Tony, What is your objective? If you think doubling the power will increase the range, think again. The coverage area of most repeaters is (generally) determined by how well the repeater receives distant stations. If the distant stations can receive the repeater full quieting, then doubling the power will have no effect. In fact, doubling the power may actually reduce your coverage area, if your duplexer does not have sufficient isolation to handle the additional power without allowing receiver desense to occur.
If your intent is to increase your solid coverage area, consider improving your feedline and/or antenna system. On a UHF repeater, changing from RG-214 feedline to Andrew LDF5-50 (7/8") Heliax can make a profound improvement. If your repeater is at one side of the intended coverage area, use an offset-pattern antenna instead of an omnidirectional antenna. As I noted in a previous thread, I once cut a repeater's power from 150 watts to 15 watts and got better coverage! This wasn't one of my repeaters, but the owner was blindly in love with the "more power is better" way of thinking. Not! 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tony L. Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 1:31 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Doubling Power Output On UHF Repeater I've asked this question before, but will ask it again just to see if there are any new twists that I'm unaware of: Our UHF repeater is currently equipped with a 50 watt PA. We have an opportunity to install a 100 watt PA at moderate cost. Our site is excellent and we are already using good radios, quality hardline, excellent filtering, and a commercial grade antenna. Will the difference between 50 & 100 watts be worth a moderate expenditure? What would you do?
