Monday, January 4, 2016

W4RYZ 145.210 Repeater Upgraded To Fusion

Happy New Year!

You may have noticed the repeater it sounding different.  The club has installed the new Fusion DR-1X repeater on Thursday (Dec 31, 2015).  It is running great and already I have seen an improvement in the repeater receiver sensitivity.  Over the next few weeks try it out and see what you think.  At this time the repeater is set up with what is thought to be the best settings.  As the club gets a better understanding of these settings on how they work for the way the club uses the repeater adjustments can be made.  Right now the repeater is set up this way:

1) The repeater is set up on "Automatic Mode Select" (AMS).  What this means is the repeater will adjust to the incoming signal mode (FM or Fusion) and repeat out the same mode.  When the repeater receives a FM signal a FM signal will be transmitted out.  When the repeater receives a Fusion signal a Fusion signal will be transmitted out.  For the ones with FM radios, when the repeater is being used in Fusion mode you will hear a continuous hum without audio.  Hearing the Hum you will know the repeater is in uses in Fusion mode and the repeater is not having problems.

2) There in no courtesy beep on this repeater to let you know when to transmit after someone stops transmitting.  Right now it is believed the repeater does not offer this.  The repeater carrier (Squelch Tail) is set for 2.5 seconds (the max setting).  That means the repeater will stay on for 2.5 seconds after the end of someone transmittion ends into the repeater.  Even without the courtesy beep you can tell someone has stopped transmitting because you will hear a hash sound when the incoming transmission stops.  You may think 2.5 seconds is not enough time but when you read about setting number three it will make better sense.    

3) The Time Out Timer (TOT) is set for three minutes.  This will most likely be adjusted to be longer.  What this means the repeater will time out after three minutes of continuous uses where the repeater does not drop out (stop transmitting) during that three minutes.  What needs to happen is to let the repeater drop out at least once within three minutes of continuous use where the TOT can reset. 

These are the settings being used right now that are different from the old repeater.  I am open to any comments and suggestions as the club gets more time using this repeater and see what it can do.  Please get on the air and use it and enjoy.

73,
Bob WB8PAF

The install team included Bob Leasko WB8PAF, Jim McQuagge  K4LIX, Jack Crusan N1HQ, Bob Plank KK4DIV and Cory Welch N4UVR.



Bob Leasko WB8PAF, Jack Crusan N1HQ, Cory Welch N4UVR and Bob Plank KK4DIV (left to right)

See more photos at this link