[RVRC] W2QW Repeater Updates

[cwsaums at aol.com]

Here is some additional information to follow up the earlier note from Pete 

We had feed line sweeps and other work done at the repeater site on Saturday.  The tests showed a pretty bad fault on the 440 feedline.  The 440 repeater was shut down to protect the machine.  We are probably lucky that it wasn't damaged by continuing to use it after the storm.  The backup 2 meter antenna is also out of service although the feed line to the lower mount point on the tower is actually in very good shape. The issue is the antenna not the feedline.

There is a clean unused feed line on the tower that will be used for the new 440 antenna when the remaining climb can be arranged.  The new 2 meter antenna and feedline tested very well with almost totally flat response.

WB0YLE Bryan and his friend Cully from Penn Wireless spent about 3 hours (plus 2 hours round trip drive time) doing these line tests and adjusting the notch filters on the 2 meter duplexer to finally resolve the de-sense issue on the 2 meter system.  This allowed the 2 meter amp to go back online and we are back to full power @ approximately 100 watts out.  Cully also checked the new 440 duplexer and it was on spec so no additional adjustments were needed.

The starting point for the 2 meter duplexer was about -75 db isolation between the receive and transmit frequencies.  When the amp was turned on the receive side of the duplexer was getting swamped by the 100 watt signal on the transmitter side with insufficient "notch".   After adjustments and a minor repair to one of the notch units, Cully was able to get approx. -120 db of isolation.  At 100 watts, this is sufficient and so far the signal is very clean and strong.

These adjustments were the secret sauce to getting us back to full power.  
We owe a big "Thank you" to Bryan and Cully for getting this done for the club.

Thanks to Pete KD2ARB and Bruce KC2YSF for assisting with testing from various locations.  Thanks also to Paul KC2VRJ for spending all the time and getting all the pieces connected again after the adjustments.

73
Craig AC2FE

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 20, 2013, at 7:02 PM, Pete Fierro <overthetop52 at yahoo.com> wrote:

        Hello All

         The 440 repeater is off the air until the climb.The 2 meter repeater duplexers have been fixed&now up to 100 watts out.Sounds good&signal is much cleaner too.
                                                                                                                                                                                               73
                                                                                                                                                                                              Pete  

                                                                                                                                                                                          KD2ARB
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