Gentlemen,

Thank you for your responses. I appreciate the assistance.

It appears that I need to provide a bit more information to give you
more insight into the circumstances I am faced with. I had hoped to
keep both the question and responses as uncomplicated as possible.
However, given the direction that a couple of responses have taken I
see the need for expanded information.

It is true that I have substantial management experience, but it lies
in a very different industry. In fact, for 11-years I owned a consumer
electronics engineering/manufacturing company with sales in many
foreign countries. During that time my company never borrowed any money
and never carried any debt. Nevertheless, the time came to close the
company and I did so. While it was not the easiest decision to make, it
was the right one and the right time to do it.

I took a job last August driving school bus for a local barn for a
large foreign-owned company, and shortly thereafter an opening for an
operations clerk (glorified secretary), became available and I took it.
(Yes, it's been humbling, but I have little room for ego.) It turns out
that not only am I new in my position (as well as to the transportation
industry), but the dispatcher and operations manager for the particular
barn I work in are new in their positions as well. That is not to say
that they are new to the company or to the industry. The operations
manager has 9-years with the company.

I believe that part of my job is to help my superiors be successful and
to look good to theirs. While I am hoping that other doors of
opportunity will open for me, I have a responsibility to be as good an
"operations clerk" as possible.

In this particular circumstance, I have come in long after the horse
has escaped, as have my two immediate superiors. The issue with the
communications amongst the 40 busses at this location is one that the
three of us are attempting to clean up.

In terms of the rate charged, our mechanic gets about $15 per hour,
while I get $9. Local auto dealers charge $45-$65 an hour. Therefore,
using this as a reference $80 just seemed a bit steep. That said, if
that is customary for UHF work then I will accept that as I said. Given
the AP that I've seen, it seems clear that there is no service contract
in place.

While the repairs made to the repeater did get channel 1 working again,
it has a high static level with most but not all busses. A couple of
busses sound relatively clear, while most others are nearly
unintelligeable. Channel 2 (direct) generally sounds much better across
the board. However, even then many of the busses have problems. This is
what leads me to suspect various antenna tuning issues. Therefore, my
question about the feasibility of doing that in-house. I would much
prefer to pay $15 an hour than $80 for the same work, but only of it
makes sense to do so.

I hope that this provides more of the information that you gentlemen
need to help me determine the most prudent course of action. I would
like to be able to make a reasonably intelligent and informed
recommendation to my superior. Thank you again for your assistance.

Mike