[Repeater-Builder] 10m FM Band plane (was: 10 meter desense help, split site, high noise floor)
The best odds of getting a Petition for Rule Making accepted for comment and then enacted is for all impacted parties to jointly submit a plan that has been hammered out and mutually agreed to. You will have much better success when there is no conflict by the users versus a continuos petition. Mike / W5JR / Milton GA (a suburb of Alpharetta)
[Repeater-Builder] Re: 220 repeater antennas
The person Paul refers to built 2 of these antennas, from scratch, (originally called a DB-244 by Decibel Products) for our group in the early 80's. The antennas are still in operation 1500' up the broadcast tower today, one used for RX and one used for TX - no duplexer. Performance remains superb. BTW, reflecting on a discussion about the Midland 13-509 radio for repeater operation, these antennas are connected to a split apart 13-509, built at the same time as the antennas. I know this is the kiss of death, but other than a run away crystal oven (it gets very cold at 1500' in an outdoor cabinet) the Midland repeater has had no failures after 25+ years of service. We keep intending to modify a hi-band GE MVP, but as long as the Midland keeps working, the project is low on the to-do list. I have one of the factory DB 220 antennas on the ground back in Texas, and will see it in a few weeks. I can take the measurements (unless someone else in DFW wants to do it) and a few pictures. If someone really really thinks they have to this one, I can be coaxed into selling it, local DFW pick-up only, I will not ship it. Mike / W5JR / Milton GA (a suburb of Alpharetta) Posted by: Paul Finch mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Re%3A%20220%20repeater%20antennas[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://profiles.yahoo.com/wb5idmwb5idm Tue Dec 4, 2007 9:07 pm (PST) I have a friend that has made his own 220 MHz version of the DB antenna, the worst problem he had was getting the harness to seal. I told him about Scotchkoat and he has not had a problem since. By the way, the Vapor Block coax does not do much for me. If the coax is sealed correctly you will never get water in it. All Vapor Block does is make it hard to work with, it still lets water migrate to the lowest point in the coax which is usually the Heliax connector. The problem with my friend right now is he is 76 years old and his mind seems to be going away. He was supposed to build me an antenna but has forgotten about it. The two antennas (1 TX, 1 RX) on his 500 foot tower have been up for about ten years with no problem. Paul
[Repeater-Builder] Re: Icom IC-3at as a remote
Robert, if you are using the external mic connector to key the radio, you will have to key the mic line by using a resistor to ground versus directly to ground. The radio goes into TX mode when current is pulled through the mic line. If you are paralleling the internal PTT switch, this does not apply. You can search for one of the sites with the old ACC controller info, and there is an appnote on hooking the 2-, 3-, and 4- radios to their units that shows PTT and mic audio connections. ACC used the FC-1 board to interface the controller logic to the radio. Mike - w5jr - via arrl.net - Milton, GA
[Repeater-Builder] Re:23cm repeaters
I've got some conversion info for GE 800 MHz Exec II / MVP equipment to put them on 1.2 GHz. It is easiest to use 2 units, but the conversion does detail how to add a second LO for the RX using a DownEast Microwave LO board. I've not performed this modification myself, so no idea how well it works but seems straight forward. Let me know where I can send the .doc file. Posted by: James Adkins mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Re%3A23cm%20repeaters[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://profiles.yahoo.com/kb0nhxkb0nhx Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:36 am (PST) Anyone have any good recommendations for 23cm repeaters besides D-Star? I've read about the Icom RP-1200 and using two TM-541s. Are there other options that are as good or better? Thanks, -- James Mike - w5jr - via arrl.net - Milton, GA
[Repeater-Builder] Re: bag phone for repeater 911
For the Canadian crowd, Rogers has formally announced they are discontinuing analog and TDMA service effective May 31, 2007 - NEXT WEEK. They put out their first notice about 6 months ago. Canada does not have a must provide clause for analog service. As mentioned earlier, in the US, FCC rules require cellular carriers (those operating on either of the 850 MHz spectrum blocks) to maintain analog service at least until Feb 18, 2008. After that date, providing analog service will be optional. Nearly all 850 MHz service providers have expressed (in various FCC dockets on the subject) their intention to discontinue analog (and any remaining TDMA) service on or shortly after that date. TDMA (or CDMA) is not a mandated technology and thus several service providers have begun discontinuing TDMA service ahead of the analog sunset date. As others have said, once it is gone, it's gone. The Moto 8000 sitting on my desk will soon be a real paperweight. There are close to 300,000,000 (300 Million) wireless subscribers in the US today. ATT (Cingular), Verizon Wireless, Altell, US Cellular and Dobson account for over 90% of current analog branded customers, and between them, there was less than 1 million left on analog as of the Feb 2007 reports - and declining rapidly.
[Repeater-Builder] Re: Johnson PPL 6060 manual needed
Posted by: JOHN MACKEY mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Re%3A%20Johnson%20PPL%206060%20manual%20needed[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://profiles.yahoo.com/jmackey_usa_netjmackey_usa_net Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:26 pm (PST) are you saying a 45-470 MHz PPL6060 will work in the 420 MHz range? Absolutely!! I've moved many an EFJ to 420 operation - 558, 559, 6060. And some of them began life as T-Band units, 470-512 MHz. In the RX, use high side injection xtals. Matter of fact, use your existing 440 or 450 xtals to test with. The radio will hear a signal -21.4 MHz lower than your current freq. You may have to add a 1/4 turn to each coil in the multiplier helical. In the front end, use a 1/4 turn for 427-433 range and a half turn for the low end. We used regular house wire, 10 ga I think for the 558/559 units, formed around the proper sized drill bit. Tack solder it to the end of the existing coils. They tune right up. Sometimes, 1/4 inch longer screws is all it takes. If they are T-Band, use more coil. On the TX, some padding in parallel with caps in the multipliers is needed to bring them in range, especially if TX'ing low. It is easy to get a doubler acting like a tripler, so be sure to have a spectrum analyzer on hand to verify what freq the RF is on. Same is true for the amplifier stages. Two of the helicals in the 6060 casting are for TX and may need the coil extension trick like the RX side. They make good 420 full duplex link radios, similar to a modified MVP. - mike - w5jr
[Repeater-Builder] Re: Johnson PPL 6060 manual needed
I've run one of those as a repeater for about 25 years now. It saw service in a very active linked repeater network for the first 10 of those years. I've moved it down to the 420 range for a link, and now back up into the 440 repeater segment. The units will exhibit desense unless the driver and PA sections are tuned very carefully. After tuning, if the power control pot is adjusted, a touch-up of the driver/pa is required. You can also impact the performance by careful adjustment of the RX front end coils while the transmitter is keyed. I turned another one into a full duplex base station. - mike / w5jr
