Motorola's Vehicular Repeater

[jclendenen158]

What are some of the details on Motorola's VRS that interfaces with the ASTRO mobiles?
Any better than, say a Pyramid SVR 200/250?

[Josh]

What are some of the details on Motorola's VRS that interfaces with the ASTRO mobiles?
Any better than, say a Pyramid SVR 200/250?

Depends.

I find that the audio quality of the VRS-EP and VRS-750 are sub-par compared to what could really be done on an analog link from either digital or analog.

BUT, if you want to use a VRS unit for repeating digital, you have to use the VRS-750 or EP as an SVR will not be able to repeat the digital stuff.

Also, the Pyramid units for astro radios typically require quite a bit of modification to work properly and for most, this is a PITA- whereas a Moto VRS is basically plug and play, parameters are set up in the RSS/CPS.

-Josh

[jclendenen158]

Is it possible to do in-band repeating like the SVR will allow you to do with in-band notch filters?

[Josh]

Is it possible to do in-band repeating like the SVR will allow you to do with in-band notch filters?

I don't see any reason why not... with the proper filtering, of course.

[IMBEJames]

I have interfaced quite a few Pyramid SVR200's to high power Astro Spectras lately. The mods to the Astro Spectra aren't that difficult, really. If you have the component overlays from the service manual, the Pyramid application notes are easy to follow.

Most of the ones I did recently were in-band. Pyramid makes a set of filters that work really well. A notch filter on the Spectra to notch out the VRS frequency and a bandpass filter on the Pyramid to pass only the VRS prequency.

If you go with Pyramid, they make a "smart cable" as an option that will make a lot of the mods unnecessary.

[jclendenen158]

Are there any known issues with interfacing an SVR-200 with a PM1500?

[IMBEJames]

High or low power?

[escomm]

PM1500 only comes in 1 flavor...110 watts... minimum TX power is 50 watts

[IMBEJames]

Thanks for that... I probably should have known that

In any case, the application notes from Pyramid state that there are no hardware mods necessary with the Smart cable. It's also the same cable that is used for the XTL series high-power.

There are a couple programming changes for Tx audio type in the radio, but that's it.