W6DS operates a network monitor which simultaneously displays activity on a number of YSF reflectors including MNWis, SoCalHam (K9EQ), US-MVARC (Idaho), US-KENTUCKY, US-SADRC, plus others. In addition, you can listen to the conversations or go back in the transmission history to hear past conversations by clicking on the reflector. It also shows technical data so you can see how well you are getting in. What you want is the minimum number of sequence errors. Check out the Network Digital Radio Read more…
Category: FAQ
Frequently asked questions. Common questions discussed on the MNWis Monday night technical net as well as from other sources.
Always test repeaters in FM! Your ear can determine a lot of things. On digital, the range goes down and people that get into the repeater fine don’t notice it. About 90% of the time when people complain about bursty noise, it’s the antenna system. If you’re running a duplexer and there IS ANY kind of bad connection, that bad connection will act like a diode. You get the diode effect whenever two dissimilar metals are in contact! What often Read more…
Many people have reported Fusion repeater lock-ups that required the repeater to be shut down (power removed) and rebooted. I’ve had repeater lock happen as well with an HRI-200 directly connected to the DR2X. In this particular case I believe the event was triggered by sending a number of commands from the radio (such as the GM mode) which resulted in a race condition within the firmware. I have previously observed that invalid data (I.e., with a lot of bit Read more…
If you are experiencing low or no power output….. 1. Replacing a blown final does not necessarily fix the problem that caused the blown final. Never replace a blown final in anything where you haven’t gone through and figured out if there was a reason the final blew. These are very rugged transistors that should last a very long time. 2. Some failures are related to heat, most are not. The DR repeaters have excellent cooling. Unless the Read more…
The DR repeaters are calibrated in the middle of the band. For UHF that is 440.000 MHz. You may want to check the power output at that frequency as you are operating right at the band edge. While you’re at it, measure the Tx current. At the lower power output the current should be lower, otherwise it could indicate a problem. Under no circumstances should the Tx current be above 10 amps (I recommend a 10 amp fuse in the Read more…
What’s up with the FT-70 battery indicator? Why does it seem like the battery doesn’t last very log? The FT-70 doesn’t actually know the state of charge of the battery. It only knows the voltage – which can be misleading while the battery is being charged. The Battery Management Unit within the battery pack is responsible for managing the charging and discharging of the battery. While computers and smart phones generally use the BMU to display state of charge, I’ve Read more…