Batboard

Hi Guys.
I have 2 Purc 5000's I thought I might try to convert to amateur repeaters. One is a vhf high power unit, the other is a 900 mhz low power unit. Both have the advanced controllers, micor recievers, hso's, and are running firmware ver 3.040. They both work great, freq able to be programmed via the advanced controller which is pretty cool. However, I dont have access to the pl/dpl menues. Is this a firmware issue, as in will a firmware upgrade help me here? I read a post that ver 3.69 might be the last release, I would be interested in testing a copy of that firmware ver or later if somebody has it and wouldnt mind contacting me.
Also interested if anybody actually has a machine like this running as a repeater, and how they did it. did they use an external repeater controller? I kind of want to run them stock without any external controller if possible, I like the stock idea, and dont need any of the bells and whistles usually found on amateur repeaters.

Randy

I thought Purcs were strictly paging stations in which case there would be no pl/dpl. The receivers were for the control link, and not necessarily in the same band as the transmitter.

That's the limit of my experience with them. We humped them up the stairs to the rooftop. The paging companies took over from there. Once in a blue moon I got called out to work on one.

Yeah, there are some options in the manual for pl/dpl which appear not to be available with my firmware version. Would be good if I could get that working, I have read back on some posts where a couple of guys say it can be made to work, others say no. Might be a firmware issue. I know they will pass voice, and are pretty bulletproof. Should make a pretty good repeater for ham purposes. The less interfacing I have to do to an external controller the better, though. I feel for ya humping them up stairs,though. I needed a car jack to elevate the vhf unit high enough so I could get it onto my workbench. They weigh a ton!

Randy

Yeah. You need guys that look like they strap pigs to their legs to heft those stations around.