New Club Repeater

[W0AJA]

Hello All!

I am a member of our local clubs, and the one is looking for a new repeater.

One mentioned the new VXR-9000 with the 100 watt amplifier, and reciews or anyone use one before?

What bothers me is that it says 100% duty cycle at 50 Watts Max and what would the duty cycle be for the full 100 watts.

Feel free to comment if you know of a decent repeater that is fairly cheap and new(er) that has high RX sensitivity and high power output, plus user friendly (If you know what I mean)

Thanks in advance, all answers will be forward to the club!

[K7SGJ]

The problem here is the trade off between cheap and good quality. 50 watts at a good location, with a good antenna, will cover a lot of ground. I would much rather run 50 watts of transmitter output to a good gain antenna, than run 100 watts with a lower gain antenna. The higher gain antenna will not only improve the transmitted signal, but that of the received signal as well.

Most of the repeaters I have ever been involved with, have always been operated at well under maximum output. It's much easier on the equipment, and all that RF is unnecessary. The same is true of ops on HF. I wonder how many people are running full tilt boogie 1.5KW into a POS antenna, when a 100 watt transmitter running into a well designed antenna will out perform it every time. It is almost always a lot more cost effective, and a good station practice, to improve the antenna system, than to just run more power. At least, that's the way I've found it to be.

You would be surprised how well a good repeater running 30-50 watts, into a Super Station Master in a good location will perform. And, a good set of well tuned cavities is an absolute must.

[WØTKX]

Expecting 100% key down activity on the new repeater, eh?

[W2NAP]

100w+ 100% duty.

old school GE mastr II. or a Moto MSR-2000 (make sure its 100% duty they did make intermittent duty 2000's) or a MSR-5000. or a old Micor.

want newer. Motorola Quantar. VHF ones are in the 100-125w 100% duty UHF ones 100-110w 100% duty and will run between $2,000 and $3,000 used. 435 LA uses a Quantar and its keyed up about 24/7

If they want to play with good shit, they better not bitch about the price. its pay up or go home.

[WØTKX]

Is the 435 LA machine in a bulletproof box as well?

[W2NAP]

Quantars on ebay

UHF
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-Qua...item2c80c29746

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOROLA-QUA...item3a904c6939

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOROLA-UHF...item58af79c149

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOROLA-UHF...item2c7ed3a50f

[W2NAP]

Is the 435 LA machine in a bulletproof box as well?

not that I am aware. but the quantar is "bulletproof" so to speak.... seen that damn thing keyed up 24/7 for a couple weeks strait.

[W3WN]

Quantars on ebay

UHF
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-Qua...item2c80c29746

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOROLA-QUA...item3a904c6939

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOROLA-UHF...item58af79c149

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTOROLA-UHF...item2c7ed3a50f

Woof!

At those prices, the damned things BETTER be bullet-proof!

[KC2UGV]

Woof!

At those prices, the damned things BETTER be bullet-proof!

They are. Some US military forces use these in place of kevlar plates for their IBAS.

[N2CHX]

Duty cycle booty cycle. Just connect the output of this to the vent of the amp and you're good to go.

Attachment 12281