I've had experience with both as when we installed our 444.825 repeater we used an ICOM FR-4000. It was set at 8w out to drive a PA at 90w. It had great receive sensitivity with a pre-amp at 449.825 MHz. the only other transmitters at this site are 800 & 900 MHz, so no pre-selector is used...yet.
We replaced the FR-4000 with a Kenwood 850 only because after 3 people trying for an entire saturday afternoon, we couldn't get the FR-4000 to play with an SCOM 7K controller. We had to use a CAT-250. We wanted to use the SCOM due to some particular features, so the decision was made to replace the repeater with a Kenwood 850. I still have the FR-4000 repeater which was purchased new for about $1300. If anyone is interested in purchasing it, we might let it go since it has been sitting in its original box for the last 6-10 months. If interested, email me off list at derekjmu at yahoo dot com. The CAT-250 controller is also available. Both are good repeaters. I prefer the Kenwood for simplicity, but the ICOM is a solid machine and with 50w out may not require an external PA in some applications. Just don't plan to use a SCOM controller with it. KD4ADL ---
