I'm stumped on this one...
Just put up a local Mototrbo repeater for a neighborhood watch group. When I had the antenna propped up in the air temporarily for testing, the thing worked great. Was getting a 30 mile radius coverage without any issues at all. Was using a XPR5550e for the testing while mobile. Got 3-4 bars consistently.
I put the antenna up in its permanent mount (~10 ft. higher than the temporary) and now the range is severely limited. The 4 bars drop literally a block away from the repeater, and while it still goes out to around 15 miles, it now requires the full 40 watts to get in, when 20 used to suffice, and it sits at 0 bars on the meter, and consistently cuts out.
Nothing changed aside from putting the antenna up on the permanent mount. SWR is almost a flat 1.0:1, power output is fine. Duplexer seems fine, using 7/8" heliax aside from the pigtails.
I'm at a complete loss here, since absolutely nothing changed except raising the antenna higher. Have put up plenty of repeaters and radio systems in the past, and have never ran into this issue before.
Any ideas?
Just put up a local Mototrbo repeater for a neighborhood watch group. When I had the antenna propped up in the air temporarily for testing, the thing worked great. Was getting a 30 mile radius coverage without any issues at all. Was using a XPR5550e for the testing while mobile. Got 3-4 bars consistently.
I put the antenna up in its permanent mount (~10 ft. higher than the temporary) and now the range is severely limited. The 4 bars drop literally a block away from the repeater, and while it still goes out to around 15 miles, it now requires the full 40 watts to get in, when 20 used to suffice, and it sits at 0 bars on the meter, and consistently cuts out.
Nothing changed aside from putting the antenna up on the permanent mount. SWR is almost a flat 1.0:1, power output is fine. Duplexer seems fine, using 7/8" heliax aside from the pigtails.
I'm at a complete loss here, since absolutely nothing changed except raising the antenna higher. Have put up plenty of repeaters and radio systems in the past, and have never ran into this issue before.
Any ideas?