easthill900
Newbie
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2021
- Messages
- 3
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong category. Just found these wonderful forums.
I have a UHF repeater in a rural area with lots of hills/valleys, etc. I’ve located it on a building as close to center and highest of the area I want covered. The area of desired coverage is not large, just about 5 mile radius from the repeater. There is no need for long distance coverage, the focus is local area coverage.
It’s working fine, except there are definitely some spots where I can hear the repeater from a portable but the repeater can’t hear me. (“talk-in” performance). I’m using good antennas on the handhelds (no stubby ones)
I’m using a unity gain antenna because I’m not trying to squeeze all the energy out to the horizon, in fact most of the coverage area is immediately “below” the horizon of the antenna. My feedline is less than ideal, at 3.3dB per 100’ loss and I can’t run less than 100’ due to the building owner’s requirements for where I can put the antenna & equipment.
The repeater and duplexer came tuned professionally, so I do not believe there is any desense occurring from an improperly tuned duplexer.
Voting receivers and whatnot is not an option, I want to keep this project limited to the one repeater location. I’m just trying to optimize the one location as best I can.
Do you think given the above scenario it’s worth spending the money to upgrade the feedline to ½ Heliax and reduce that feedline loss from 3.3dB (53.2% loss) to 1.45dB (28.4%)? Or any other suggestions for system optimization much appreciated.
Thanks!
I have a UHF repeater in a rural area with lots of hills/valleys, etc. I’ve located it on a building as close to center and highest of the area I want covered. The area of desired coverage is not large, just about 5 mile radius from the repeater. There is no need for long distance coverage, the focus is local area coverage.
It’s working fine, except there are definitely some spots where I can hear the repeater from a portable but the repeater can’t hear me. (“talk-in” performance). I’m using good antennas on the handhelds (no stubby ones)
I’m using a unity gain antenna because I’m not trying to squeeze all the energy out to the horizon, in fact most of the coverage area is immediately “below” the horizon of the antenna. My feedline is less than ideal, at 3.3dB per 100’ loss and I can’t run less than 100’ due to the building owner’s requirements for where I can put the antenna & equipment.
The repeater and duplexer came tuned professionally, so I do not believe there is any desense occurring from an improperly tuned duplexer.
Voting receivers and whatnot is not an option, I want to keep this project limited to the one repeater location. I’m just trying to optimize the one location as best I can.
Do you think given the above scenario it’s worth spending the money to upgrade the feedline to ½ Heliax and reduce that feedline loss from 3.3dB (53.2% loss) to 1.45dB (28.4%)? Or any other suggestions for system optimization much appreciated.
Thanks!