Batboard

Hi,

Was wondering if I am reinventing the wheel here, has anyone tried to link two astro spectras or xtl5000's together with a rick? I am looking for a low cost interoperability solution that needs to be P25 compatible.

I would think it should work, but before I build it I figured I would see if anyone has done this yet.

i sorta remember their being an issue because the XTL doesn't have a COR out... Also, double vocoding is a bad thing.. that is... decoding audio from dig to analog, then analog to dig, that is just messy...

Also, if your Rx and Tx radios are in the same band, you're going to have to figure out how to duplex them into a single antenna.

Several members here have put together 2 Astro Spectras as a poor mans repeater. Search and I am sure you will find.

Thanks so far, I guess it is sort of a poor mans repeater, the reality is I need something that can be put in a pelican case and be configured both in band and cross band. for VHF and UHF. I have the duplexers for both for in-band ops, the ability to tune on scene, etc. I am debating just using one of the interop units like the jps1000, or one of the other models, but wondered about building it the way I described.

The Pager Geek has a who diagram thing done up here in one of the threads using to Maxtrac's.

If this is going to be done for offical purposes, it is very ill advised as there is no packet resyc's and error correction being done. This is what makes a Quantar a Quantar, etc etc.

For screwing around and hobby purposes, this works just fine.

Also, of course, if you looked at the top of this fourm, a sticky of this is at:

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=45645

libuff wrote:i sorta remember their being an issue because the XTL doesn't have a COR out... Also, double vocoding is a bad thing.. that is... decoding audio from dig to analog, then analog to dig, that is just messy...

Was surprised how good double vocoding sounded if properly setup - even with OFB. It ain't perfect, but pretty dam good sounding. I was shocked.

XTS5K transmitting to a AS1 hooked up to echolink. Same setup on the other end 600 miles away. So actually its quad vocoded. Vocoded IMBE twice, and vocoded again twice by echolink.

If you want to test this, just log onto the Echolink test server (9999).

agtkgv wrote:Hi,

Was wondering if I am reinventing the wheel here, has anyone tried to link two astro spectras or xtl5000's together with a rick? I am looking for a low cost interoperability solution that needs to be P25 compatible.

I would think it should work, but before I build it I figured I would see if anyone has done this yet.

Your going to have much better luck getting 2 Astro Spectras/XTL's working than trying 2 analog maxtrac's. That way you'll have control over the repeater. Using two maxtrac's leave the squelch open, so any signal will open the repeater (not a good thing).