Well, more progress... I couldn't sleep this morning and was up before the crack of dawn (in other words, about 4AM) so I decided to do more testing the station.
I have discovered that in order to defeat any individual PL RX tones, I must have the tone switch "OFF" on the Four User Control Module *AND* the PL DISABLE switch active on the Station Control Module. Jumpers JU-5 through -8 are OUT on the Four User Control Module - these are for AND gating of PL with the concurrent use of a Single Tone Decoder Module, something I do not have. (If I understand the manual, all I need are JU-1 thru -4 for proper operation without the Single Tone Decoder Module. Manual reads: "JU-1 through JU-4 provide operation without Single-Tone decoder.") Again, if I am understanding the manual, the station takes decode PL and "retransmits" it via the Master Decoder Module... The manual reads: "Tone 'Private Line' signal from the receiver discriminator is applied to Station Control module Pin 21, amplified, and then routed to Master Decoder Pin 23. In the Master Decoder module, the tone signal is passed through a bandpass filter, buffer amplifier Q801, amplifier Q802, and level control R807 to the input side of U801C. This gate inhibits tone passage to the transmitter for retransmission until the gate is enabled as follows. The tone signal applied to the transmission gate is also applied to the same module's output Pin 7, and routed to the Four User Control module input Pin 3. Here, the tone activates an applicable 'Vibrasponder' resonant reed. Any activated reed causes Four User Control module Pin 24 to go low which is in turn applied back to the Master Decoder module at Pin 17. This low is inverted to a high by Q806 and applied to transmission gate U801C which then passes the tone signal waiting at the gate on to the transmitter for retransmission. A 150 millisecond drop-out delay network is included in the Master Decoder module which holds on the transmitter 150 milliseconds after loss of P-T-T during which time a 'reverse burst' 'Private Line' signal is transmitted which immediately squelches applicable receivers." This (Master Decoder / Four User Decoder interfaces) is where I think the PL encode problem lies, but I don't have an oscilloscope in order to test whether the PL signal is being fed through the circuitry properly. My problem is, the manual refers to a Master Decoder module that has two IC chips on the board - my module are older design and have no ICs. I'm thinking there should be a jumper either installed or removed, but no jumpers are called out on the cards I have so I have no way of telling if they are present or missing. (Funny - earlier I was complaining that I thought I had "newer" cards, now it is becoming apparent I have a mix of both. Go figure.) The LINE DISABLE still does not work as I expect (I want it so the station does not transmit on any input when enabled) but maybe that is a switch combination I haven't figured out yet, too... It seems that this Community Repeater works differently than the "regular" MICOR station, so I'm still "feeling my way along" with it. Thanks for all the help and support! Still chugging along... Mark - N9WYS -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Eric Lemmon Mark, Congratulations on your progress! However, I am curious about your comment that the repeater is not passing the PL tone through, On a community repeater, wouldn't you want the input tone filtered out of the audio chain and recreated fresh for transmission? Not all community repeaters use the same tone for encode as for decode. Some user radios may have less-than-pure tones, and may be over-deviated; it may not be prudent to allow such tones to pass through. Perhaps you need a Vibrasender reed installed for the encode function. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of n9wys Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 7:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Repeater-Builder] Re: UHF MICOR Unified Chassis Well, Joe - I got it to work! What I ended up doing was chasing the audio path from the "goes-inna" through the backplane. I found that on the Squelch Gate card, it was not being passed, even though the jumper was in place. I added a hard-wire jumper to the backplane between Pins 11 and 24, and "VOILA!" The next thing I need to do is figure out why I cannot defeat PL operation... when I switch the Station Control to PL DISABLE, the station still transmits. In fact, it transmits even when the LINE DISABLE is switched on, too. More jumpers, I fear. Also, I find that it does not matter whether I have the individual PL tones enabled or disabled on the Four User Module - if I transmit the proper tone to the station, the repeater transmits. And it is not passing that PL tone to the output. (Which I want.) But at least I now have repeat audio. To answer your questions, Joe: 1) Yes, I had a local speaker connected (through my R-1033 test set) and I could hear audio coming in through the receiver section. 2) I cannot get the station to operate in CSQ mode for now... 3) I'll have to look in regard to the "AND" squelch jumpers, but I followed the manual for correct jumper settings for each of the cards. 4) The repeater keys only in PL mode now... At this stage I'm not sure whether you're right or wrong, Joe. But at least it's alive - if only at 50%. ;-) Mark - N9WYS -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com> On Behalf Of Joe Burkleo Mark, OK, now back to where we started from, but much better. I have a bunch of questions for you. 1. Do you have a local speaker hooked up? If so do you have audio out of the speaker in either carrier squelch or PL mode? 2. Do you have repeat audio in carrier squelch mode? I know you do not have repeat audio in PL mode. 3. Have the "and" squelch jumpers been cut on the audio/squelch card or are they still in place? 4. Does the repeater key up in either carrier squelch or PL mode, or in both modes? If I think I understand the problem correctly, the radio keys up and repeats in PL mode, it just does not pass repeat audio, but it works fine in carrier access or Pl disable mode. Please correct me if I am wrong here. 73, Joe - WA7JAW ------------------------------------ Yahoo! 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