5 thoughts on “Repeater Information”

  1. My son Nathan recently got his technician license. I went and upgraded my antique technician to general Class (N3FWL).

    I live in Landenberg, and my son Nathan Clay lives in Cochranville. I have a cheap Baofeng HH radio. My son spent more money to get a Yaesu HH radio. We have been frustrated trying to join your Thursday get together. There are a lot of various settings on the HH radios to connect with your repeater. As best as we can tell, we have got them right, but still unable to connect.

    I guess it is possible that I am in a position in Landenberg, where I cannot reach your repeater. However, I would think that my son who lives on Cochran St. in downtown Cochranville should be able to communicate. Is it possible that Cochranville is in a blind spot? Would it be possible for us to pass on information as to how he has set up his Yaesu, and for you to verify his settings?

    Do you have any other suggestions to help us in this situation?

    Thank you

    George Clay
    N3FWL

    gclayjr@hotmail.com

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi George,

      Thanks for reaching out concerning the problems your having with accessing 985.

      Here are the basic information you need to program into the rig in order to access the repeater:

      Receive Frequency = 146.985

      Offset Frequency = Minus -600 Khz (this means when you transmit you will be transmitting on 146.385 which is the receive frequency of the repeater)

      PL Tone = 100 Hz 985 also transmits a tone so if you want your squelch to only open when the repeater is transmitting you can tone decode on 100 Hz as well. This is referred to by most manufactures as tone squelch and keeps you from hearing unwanted repeaters who use the same 146.985 frequency.

      Then you have the high low power setting on the rig. For an HT you will always want to leave it on high if your using the rubber duck antenna. These antennas are generally for very in close work since the antenna itself is very inefficient.

      I can easily access my repeater from Cochranville with an HT and a rubber duck antenna. In fact, Eric-W3EDL lives in Cochranville and has no problem accessing 985 on his handheld. If need be, I can put you in contact with Eric although I believe his email is on QRZ.com. Landenberg is more of a stretch with an HT and a rubber duck antenna. We have a regular user in Landenberg and his call is K3DWB and he has an excellent signal into the repeater but Dave uses a typical mobile type rig in his home. I believe his antenna is in the attic. He would love to talk to you about any problems your having. A real nice guy and always glad to help like all of us. Again, his email should be on QRZ.com.

      There are two parts to getting into the repeater. One is the carrier signal strength and the other is the audio level once the carrier is strong enough to exceed the squelch threshold of the receiver. On a lot of modern rigs, they have a menu setting which will allow what they call narrow and wide deviation. You definitely want the wide deviation setting. If you have it on the narrow setting the audio would be too low and copy would be very difficult. The narrow setting is for 2.5 KHz of deviation and the wide setting is for 5 kHz. You definitely want the wide setting. The other important thing to do is make sure if one gets reports from low audio, is to know where that little mic hole is on the front of the HT and speak directly into it. Phil mentioned to me that your son was accessing 985 very well but had next to no audio. The most common reason for that is either the wrong deviation setting or not talking directly into the mic opening hole in the front of the HT.

      Sure hope that helps in resolving the issues. Please feel free to ask me any further questions you may have. We all are here to help one another!

      73,
      Joe-W3GMS
      146.985 Repeater Owner

      Like

      Reply

  2. Hello Joe,
    When did the new web page come about? I come here every now and then so it couldn’t had been to long ago! It looks great! A fresh new look every now and then is inspiring ! Ken

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi Ken,
      You can give Phil credit for that. He has done a great job with the website. I like the new look! Thanks for the positive feedback.
      Joe-GMS

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.