-146Mhz as our 2 meters band. We plan to put up a > repeater which support 50 watts TX, we will install 6 cavity duplexer > supporting .600khz and triple stack vertical antenna, power supply, battery > and repeater controller etc... > > Currently need suggestions on the below mentioned two parts separately around > the repeater selection - > > PART I - > > Q1. - Should we go with two separate base stations ( two VHF mobile radios > from Icom, Kenwood or Yaesu) one for RX and one for TX with a repeater > controller and a duplexer ? > > Q2. - Any specific models of VHF base mobiles, which are good from a repeater > building perspective.. kinda tried and tested ones..having good selectivity > and decent sensitivity too ? > > > PART - II > > If, in case we go for a commercial repeater, then i.e from Kenwood, Yaesu or > Icom, which one would this group would suggest from overall performance > perspective ? > > I am specifically looking for a feedback around the following models - > Kenwood TKR -750, Yaesu VXR 7000 and Icom FRG 5000 repeater systems, which > one is the best from durability ( overall maintenance, Signal quality, TX for > long) and overall features perspective ? > > > Waiting for your kind response from this group, all views are welcomes, so > please be open to give your opinion! > > 73s > > Karan, VU2YEP >
