Dumb Questions - VHF Transverter for Flex 6400

rbenton01

The need - HF works great from my QTH, VHF not so much, as I'm kind of located in a hole. There are many times I want to hit distant repeaters I can only hear. With my YAESU FTM-400, I looked at the possibility of increasing power via an amplifier for those occasions, but maybe a 150w tranverter such as L144-28HP150 from Q5 Signal that was discussed on Tim's video is a better option.
Questions -
1. How do you achieve off-set frequencies to align with VHF repeaters? I assume you would use Flex' FDX in some fashion.
2. And with the off-set, is there a global way to set those, making it easier when tuning frequencies?
3. The $849 pricetag for the Q5 Signal 150w VHF unit seems a bit high. Worth it? Other units with a better value?
73 - Ray, KE0YXX

KD0RC

1. Notice on slice B, set to FM, that I clicked on OPT to show the FM options. I set the offset to 0.6 (same as 600 KHz) and in this case, I set it to a minus offset. This repeater uses a 100 Hz subaudible tone, so I selected CTCSS TX and 100.0 Hz. Note that I have slice B set for TX. With this setup, I will transmit on 146.100 and receive on 146.700. Even with a 6400, I can simultaneously receive another frequency (146.52 simplex, in this case).

2. The easiest is to set up the repeaters in memory.

3. The Q5 transverters are a bit pricey, but are among the best available. Mine is a cheap one that works fine for me (weekly FM club nets, etc), but if you do a lot of 2 M work, it may well be worth the money to get the Q5. If I didn't already have an 80 W amp, I probably would have bought the Q5.