Paul speaks the truth.
I had one fellow who always insisted something was wrong with the repeater when the foliage came on the trees every spring. I tried to explain to him that the leaves and humidity were attenuating the signal and that it was just a fact of life for the fringe-area users. Nonetheless, he insisted that the power was down or the VSWR was up. After arguing (nicely) with this fellow for a couple of weeks, I programmed a voice message on the repeater that I could call at-will and then told him I'd installed a wattmeter at the site that interfaced with the controller. I then demonstrated it to him. The message read "The forward power is 35 watts and the reflected power is 0.7 watts". With this new 'feature' installed, he turned his attention to improving his antenna system. 73, Mike WM4B From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Plack Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 5:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Re: no power out of duplexer SOLVED with more questions John, here's a more subtle lesson on repeaters, and it has nothing to do with hardware... If you dial the power back 1 dB, your PA may be much happier. If you simultaneously change the courtesy beep to be 10% faster, users will ask you what's changed on the repeater. Tell them you've increased the transmitter output 3 dB, and they'll claim to have noticed the improved coverage. Tell him guys...am I wrong? ;^) 73, Paul, AE4KR ----- Original Message ----- From: Tim Sawyer <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 2:43 PM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Re: no power out of duplexer SOLVED with more questions In that spirit. Going from 80 to 100 watts is 0.97 db better. That's probably not an improvement your users will notice. When one considers what a pain it is when the PA dies, it might not be worth it. Just my 2 cents but I think you're better off leaving the amp at 80 watts.
