One manufacturer that you don't hear much of in the amateur radio universe is the Canadian company Daniels Electronics, whose web site is at http://www.danelec.com.

They are a manufacturer of some pretty high-reliability gear, typically used on extremely inaccessible sites, like remote mountaintops, or at the south pole! Their equipment is very pricey by ham standards, the system monitor card alone is roughly $500, and contains only some simple metering electronics, audio monitoring (an audio amplifier and speaker) and a +9.5 volt 5 amp regulator.

I've recently acquired two sets of Daniels equipment, and I'll be taking you through the process of converting them to ham use, for the US VHF and UHF ham bands. If I get really lucky, I might do the same with their 900 MHz gear, but I don't have that in hand yet.

Daniels has recently (2005) introduced their MT-3 systems, and has dropped support as of February 2005 for the MT-2 systems that I'll be talking about here. No documentation or support is available from Daniels for the MT-2 systems however Repeater-Builder recently received an anonymous PDF file that covers the VHF and UHF MT-2 equipment which can be downloaded here.

If you get documentation with your system, you will notice that it is superb. Very nicely detailed, with theory of operation, alignment instructions, typical voltages, and real troubleshooting help.

When purchasing, make sure that the RF modules have their TCXO modules. These are small ice-cube shaped plastic (usually green) modules that contain the crystal, several thermistors, a coil, and a varactor. These modules would be rather difficult to duplicate. A module without its TCXO module is pretty much just spare parts.

Note from the editor:
I suspect that an enterprising ham could patch a Motorola Channel Element or a GE ICOM into the Daniels module.

System overview:

A typical Daniels system starts with an M-3 Subrack.

RF and control modules plug into the subrack, and secure with locking fastners. To unlock, simply turn 1/4 turn in either direction. The modules then slide out with minimal force.

RF connections are made to the front of the RF modules, and all other connections are made through the rear DIN connectors into the Subrack.

DC power comes into the back of the subrack by a pair of two terminal barrier strips, normally only the 13V pair is used. The rear of the rack offers two connections for repeater controllers, with one connector having access to all the signals, and the other having only a subset. More info on this in the subrack document.

Modules:

The M3 Subrack
The VHF receiver module
The VHF transmitter module
The UHF receiver module
The UHF transmitter module
Repair and Overhaul of the UHF Receiver Front End

Test Procedures:
Test Procedure TN910 for Daniels MT-3 using IFR COM-120 by Aeroflex   660 KB PDF by Daniels
Subtitled: "Technical Note for Tuning, Testing Maintaining and Servicing MT-3 Analog Radio Systems with the IFR COM-120 (B or C) by Aeroflex"

Aplication Notes:
Base Stations   1.5 MB PDF by Daniels
Technical Note about base stations, what they do, and the benefits in point-to-point communications.

Conversion Articles:
Two-Meter Conversion of Synthesized VT-3 and VR-3   by Gary Hendrickson W3DTN
Converting the high-split transmiter and receiver to low-split for the two-meter amateur band.

Back to the top of the page
Back to Home

Text copyright © 2005 by
Hand-coded HTML © Copyright 2005 Mike Morris WA6ILQ
This page last updated 23-Apr-2009

This web page, this web site, the information presented in and on its pages and in these modifications and conversions is © Copyrighted 1995 and (date of last update) by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors. All Rights Reserved, including that of paper and web publication elsewhere.