Re: [Repeater-Builder] High capacity capacitors
Hi Ed, Is the size a factor? In most cases where that capacity is needed they are usually parallel, the last great size I saw was on eBay, and I miss the deal, but 32 20,000 uF 40 v and a dozen 12,000uF 35 v that's the best I been seeing of late on eBay. So if you find a source for the 70-100 k uF @ 35v please let us know here. v44kai.Joel. - Original Message - From: Com/Rad Inc To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 3:25 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] High capacity capacitors Hello Group A little off subject but I am in need of sourcing high capacity capacitors ( 70 to 100 K uF - 35 v stuff ) New or Surplus are OK Any suggetions ? looking for good prices ( that is the limiting factor ! ) Ed Com/Rad Inc . No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.1/1868 - Release Date: 12/29/2008 10:48 AM -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.1/1868 - Release Date: 12/29/2008 10:48 AM
Re: [Repeater-Builder] Problem remote base linking of 2 repeaters using CAT 300 DXL controller
Chris, To start with you will need to give us much more information, but I think that one possible question that immediatly jumps into my mind is that of isolation between the 2 meter remote bases. As I read your post you have a 440 repeater with three 2 meter radios, all at the same site. I'm assuming that each 2 meter link is set up on a single frequency pair. When you are using only one 2 meter radio everything works OK. When you bring on a second 2 meter radio the system hangs in transmit. My questions to start with would be: 1) How much vertical distance is between the antennas for each of the 2 meter radios? 2) What kind of antennas (omni or beam) on the 2 meter links? 3) What kind of equipment is in use for the 2 meter links? 4) Is there any extra RF filtering in use on any of the 2 meter links? 5) Have you been at the site and tried to listen to the 2 meter radios to see if any of the combinations of transmit and receive cause any of the other link radios to unsquelch? 6) Do the links use carrier squelch or PL? Milt N3LTQ - Original Message - From: w4vx_chris w...@charter.net To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 2:40 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Problem remote base linking of 2 repeaters using CAT 300 DXL controller Fellow repeater builders, I am a relative novice at repeater linking and need some trouble shooting/system design advice. I have a 440 repeater with 3 two meter remote base radios tied together using the CAT 300 DXL controller with the RLS board. The remote base radios are tuned to local repeaters that we would like to link together. Individually, each remote base radio works fine meaning I can turn it on with via 440 repeater and qso on the target repeater. Also, another local repeater with a 440 remote base is able to link the 440 repeater and when I turn on one of the remote base radio and link in another 2 mtr repeater it works fine (repeater key up and down like one big repeater). The problem arises when I try to use the two or more 2 mtr remote base radios to link two 2 mtr repeaters together. The system comes up stays up - never unkeys. Is this a hang time issue? Or is there something wrong about trying to link two repeaters on two meters with 2 meter remote bases through a 440 machine - usually folks target the 440 repeater with a remote base not the other way around? Could it be a controller setting issue? I am really stuck at the moment and I appreciate any thoughts you may have. It sure would be nice to have these repeaters linked for our nets and is generally kinda cool if we can pull this off. Vexed in Virgina, Chris W4VX Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: [Repeater-Builder] Reed vs. Reedless Boards in Mitrek Radios
You may find that after the PL signal goes through the modulator, the distortion is even lower. It also probably doesn't matter too much; 1% is still 40dB down. You probably don't know (yet) what component is producing that little bit of signal either; it could be some high-frequency noise coming out of the circuit itself, rather than actual distortion of the sine wave or an actual harmonic of the PL tone. If the reed is being overdriven in an attempt to make sure it oscillates, it could be bumping into something inside and causing distortion that way. Don't they use wide-band noise to get the reed going in the first place? Some synthesized radios (i.e. MaxTracs) use two output lines from the microprocessor that get summed in a two-resistor D/A converter. This feeds a low-pass filter before joining the modulation path. The filtering has to allow for all PL tones up to about 250 Hz, but it doesn't have to be flat; radio alignment can make up for some of that. Yet the PL tone is fairly pure. MSF5000s use a four-bit D/A converter for their PL encoder, so I would expect it to be even more pure than a MaxTrac. Spectras and GTXs do everything inside an IC, so only The Minds of Motorola truly know what goes on in them. Every time I try to measure the distortion of a MaxTrac's transmit audio, I find it to be in the 3% range, even with low levels of modulation, at 400 and 1000 Hz. Since you're in California, I'm sure your readings will be lower! Sounds like a bit more research and investigation is in order. Could be a nice topic for a Repeater-Builder article. Bob M. == --- On Mon, 12/29/08, Eric Lemmon wb6...@verizon.net wrote: From: Eric Lemmon wb6...@verizon.net Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Reed vs. Reedless Boards in Mitrek Radios To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, December 29, 2008, 8:26 PM I recently acquired a Kenwood HM-250 Audio Distortion Analyzer, and I have been experimenting with various CTCSS tone encoders to find which produce the purest tones. Since I am putting together a 6m repeater using Mitrek radios, I wanted to compare the older HLN4020B reed board to the newer HLN4181A reedless board. What an eye-opener! At the outset, my gut feeling was that the reed board would produce a purer tone than the digital reedless board, since the reeds are essentially tuning forks. That turned out to be a false assumption. With two known-good tone boards hooked up on the bench, the 4020B reed board consistently produced a 127.3 Hz tone with distortion ranging from 0.75% to 1.52%, while the 4181A reedless board produced the same tone with only 0.43% distortion. I adjusted the output level pot (R23) on the 4181A board to match the output level of the 4020B board. I tested the 4020B board with six 127.3 Hz reeds. Another interesting fact emerged from my experiment: Although the PL tone reeds can be plugged into their sockets in either of two positions, I found that there was definitely a difference in the amount of distortion produced. The differences ranged from 0.1% up to 0.6%- not much, but surprising, since the reeds are supposedly symmetrical. I got similar results with KLN6209A, KLN6210A, and TLN6824A reeds. For comparison, I measured the distortion at 127.3 Hz from several pieces of test equipment, with the following results: HP 204B Audio Generator: 0.24% Motorola R2600D Service Monitor: 0.26% Wavetek 188 Audio Generator: 0.19% CSI TE-64D Tone Generator: 0.76% My next step is to evaluate the purity of the CTCSS tones after passing through an RF link. Some radios- cheap ones especially- use rather coarse tone synthesis techniques to generate PL tones, and the resulting tones are prone to falsing and talk-off problems. Stay tuned... 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
RE: [Repeater-Builder] Reed vs. Reedless Boards in Mitrek Radios
Bob, I am very pleased to see that I am not the only one studying this issue! I got started on this track by evaluating the waveform purity of backup power systems, AKA mini-UPS, that sum several frequencies to approximate a 60 Hz sine wave. Such devices produce very crude approximations of a sine wave, and some equipment doesn't work too well when fed that power. Depending upon the technology used, and the intelligence used in the design, a PL tone generator can range from a square-wave oscillator to a nearly-pure sine wave oscillator. As Kevin has pointed out numerous times on this list, a PL tone that is audible to a repeater user may be the result of distortion, as well as over-deviation. I always set PL deviation to the 400-500 Hz range, but still hear a buzz when some radios transmit. As expected, some inexpensive radios from Asia seemed to be far more prone to PL tone buzz than commercial radios. Based upon my limited experimentation to date, I have found that the really cheap handheld radios use a CTCSS generation technique that results in greater distortion than the technique used in high-tier commercial radios. I'm not sure how beneficial to the repeater community this knowledge will be, but I personally feel that minimizing distortion of audio signals within a repeater system is a good thing. I am still stunned that a reed tone board has more than twice the distortion of a digital tone board. Conventional wisdom would predict that a tuning fork design would produce a pure sine wave. As Bob suggests, the distortion in the reed board may be caused by excessive feedback, and that's a topic for further study. Any ideas why the reed has more distortion in one orientation than in the other? 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bob M. Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 5:12 AM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Reed vs. Reedless Boards in Mitrek Radios You may find that after the PL signal goes through the modulator, the distortion is even lower. It also probably doesn't matter too much; 1% is still 40dB down. You probably don't know (yet) what component is producing that little bit of signal either; it could be some high-frequency noise coming out of the circuit itself, rather than actual distortion of the sine wave or an actual harmonic of the PL tone. If the reed is being overdriven in an attempt to make sure it oscillates, it could be bumping into something inside and causing distortion that way. Don't they use wide-band noise to get the reed going in the first place? Some synthesized radios (i.e. MaxTracs) use two output lines from the microprocessor that get summed in a two-resistor D/A converter. This feeds a low-pass filter before joining the modulation path. The filtering has to allow for all PL tones up to about 250 Hz, but it doesn't have to be flat; radio alignment can make up for some of that. Yet the PL tone is fairly pure. MSF5000s use a four-bit D/A converter for their PL encoder, so I would expect it to be even more pure than a MaxTrac. Spectras and GTXs do everything inside an IC, so only The Minds of Motorola truly know what goes on in them. Every time I try to measure the distortion of a MaxTrac's transmit audio, I find it to be in the 3% range, even with low levels of modulation, at 400 and 1000 Hz. Since you're in California, I'm sure your readings will be lower! Sounds like a bit more research and investigation is in order. Could be a nice topic for a Repeater-Builder article. Bob M. == --- On Mon, 12/29/08, Eric Lemmon wb6...@verizon.net mailto:wb6fly%40verizon.net wrote: From: Eric Lemmon wb6...@verizon.net mailto:wb6fly%40verizon.net Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Reed vs. Reedless Boards in Mitrek Radios To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, December 29, 2008, 8:26 PM I recently acquired a Kenwood HM-250 Audio Distortion Analyzer, and I have been experimenting with various CTCSS tone encoders to find which produce the purest tones. Since I am putting together a 6m repeater using Mitrek radios, I wanted to compare the older HLN4020B reed board to the newer HLN4181A reedless board. What an eye-opener! At the outset, my gut feeling was that the reed board would produce a purer tone than the digital reedless board, since the reeds are essentially tuning forks. That turned out to be a false assumption. With two known-good tone boards hooked up on the bench, the 4020B reed board consistently produced a 127.3 Hz tone with distortion ranging from 0.75% to 1.52%, while the 4181A reedless board produced the same tone with only 0.43% distortion. I adjusted the output level pot (R23) on the 4181A board to match the output level of the 4020B board. I tested the 4020B board with six 127.3 Hz reeds. Another interesting fact emerged from
Re: [Repeater-Builder] Problem remote base linking of 2 repeaters using CAT 300 DXL controller
Chris, here is a link to a GE Mastr II system I put together last summer. It uses a CAT300 (an old model without the Link capability) with the RLS board. http://sbarcnm.org/forum/index.php?topic=108.0 Using the older CAT300, only two remote base connections are available since there was no port on the original controller for a link. One thing I noticed was that the CTCSS signal from the link radio was not used in the internal control path of the RLS board. I changed the recommended CAT connections between my CAT300 and the RLS board to use the CTCSS signal instead of the COS signal. The COS signal was still used internal to the RLS board to control the audio mute function. I had a special consideration for the transmitted CTCSS tone in that I needed to be able to in-band link to either repeater for a VoIP interface. I made some modifications to the TS-64 MastrII tone board to only transmit a tone while a signal was present on the input of the repeater or link. I used an in-band link to another 2 meter repeater located about 10 miles away and used a GE Mastr II mobile with the PA removed as the link radio. The 250 mWatt signal into a 3 elememt beam located about 15 ft below the repeater DB-224 antenna provides a fully quieted signal for the other repeater, and the receive signal from the other repeater is fully quieted into the link radio (with some desense I am sure). The schematics for all the interconnections for the repeater are documented in the link above. 73 - Jim W5ZIT --- On Mon, 12/29/08, w4vx_chris w...@charter.net wrote: From: w4vx_chris w...@charter.net Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Problem remote base linking of 2 repeaters using CAT 300 DXL controller To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, December 29, 2008, 1:40 PM Fellow repeater builders, I am a relative novice at repeater linking and need some trouble shooting/system design advice. I have a 440 repeater with 3 two meter remote base radios tied together using the CAT 300 DXL controller with the RLS board. The remote base radios are tuned to local repeaters that we would like to link together. Individually, each remote base radio works fine meaning I can turn it on with via 440 repeater and qso on the target repeater. Also, another local repeater with a 440 remote base is able to link the 440 repeater and when I turn on one of the remote base radio and link in another 2 mtr repeater it works fine (repeater key up and down like one big repeater). The problem arises when I try to use the two or more 2 mtr remote base radios to link two 2 mtr repeaters together. The system comes up stays up - never unkeys. Is this a hang time issue? Or is there something wrong about trying to link two repeaters on two meters with 2 meter remote bases through a 440 machine - usually folks target the 440 repeater with a remote base not the other way around? Could it be a controller setting issue? I am really stuck at the moment and I appreciate any thoughts you may have. It sure would be nice to have these repeaters linked for our nets and is generally kinda cool if we can pull this off. Vexed in Virgina, Chris W4VX
[Repeater-Builder] PL Distortion
In a previous posting, I alleged that cheap portable radios are prone to having CTCSS tones that have significant distortion. Now I can offer some proof. My test setup comprises a Motorola R2600D service monitor feeding a Kenwood HM-250 distortion analyzer from its DEMOD output. The service monitor was set for a 5 to 300 Hz bandwidth. To get a baseline reading, I fed a pure 131.8 Hz tone from a Wavetek 188 audio generator to the external modulation input of an HP 8656B signal generator. The 8656B was set for a 146.000 MHz carrier modulated at 750 Hz deviation of the 131.8 Hz tone, and cabled to the RF input of the service monitor. With this baseline signal, my HM-250 indicated 0.32% distortion. I then tested four portable radios, with the following distortion measurements: Motorola HT1250: 1.2% Motorola GP68: 1.3% Alinco DJ-S11: 4.0% Puxing PX-777: 7.8% As one might expect, the cheaper the radio, the poorer the signal quality. It's not surprising that the Puxing radio produces a raspy buzz when transmitting through a repeater. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY
[Repeater-Builder] Re: OT: Radios and Coms in TV and Movies
Hi John How's it going? I remember the Biocom. We tried one out in Palm Beach County way back when. I recall it used GE PE series radios in it. We took it apart to see. It's about 45 degrees up here now in Seatttle. We got almost record snow this year - about 18 inches where I am. 20 miles east they have over 6 feet in the mountains. I could use some sun for a while! Doug Dickinson KC0SDQ
[Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz?
Is there a hack to program the Motorola R1225 under 444Mhz? 73, Joe, K1ike
RE: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz?
Joe, No hack is necessary. Simply use the Shift Key Technique to enter frequencies down to 434.000 MHz. To do this, open the RSS and tab into the RX or TX frequency window. Hold down the shift key, and type in the first three digits. Release the shift key and type in the decimal point. Again hold down the shift key and type in the remaining digits, including all trailing zeroes. Then, tab out of that window. The frequency you entered will appear in the window. Please understand that the above technique will program the R1225 for out-of-band frequencies, but the RX and TX performance will rapidly deteriorate, the further out of band you go. Expect the RX sensitivity to decrease as you go below 444 MHz, and the TX power amplifier will not be happy- so reduce the power setting. The R1225 does not have a built-in circulator like its high-tier cousins, so there is a risk of burning up the PA with out-of-band operation. Good luck! 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:14 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz? Is there a hack to program the Motorola R1225 under 444Mhz? 73, Joe, K1ike
Re: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz?
Thanks Eric, Is it possible to realign the R1225 with software to improve performance out of band? 73, Joe, K1ike Eric Lemmon wrote: Joe, No hack is necessary. Simply use the Shift Key Technique to enter frequencies down to 434.000 MHz. To do this, open the RSS and tab into the RX or TX frequency window. Hold down the shift key, and type in the first three digits. Release the shift key and type in the decimal point. Again hold down the shift key and type in the remaining digits, including all trailing zeroes. Then, tab out of that window. The frequency you entered will appear in the window. Please understand that the above technique will program the R1225 for out-of-band frequencies, but the RX and TX performance will rapidly deteriorate, the further out of band you go. Expect the RX sensitivity to decrease as you go below 444 MHz, and the TX power amplifier will not be happy- so reduce the power setting. The R1225 does not have a built-in circulator like its high-tier cousins, so there is a risk of burning up the PA with out-of-band operation. Good luck! 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:14 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz? Is there a hack to program the Motorola R1225 under 444Mhz? 73, Joe, K1ike
RE: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz?
Joe, I am not aware of any means to perform a realignment. The design of the radio precludes that option. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:50 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz? Thanks Eric, Is it possible to realign the R1225 with software to improve performance out of band? 73, Joe, K1ike Eric Lemmon wrote: Joe, No hack is necessary. Simply use the Shift Key Technique to enter frequencies down to 434.000 MHz. To do this, open the RSS and tab into the RX or TX frequency window. Hold down the shift key, and type in the first three digits. Release the shift key and type in the decimal point. Again hold down the shift key and type in the remaining digits, including all trailing zeroes. Then, tab out of that window. The frequency you entered will appear in the window. Please understand that the above technique will program the R1225 for out-of-band frequencies, but the RX and TX performance will rapidly deteriorate, the further out of band you go. Expect the RX sensitivity to decrease as you go below 444 MHz, and the TX power amplifier will not be happy- so reduce the power setting. The R1225 does not have a built-in circulator like its high-tier cousins, so there is a risk of burning up the PA with out-of-band operation. Good luck! 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com [mailto:Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:14 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com Subject: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz? Is there a hack to program the Motorola R1225 under 444Mhz? 73, Joe, K1ike
[Repeater-Builder] Re: Icom RP-1520 2m repeater
Hi Brian, Even as a Kenwood Dealer I have dealt with my share of Icom Repeaters... even having a number of them in Ham Service as originally purchased by clubs. I can try to help you off the list if you email me direct. I know there are one to three versions of almost every model repeater so the first trick is to figure out exactly which version you have. Generically speaking... The older Icom Repeaters program with Data stored in an Eprom (firmware) or dip switch programming and crystal selection for frequency assignment. I have the information and ability to program the Eproms for the various CPU boards. There are/were at least three different CPU Boards versions made. Many times it's no fun to have to figure out the proper path to get things done.., which is not exclusive to Icom. If it's just a CTCSS problem... there might be less work involved. cheers, skipp skipp025 at yahoo.com Brian G. ka5...@... wrote: Does anybody on the list here have some good technical knowledge on the above repeater? I'm trying to get the CTCSS tone board working in one and can't seem to. I don't think its broke, but need someone to point me in the right direction on some troubleshooting. Thanks. 73, Brian
Re: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz?
I've had pretty good luck down to 438MHz with about the half dozen in my stack. They're all very solid to 440MHz. All of my stack are 1-10W versions. On Dec 30, 2008, at 5:43 PM, Eric Lemmon wrote: Joe, No hack is necessary. Simply use the Shift Key Technique to enter frequencies down to 434.000 MHz. To do this, open the RSS and tab into the RX or TX frequency window. Hold down the shift key, and type in the first three digits. Release the shift key and type in the decimal point. Again hold down the shift key and type in the remaining digits, including all trailing zeroes. Then, tab out of that window. The frequency you entered will appear in the window. Please understand that the above technique will program the R1225 for out-of-band frequencies, but the RX and TX performance will rapidly deteriorate, the further out of band you go. Expect the RX sensitivity to decrease as you go below 444 MHz, and the TX power amplifier will not be happy- so reduce the power setting. The R1225 does not have a built-in circulator like its high-tier cousins, so there is a risk of burning up the PA with out-of-band operation. Good luck! 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:14 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz? Is there a hack to program the Motorola R1225 under 444Mhz? 73, Joe, K1ike -- Cort Buffington H: +1-785-838-3034 M: +1-785-865-7206
Re: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz?
The R1225 looks a lot like a GM300 or Maxtrac on the outside... bears NO resemblance on the inside :) On Dec 30, 2008, at 5:55 PM, Eric Lemmon wrote: Joe, I am not aware of any means to perform a realignment. The design of the radio precludes that option. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:50 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz? Thanks Eric, Is it possible to realign the R1225 with software to improve performance out of band? 73, Joe, K1ike Eric Lemmon wrote: Joe, No hack is necessary. Simply use the Shift Key Technique to enter frequencies down to 434.000 MHz. To do this, open the RSS and tab into the RX or TX frequency window. Hold down the shift key, and type in the first three digits. Release the shift key and type in the decimal point. Again hold down the shift key and type in the remaining digits, including all trailing zeroes. Then, tab out of that window. The frequency you entered will appear in the window. Please understand that the above technique will program the R1225 for out-of-band frequencies, but the RX and TX performance will rapidly deteriorate, the further out of band you go. Expect the RX sensitivity to decrease as you go below 444 MHz, and the TX power amplifier will not be happy- so reduce the power setting. The R1225 does not have a built-in circulator like its high-tier cousins, so there is a risk of burning up the PA with out-of-band operation. Good luck! 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com [mailto:Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:14 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com Subject: [Repeater-Builder] R1225 below 444Mhz? Is there a hack to program the Motorola R1225 under 444Mhz? 73, Joe, K1ike -- Cort Buffington H: +1-785-838-3034 M: +1-785-865-7206
Re: [Repeater-Builder] Problem remote base linking of 2 repeaters using CAT 300 DXL controller
Hi Milt and Thanks for the response. Here are the answers to your questions 1) For the two I would really like to use they are about 110' apart vertically. Two of the antennas are mounted on the top of the water tower (within 15' of each other) and the other is on the ground mounted on the equipment building. 2) The ground mounted antenna is a 1/4 wave ground plane. On the top of the water tower is a 6 db vertical (X300 I believe) and a 3 element yagi. At the very top of the water tower is the 440 repeater antenna. I was using the remote bases with the 1/4 and the vertical during the last test. 3) Each remote base radio is an Alinco DR 135. I have the two I was using for the last test set to 5 watts. 4) No extra filtering is in use 5) No, I have no specifically looked for that. 6) No PL squelch is used. They do transmit PL for the given repeater. As I was answering your questions something popped into my head that I forgot to mention in the intial email that may have bearing on an isolation issue. One of the repeaters I would like to link to periodically is also located on the site and the antenna is DB224 style vertical mounted on the water tower about 15' vertical feet from the two remote base antennas on water tower. It is running abut 80 watts. Hmm... Chris W4VX - Original Message - From: Milt To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 8:05 AM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Problem remote base linking of 2 repeaters using CAT 300 DXL controller Chris, To start with you will need to give us much more information, but I think that one possible question that immediatly jumps into my mind is that of isolation between the 2 meter remote bases. As I read your post you have a 440 repeater with three 2 meter radios, all at the same site. I'm assuming that each 2 meter link is set up on a single frequency pair. When you are using only one 2 meter radio everything works OK. When you bring on a second 2 meter radio the system hangs in transmit. My questions to start with would be: 1) How much vertical distance is between the antennas for each of the 2 meter radios? 2) What kind of antennas (omni or beam) on the 2 meter links? 3) What kind of equipment is in use for the 2 meter links? 4) Is there any extra RF filtering in use on any of the 2 meter links? 5) Have you been at the site and tried to listen to the 2 meter radios to see if any of the combinations of transmit and receive cause any of the other link radios to unsquelch? 6) Do the links use carrier squelch or PL? Milt N3LTQ - Original Message - From: w4vx_chris w...@charter.net To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 2:40 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Problem remote base linking of 2 repeaters using CAT 300 DXL controller Fellow repeater builders, I am a relative novice at repeater linking and need some trouble shooting/system design advice. I have a 440 repeater with 3 two meter remote base radios tied together using the CAT 300 DXL controller with the RLS board. The remote base radios are tuned to local repeaters that we would like to link together. Individually, each remote base radio works fine meaning I can turn it on with via 440 repeater and qso on the target repeater. Also, another local repeater with a 440 remote base is able to link the 440 repeater and when I turn on one of the remote base radio and link in another 2 mtr repeater it works fine (repeater key up and down like one big repeater). The problem arises when I try to use the two or more 2 mtr remote base radios to link two 2 mtr repeaters together. The system comes up stays up - never unkeys. Is this a hang time issue? Or is there something wrong about trying to link two repeaters on two meters with 2 meter remote bases through a 440 machine - usually folks target the 440 repeater with a remote base not the other way around? Could it be a controller setting issue? I am really stuck at the moment and I appreciate any thoughts you may have. It sure would be nice to have these repeaters linked for our nets and is generally kinda cool if we can pull this off. Vexed in Virgina, Chris W4VX Yahoo! Groups Links
