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Technical Information on BridgeCom Systems Repeater Products BCR-series and BDR-series Repeaters and Accessories Maintained by Mike Morris WA6ILQ (click on either photo to open a new window at the Bridgecom Systems web site)

Contact information:
BridgeCom Systems
113 South Bridge Street
Smithville, MO 64089       (about 15 minutes north of Kansas City MO)
(816) 532-8451
Business Hours: M-F 9a-5p Central Time Zone (GMT-5)

Bridgecom prefers to have all support questions started by opening a support ticket. (off-site pointer, opens in a new browser tab)

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS PAGE ARE WELCOME!
Actually to any page at this web site! (even one that just points out a typo).

Page Maintainer's note:
My total experience with Bridgecom has been a short conversation with the owner (Ron Kochanowicz KCØQVT) at the Dayton Hamvention in 2023, a second short conversation at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention and this: I help take care of over 40 commercial repeaters spread across a number of mountaintop commercial sites. One day in mid-2023 I was at one of the sites taking care of a problem. I noticed that some previously empty space in a tenant rack on the other side of the room had been filled with a UHF Bridgecom repeater. The front of the Bridgecom had a site manager required label that had a local amateur radio club name, the 440 MHz frequency and tone, a contact name, callsign and phone number. On my next visit to that site (about six months later) the Bridgecom had been replaced with a Motorola MTR2000. Several months later I had an occasion to call that person (a retired TV and LMR engineer with over 40 years experience) on another topic. When the other business was completed and while I had him on the phone I asked about the Bridgecom. The answer was "The Bridgecom just didn't work out".

A while back there was an email I received via this web site asking about interfacing a Bridgecom to a port on an RLC controller. I did some research and suggested that the Bridgecom transmitter audio input might be a little too sensitive and a series resistor between 3.3 K and 6.8 K might resolve his issue. He wrote back saying that a series 4.7 K had worked perfectly.

In late 2023 an acquaintance was told by BridgeCom (on a phone call) that no service manual was available, to open a service ticket and to ship the repeater back to them (at his expense) for a trivial repair that he could have done if he had a schematic.

That has been my total experience with Bridgecom repeaters... 90% of my Land Mobile Radio experience has been with Motorola, GE, Icom and Kenwood equipment. I've never had the opportunity to touch a Bridgecom, program one, or even look over someone's shoulder at one with the cover off. Anybody want to contribute a few photos of the insides of a Bridgecom?

Edit (6 months after the above was published): My request for photos resulted in an email that pointed out that there is a YouTube video made by a GMRS user exposing the internals of a BridgeCom UHF repeater. (off-site pointer, opens in a new browser tab)

BridgeCom Systems is a USA-based company that manufactures the rack-mount BCR-series analog (wideband or narrowband) repeaters for the amateur VHF, 220 and UHF bands and they are also sold to VHF and UHF commercial and GMRS customers. The Bridgecom BCR-50V repeaters cover 136 to 174 MHz and outputs 50 Watts. The BCR-220 is an amateur only repeater, 30 watts output, and is firmware-limited to the amateur 220 band (222.0-224.995 MHz). The BCR-40U repeaters are and 40 Watts and are made in two frequency ranges: 400-470 MHz and 450-512 MHz.

The BDR Series are analog / DMR and are VERY different inside and are also programmed VERY differently. The BDR-50U / BDR-4500 is a rebranded chinese-made "Abell Industries Co. R-80" (FCC ID TEYR-80) 400-470 MHz unit. The manufacturers user manual claims 50 watts out, the Bridgecom spec sheet says that is is adjustable from 1 to 45 watts.
The BDR-1500 is the VHF version (136-174 MHz).
Bridgecom offers a User Manual and Setup Guide.
Donations of any additional information, articles or reviews would be appreciated.

Internally each of the BCR-Series repeaters consists of:

• Two TecNet International Inc. / Maxon TM-8402A commercial (LMR) mobile radios that are manufactured in South Korea. One is used as the receiver, the other as the transmitter. The Maxon UHF radios are model TM8402A (I don't have the VHF or 220 model numbers).
  
  Multiple people have commented that the Maxon mobiles are not built for a high duty cycle and they they should not be run at over 50% of the rated power.
  
  A comment thread on the Repeater Builder mailing list covered a situation where the PA deck on a BCR-220 died and the originator asked if the radios could be swapped to get back on the air. It turned out that they could not, the receiver radio and transmit radio use different firmware, but the PA decks on the two radios could be swapped. A post-mortem analysis of the dead transmit amplifier found no heat transfer paste between the amplifier module and the heatsink, so they added some on the replacement PA (the one that came off the receive radio). Note that the 220 MHz Maxon transmitter uses a 30 watt RF power module. I wouldn't run it at more than 15 watts.
  
  
• A Meanwell LPP-150-13.5 power supply. Replacements are available from Mouser, DigiKey, Jameco and Amazon.   Meanwell Installation Manual.
  
  
• An optional 6-cavity flat-pack mobile duplexer (also known as a notchplexer, see the duplexer notes on the Antenna Systems page at this web site). The unit is designed so that an external duplexer can be connected.
  
  
• A cabinet and a front control panel. The control panel is connected to the receive radio with a ribbon cable. The internal controller will be adequate for many situations. If you need additional functionality you can put the unit into AUX mode (which turns the Bridgecom into a dumb full‑duplex radio) and use an external controller which will connect through the DB‑25 connector (female) on the back of the cabinet.
  
  
• The BCR front panel microphone jack (RJ-45 style) is also the programming jack. Note that the cable diagram in the Bridgecom documentation is wrong (not Bridgecom's fault, they copied the TecNet International / Maxon information that they were given, and that was wrong). Multiple reports say that the USB cable that is available from BlueMax49ers works just fine. No, Mark is NOT paying for this pointer. His FTDI cables just plain work.
  
  
• The rear panel of the BCR-Series repeaters has a pair of binding posts that can be connected to a source of external 12volts DC, which can be an external power supply, a battery or battery bank. The BCR has a trickle charger function. I believe that it can be disabled for use with an external charger.

Articles and Information:

	Building your own Bridgecom BCR-series Repeater Programming Cable   By Jared Smudde KD9KOO Hint: Bridgecom's cable diagram in their docs is backwards (mirror image). Bridgecom didn't catch Maxon's error where the equipment designer numbered the pins from right to left, but Maxon's own drawings and tables have the pins numbered from left to right.
	Part 2 of Building your own Bridgecom BCR-series Repeater Programming Cable   By Al Taylor KN3U Al clarifies a few things.
	The BCR repeater programming software can be found "out there" for free download. A programming cable (FTDI USB-to-RJ-45) for the Bridgecom BCR-series is availble from BlueMax49ers. (both are off-site pointers, both open in a new browser tab)
	Bridgecom BCR Owners manual Version 1.7 (July 2015) If anyone finds a newer one (this one is 10 years old!) please forward a PDF to the page maintainer.
	Bridgecom BCR-40U / 50V Specifications Sheet
	Bridgecom BCR-220 Specifications Sheet
	Maxon TM-8000 Spec Sheet This is the info on the two mobile radios that are inside the BCR box.
	Maxon TM-2000 / TM-8000 User Manual More info on the two mobile radios inside the BCR box.
	Bridgecom BCR to External repeater Controller conections While this article was written for the Scom 7330 controllers it is also applicable (with connector pin number changes) to Scom 5K, 6K, 7K, Arcom and LinkComm / RLC controllers. Note that the default mode of the BCR-series COR (pin 12) is active high, supposedly there is an internal jumper that will change that to active low.
	Bridgecom BCR-series Repeater Review (offsite link)
	There is no information in the Version 1.7 manual above on Part 22, 74, 90 (LMR) or 95 (GMRS) compliance. You will notice on the rear photograph above that there is no FCC ID number. From the web page at https://groups.io/g/repeater-builder/topic/warning_for_users_of/84358579 where Joe Burkleo WA7JAW says: ... I first tried contacting Bridgecom to get the FCC ID numbers for Part 90. I never got a response back from them. I then contacted the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET). They were unable to find any BCR-xxx repeaters in their system at that time. This was back in 2019. What I found was that Bridgecom was using the FCC ID numbers of the mobiles for their claims. I was told by the FCC engineer that since the radios were not in the same configuration as when they were tested, they were no longer covered by the certification. If anybody is able to find either Part 90 or 95 FCC ID numbers for the BCR-40U, I would really appreciate it, as a couple GMRS users in the County would like to be able to make use of the UHF units.

That's all we have at this time. Anyone want to write something?
Maybe a review or a more detailed interfacing article?

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This page was created 09-Feb-2025 by WA6ILQ.

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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.