On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 10:33:40 -0400, "VE2CJW"
wrote:

I can hear the repeater very well, in fact, it comes in at S9+ all the time.

Ok, finally, that is an important observation. Don't forget the S
meters on FM radios are not usually calibrated to the popular S9=50uV,
more like 10uV fsd. That aside, the repeater should be workable if you
address the issues below. (You have indicated in another post that you
can key it up with a long carrier burst, so that clears away access
tone issues, however some repeaters may use the Motorola smart mute
idea where the carrier squelch is set at a relatively higher level
that that which will open the CTCSS.)

Over here, repeaters are not always balanced in terms of rx and tx,
they are usually designed to be a little easier for mobiles to hear
because of the higher noise environment, so it may under normal
conditions hear you a little poorer than you hear it if you are
running ~25W. Is that the practice in Canada?

I noticed that my SWR is around 2.5, I wonder what can cause this.

Firstly, because of the inherently higher loss of coax (I assume coax)
at 2m, you can not usually afford high VSWR on most practical coax
runs. As an indication, most commercial antennas intended for 50 ohms
coax connection would specify a max VSWR of 1.5 or less.

Secondly, the VSWR at the antenna end of the line is even higher, and
you wouldn't normally be using an antenna that would exhibit such a
high VSWR if it were operating properly, so it is a sign that the
antenna / feedline system has a problem.

Thirdly, standing waves set up in space around your antenna as a
result of the interference of waves arriving by different paths. A
similar effect occurs on transmit. It is possible that your antenna is
located in one of these nulls, and moving even slightly might make a
large change. If that is happening you need to find a sweet spot that
works for both transmit and receive on that frequency without messing
up operation with other repeaters on other frequencies.

You could choose to play with the third issue, but your antenna /
feedline has a problem that should be attended to as a priority,
regardless of whether you trick your way into the repeater.

Owen
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