On 13 Jun 2005 10:35:40 -0700, "
wrote:

While the repairs made to the repeater did get channel 1 working again,
it has a high static level with most but not all busses. A couple of
busses sound relatively clear, while most others are nearly
unintelligeable. Channel 2 (direct) generally sounds much better across
the board. However, even then many of the busses have problems. This is
what leads me to suspect various antenna tuning issues.

Hi Mike,

Your last sentence is what is called looking for your lost keys at
night, beneath the only streetlight. It's not that you lost them
there, it is simply your only working option. You may appreciate how
poor this strategy actually succeeds in the real world.

Static is not a normal indication of good operation. That much rings
true. However, tuning antennas is improvement by degree, not by leaps
and bounds - unless something very obviously wrong is quite visually
evident with the antenna. You may even have to accept the possibility
that this system never worked very well to begin with.

You say a couple of busses work well, and this in its own right tends
to remove the repeater from the list of problems - but your
description of problems is still slim. You say nothing of terrain,
service area (how many square miles, blocks, or whatever), or pattern
of coverage. Unintelligible is another fuzzy word to describe
communications. Is this because of static? distortion? other noise?
weak signal? Is this static: ignition noise? road noise? power line
noise?

FM communications rarely presents you with noise problems unless your
power level (from the repeater) is seriously low or your receiver is
seriously mistuned, or its antenna situation is seriously mangled
(have you looked?). Receivers don't get mistuned typically, and
antennas are quite robust. You already offer that point to point comm
on ch 2 is a mixed bag. Start by using what field medics call triage.
That is separate the well from the infirmed, and the dead from those
who need help.

In the end, you can spend far more at $15/hr accomplishing nearly no
good results than you would with an hour's time from a good tech.
Have you tried talking to him? I bet no more than 5 minutes of
conversation would reveal much.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC