Since a repeater's range is limited *primarily* by its ability to receive, you should concentrate on those factors which directly affect receive sensitivity. One of the most common problems is the use of a duplexer that has insufficient isolation for the combination of transmitter power and receiver sensitivity. A transmitter PA that produces a "dirty" signal (one with spurs) coupled with a broadband receiver will require much more isolation than a pure-carrier tube PA and a very narrow-band receiver.
Does the range improve if you reduce transmitter power to, say, 20 watts? Does the range improve if you remove any preamplifier on the receive side? Does the range improve if you put a single bandpass cavity with 1.0 dB of insertion loss between the duplexer and the receiver? Is the duplexer *known* to be properly tuned? 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of kfd29 Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 3:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Repeater Assistance in Michigan. Looking for assistance w/ a new repeater system in GR, Michigan... Could use a hand in finding out why we can not pick up 5 watt handhelds only 5 miles out, maybe we missed something in setup? If anyone is knowledgable in troubleshooting repeaters or in the GR area, please contact me! Small business that can't quite afford the $70/hr charge for a tech right now lol. Thanks! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
