Hi Folks, I'm starting to work on the 6 meter portion of the repeater system here, and have a question about the link receiver's antenna.
The existing 2 meter repeater is a Quantar feeding the duplexers. On the 'Antenna' port of the duplexer I've put an in-line diplexer, with the 'UHF' port feeding a UHF Visar (used as the control receiver for the repeater). The antenna is a DB-224. No desense, all works well, including the UHF control receiver. Probably not as good as a separate UHF antenna, but then it's 'free'. Now, I want to hook up the 6 meter link receiver (UHF Maxtrac). The actual 6 meter receiver is about 8 miles away LOS, and the link transmitter is putting out about 1/4 watt. I could put a 'T' in the UHF side of the diplexer, and feed both of the UHF receivers simultaneously, but I know that there will be a reduction in signal. However, is this reduction really going to affect the link that much? For the 2m control receiver, I don't expect it to have as good of range as the 2 meter repeater itself - I just need to be able to shut things down remotely. - probably from a mobile unit. I was going to use a ground plane for the link transmitter, but could put in a small yagi to increase the link's erp. Is there a way to minimize the loss? (without a lot of extra stuff). Thanks, Tim W5FN
