Scott, Thanks for all of the good information from you and the rest of the group. This is a club repeater that gets very little use anymore and it will have to be voted on if we can spend anything over $50. Our club has shrank in size to about half in the last 12 years. We have a town of around 40k with 5 quiet (for the most part) repeaters.
But I will gladly except any estimates anyone wants to send. I think we still have enough die hards around, that we will finance a repeater ourselves if we have to. Please send them to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so we can keep from cluttering the reflector. Thanks and 73, Mike K9MI ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott Zimmerman To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 16:11 Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Low Repeater output at site only Mike, Realize that here at Repeater-Builder (the company) we build such Micor and MII repeaters. Let me know if you would like me to work up a quote for you. Scott Scott Zimmerman Amateur Radio Call N3XCC 612 Barnett Rd Boswell, PA 15531 ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Brown To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 5:15 PM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Low Repeater output at site only Thanks Scott. Just during the Christmas holiday season, one of our members who just moved to El Paso said that the clubs there have had bad luck with the Mark IV also, and all have gone to a Micor or something similar. Since we purchased the Mark IV in '99, the company has changed hands, and they want $400 minimum for any Mark IV repair. The local commercial radio company that takes care of the city, fire, police, etc has Kenwood repeaters but I don't think they go down to our frequency, 144.79/145.39. For now the old Icom is working. Thanks Scott.. 73, Mike K9MI ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott Zimmerman To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 20:10 Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Low Repeater output at site only Mike, I would strongly suspect the Mark IV is having problems. My experience with those repeaters has NOT been good. They seem to be VERY spooky. Especially when it comes to high RF environments. Most of these units were fine when they were first produced, but as the components age, they are becoming increasingly more problematic. Our local club had one since the early 80's. They dumped it in favor of a Micor conversion about 7 years ago and haven't looked back. Another local club still has theirs on the air. About the time our club got rid of ours, they decided to re-build theirs. Many hours and capacitors later, they had it working OK. Now, it's so deaf you have to run 50W 5 miles from the site to make an S5! If I were to hazard a guess at what your problem might be, I would guess it might be 2 things: 1. The PA drive control circuitry is interpreting the high RF at the site coming back down from the antenna to be reflected power and shutting the power amp down to keep from blowing it up. -- OR-- 2. The transmitter is spurring and the drive control is doing what it is supposed to do and shutting the transmitter back to keep from blowing it up. Do this: If you connect a dummy load and wattmeter to the duplexers instead of the antenna. Connect a wattmeter between the Tx and the duplexer . How many watts are coming from the Tx and how many watts do you have into the dummy load? Your duplexer loss should be less than 1/3. In other words if you have 30W from the PA, you should have more than 20W coming out of the duplexers into the dummy load. If not, you have duplexer trouble, or a spurious transmitter. I would then look at the transmitter on a spectrum analyzer and see how much 'grass' you are growing. Good luck, Scott Scott Zimmerman Amateur Radio Call N3XCC 612 Barnett Rd Boswell, PA 15531 ----- Original Message ----- From: "k9mi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 2:29 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Low Repeater output at site only > Sorry, this isn't actually a repeater-builder question, but it is a > repeater problem, and this is where I thought I could get the best > info for the problem. > > We have a Mark IV that has worked well for 9 years. It's really still > working well, but here is what is going on. > > With a Bird watt meter, the Mark IV shows 3 watts out. If another > member of the club, using the same meter and a dummy load, shows 32 > watts (usual for the Mark IV). > > We also have a backup repeater, and Icom IC-RP1510 that has always > had an output of 18 watts, and still does. It shows 18 watts out, 1 > reflected, same as it always has. These output readings are before > the duplexers (Wacom 641). > > The mystery is the Mark IV works fine into a dummy load, but not at > the site. The Icom works the same as always. The a/c voltage (this is > at a hospital) is 124 volts. > > It is a multi-transmitter site, and the MFJ analyzer shows our DB 224 > as "pegged" on the swr, then it will drop briefly to a low SWR, and > then go back up for a couple of minutes, and then drop again > . > I "think" the MFJ analyzer is just getting RF'ed from another > transmitter, and that the Bird is much more reliable under these > circumstances. The Icom with 18 watts out, 1 reflected leads me to > believe the system is fine, but why would the Mark IV have an output > of 3 watts into the Bird watt meter (nothing reflected), but into a > dummy load, the Mark IV behaves as it should. > > My only other thoughts on testing would be to take a 50 watt 2m > rig/ps and a different Vswr/wattmeter up and see how it behaves with > the system. > > Any help/ideas would be appreciated. Tnx... > > 73, Mike K9MI [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.5/1228 - Release Date: 1/16/2008 > 9:01 AM > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.6/1229 - Release Date: 1/17/2008 11:12 AM
