Remote control of base and repeater

[RESCUE161]

I am trying to get my station(s) back on the air and am looking for a better way. In the past, I ran my coax into a room inside my house and just used the radios locally. I had a repeater setup in that same room with a local remote in another room in the house that could be used a control for the repeater.

I want to move the radios to an out-building that is about 200 feet away. I'll be putting up a tower at the out-building and this building will become the new shack and will house all of my communications equipment. The only thing that I want in the house is a means to control the repeater and a remote for the VHF base. I'd like to be able to change channels on the VHF base (Don't have a "base" yet) via the remote(s). I say remotes as I may want more than one in the future.

What are my options?

I still want to be able to change the channels on the VHF base locally. What effect will this have on the remote? I have a local remote now, but it only allows for two channels. I would like to be able to change between 16 or so channels.

If I went with a tone remote type setup, what would I need? What type of base/tone remote equipment combinations? Would a Spectra consolette fit the bill? The VHF is for 2 meter ham and the repeater is GMRS, so no fancy P25 stuff is needed. I just want a simple interface like a C100 sitting on a desk in the house so my wife won't mind and we'd both like to have the old radio room become a bedroom again.

Thanks!

[wavetar]

For a multi-channel set up, you definitely need either tone based, or digital based remotes. The problem with both of those is you typically need software to program them, as well as an interface box of some sort to convert the tone commands to local control.

Examples of tone based remotes which are multi-channel capable (beyond 2 or 4 frequency) are the Motorola C200 advanced remote & it's Gaitronics counterpart, Motorola MC2000, Zetron Model 280 (8 channels), CPI TR1016F. The CPI unit is the only one that doesn't require software.

The base station needs to have binary channel steering inputs in the accessory connector. Most newer Motorola, Tait, Kenwood, etc, radios have them, some notable exceptions don't such as XTL series.

Digital based remotes are nice as they replicate control head functionality. Examples of these are the DGT9000 w/ Spectra Consolette, RCH3000 w/ Astro Spectra or MCS2000 Model III, MC3000 w/Astro Spectra Consolette, Zetron Model 360 w/ Kenwood TK-x80, TK-x180, NX-700 and NX-800 Series.

I'm sure there's lots of other combinations I didn't mention, but those are the basics.

[RESCUE161]

Awesome! Now to start looking. Is there one setup that is better or easier to acquire and program? I've seen some bad things about the Gaitronics.

[Jim202]

Another option is to use a Motorola consolette with either an Astro Spectra or an XTL mobile unit in it. Use a J-Box at the radio and an MC3000 remote in the house. With this setup, you can change channels and zones in the radio to what ever you want. If you program in a direct button on the radio, then you can do simplex on the channel. You can even have a scan button, low/high power button. What ever you need that shows up on the radio control head. The radio channel display is what will show up on the MC3000 display and buttons.

The interface between the J-Box and the MC3000 is CAT5 type cable and RJ45 connections. You can have up to 5000 feet between the MC3000 and the J-Box interface. You then have a hard wired cable between the radio and the J-Box with DB25 connectors.

Jim

[wavetar]

Awesome! Now to start looking. Is there one setup that is better or easier to acquire and program? I've seen some bad things about the Gaitronics.

I've set up MC2000 units for multi-channel, with multiple units in parallel, using a Motorola L3276 Tone Remote Adaptor controlling Tait radios and they worked great! If you change channels on one, the others show it in their display. In case you find some MC2000's on the used market, the RSS is RVN4178, and the programming cable is DDN6367.

I also did a similar set up with the Gai-Tronics IPE2500A tone remotes (C200 advanced equivalent), with corresponding Gai-Tronics ITA2000 Tone Remote Adaptor (TNA 200 equivalent), controlling NX series Kenwood radios which also works well. I will say the Gai-Tronics "Card Suite" software is a little buggy...you sometimes need to 'write' the information 2 or 3 times before it actually 'takes'.

And now that Jim202 mentioned it, the RCH3000 & MC3000 do not require software. They take their information directly from the radio via SB9600. The older DGT9000 did require software.

Not sure how easy / hard any of the setups would be to get on the used market, never had to look.

[RESCUE161]

Well, I bought two RCH3000s for $30.00 each on Ebay, so we'll see. Neither of them have power supplies or hand sets, but I have two older local remotes that I should be able to use the hand sets off of. Now is the J-Box the same as the SB9600?

As far as the RCH3000 goes, is the data tone-based?

[Bill_G]

SB9600 is a serial data protocol. A J box is a physical device to simplify the interface the RCH3000 remote control to specific models of Mot radios like the Astro Spectra and the CDM series that utilize SB9600. There is an old thread discussing connecting the RCH3000 without a J box.

[doall108]

Wow, i like that you connected a remote to a Kenwood nexedge can you go in more specific In the interface?

Also, any way to connect a MC "2"000 to a XTL5000 O5?

[d119]

Not without consolette hardware inbetween.