[NLRS] Thanks and question

[jcplatt1 at mmm.com]

Hi Steve, nice to see you at Aurora, it was indeed a lot of fun.
Regarding your questions, here is my $0.02 worth:

1.  Regarding the Reflock design/board and DEM's involvement, I think it
was Barry, VE4MA, who mentioned that during his presentation .... that is
what I remember.

2.  Regarding my opinion of DEM and alternate vendors for 902 and up
transverters, I think the answer is "it depends".   If your interested in
building them from a kit, the DEM designs are for advanced builders while
the DB6NT transverters are for experienced builders.    I have built both,
and the DEM is like a Heathkit compared to the DEM instructions !    Then
there is the issue of the dollar vs the Euro and overall value.     Also to
consider is service .... can you fix it yourself or do you need to ship it
somewhere to get repaired when it blows ..... DEM does repair.    Last is
performance .... I suspect that I'll get some arguments about this, but I
think the DB6NT stuff performs slightly better than the DEM stuff.      So,
in the end, if you can do your own repair work, if your looking for the
best performance, I would give the nod to DB6NT ..... you can save some
money and buy it in kit form IF you have the experience and are surrounded
with help.   I've built his 10g and 3456 transverter.     If you are not
comfortable with doing your own repair work, if $$ is one of the primary
concerns, the DEM stuff works very well and you can also save some dollars
by going the kit route, again only the more advanced builders (in my
opinion).     I've built the DEM 144, 902 and 2304 transverter.   Last
summer I bought myself a birthday present and bought the completed high
power 1296 DEM transverter .... getting lazy in my old age.

3.   Regarding 902 vs 903, almost all of us are crystalled so that 144 =
902 and 145 = 903, then we discuss it at nauseam.   Seriously, its mostly a
matter of finding a clear hole between the 900 MHz baby monitors, cordless
phones, etc., that drives us to either 902 or 903 ..... we use both
depending on where we can find a clear spot at the time.    My first
preference is 902.

73, Jon
W0ZQ