Is this a feasible system?

[zs6hz]

Hi all,

I am trying to put a system together for a large game reserve (16,500 sq miles) in NW Mozambique. At the moment they have several concession holders who are using a variety of analogue VHF radios, but their coverage is obviously very limited. The huge area can't be covered by only one repeater, so I would have to link repeaters.

I would like to use Mototrbo infrastructure running in analogue mode for around a year (so that concession holders can use existing radios) and then switch over to digital after the concession holders have had time to replace all radios with Trbo radios.

My analogue setup will be as follows:
1) There are two repeater sites, each with two repeaters. (Lets call the sites A and B, and the repeaters are called A1, A2, B1, and B2).

2) Repeaters A2 and B2 are stand-alone repeaters, but repeaters A1 and B1 are linked. (Either by a standard UHF link or by using something like Motorola Canopy)

3) The two linked repeaters will have to be attached to a repeater controller of some sort to handle different CTCSS tones per concession holder.

4) When the time is right and we switch over to digital, the repeater controllers will no longer be necessary, but I will still need to have repeaters A1 and B1 linked to maximise coverage.

Questions
a) How do I best implement this system? Zetron controllers don't have a "link" radio output which would be the simplest solution.

b) When I make the switch to digital, how do I implement the link between the two repeaters?

c) I hear rumours from Motorola that they are working on a trunking controller for Trbo. Anyone hear the same rumours? Ideally, when we switch to digital I would like to trunk the whole system, creating a two-site system with 4 channels per site. Quite a tidy little system if it can be done.

I'd really appreciate any info., comments, feedback etc.

Regards,
Marc

[Batwings21]

Our sales team has been touting trbo as the future for two years now, mainly because of what you are wanting to do. I have heard both that it will do a link, like what you want and then I've heard it will be passport with option boards for the radios. Whichever it is is due the end of this year, beginning of next. Good luck.

[zs6hz]

Yup, Trbo is definitely the future of LMR. The only problem is that, while Motorola manufacture great equipment, they seem incapable of meeting availability targets. They always promise that a certain product will be available by a certain date, the sales people sell systems based on the information, and then inevitably Motorola doesn't have product ready by the due date.